Muay Thai, like most combat sports, is more than just a display of power and violence. In fact, most other things being equal, a Muay Thai contest is often a fast-paced game of human chess where each fighter is setting traps and reading their opponent to find the right opportunities to defeat them. When this happens, you can see that IQ and ringcraft play a huge role in determining the winner when two fighters clash.

Fight IQ can be difficult to train. Sometimes this is because the sport is so diverse that a single trainer cannot hold all of the knowledge that their student needs from them. Sometimes it is because training toughness and grit take the lead within a gym’s training regime while the finer points of Muay Thai knowledge fall to the wayside. Mostly though, it is because it is incredibly difficult to gain fight IQ without gaining actual fight experience, and if this happens to you then you’ll find that you gain the knowledge you need, shortly after you actually needed it.

Luckily, there are three keys that you can use to develop your fight IQ before you enter the ring. Though they are relatively easy to train, these three keys can be used by martial artists at any point in their journey. All you need is curiosity, an open mind, and a willingness to become constantly humbled in training. Do this and it won’t take long for you to gain an IQ that competes with the likes of Samart and Namkabuan in the ring.

So, here are our three keys to unlocking a higher fight IQ for Muay Thai.

Become A Muay Thai Super Fan

As we mentioned, it is incredibly difficult to gain fight IQ without being in the ring yourself. Lessons learned in the high-adrenaline setting of a fight are usually the most profound. That being said, you’d need to fight hundreds of times to get a similar experience to some of the Golden Era’s most prolific fighters. Luckily, in a world where almost everyone has access to the internet and social media, today’s fighters have 24/7 access to Muay Thai fights, and they can use this to borrow some experience from the fighters they watch.

If you truly want to develop your fight IQ, then you need to take advantage of the fact that thousands of hours of Muay Thai fights are available online. Watch as many as you can from the amateur level right up to world championship bouts. When you do, take note of what the fighters are doing. See what works for them, and what doesn’t, and try to figure out why. Share the fights that excite or puzzle you with your coaches and training partners to get their opinions and then go back and watch the fights again. Then, if you’ve been studying a particular style or fighter, take their techniques into the gym and practice them so you can practice what to do if you ever find yourself in a similar situation during a bout.

By becoming a Muay Thai superfan and absorbing as much Muay Thai content as you can, you expose yourself to a whole range of fight experiences that you might not otherwise get without fighting yourself.

Be Uncomfortable In Training

The further you travel in your Muay Thai journey the more you begin to learn what style and technique works for you. When this happens, it is easy to become complacent in training and repeat the same routine for months on end, sharpening the same techniques without learning anything new.

If you want to continue developing your fight IQ it is important to continue trying new things. This could mean that you drill particular exchanges that you would often avoid or that you learn to fight without your preferred weapons altogether. So, if you are a proficient Muay Tae who has excellent timing and accuracy with your kicks, try conditional sparring where you have to engage as a Muay Mat, only throwing hands. Or if you are a Muay Khao who loves a clinch battle, spend some time training as a Muay Femur, always fighting on the back foot. In this way you are not only learning a new style of fighting, but you can also get a better understanding of your own style and the ways other styles may look to defeat you in the ring.

Be Humble

In any combat sport, staying humble is crucial. Only by being humble will you remain open to learning and elevating your game to the next level.

When you first began your Muay Thai journey it is pretty likely that it felt like you were learning something new and making drastic improvements every day. As you got more experience in the sport, you probably found that you noticed improvement happened slower, or maybe you went months without learning anything new. This is partly because as a beginner you are a blank slate, and you had to cover a lot of basics in a short space of time. The other reason is, beginners tend to be more curious and ask more questions, putting themselves in the vulnerable position of admitting that they don’t know something simple so that they can learn what to do.

As you get more experienced it is easy to think that you know a lot, or at least, more than other people in the gym but when you take this attitude, you limit your opportunity to develop your IQ. You can learn something from just about everyone, not just your trainer, and so if you truly want to develop as much knowledge as possible then you need to keep the attitude of a beginner. If you see a less experienced fighter having success with a basic move, put down your pride and ask them how they are doing it. If you are drilling a technique that you’ve practiced with your coach hundreds of times and a question suddenly pops into your head, be humble enough to ask it. Muay Thai is such a rich and diverse sport that it is impossible for someone to have mastered every aspect of it and so there is no reason to believe that you are too experienced to learn something new.

In Summary

Developing a fight IQ can be tricky. Once you reach the point of fighting, it is usually only in the ring that you get exposed to new styles and experiences that can reveal the holes in your Muay Thai game. If this is the only place you are exposed to new circumstances, then it’s going to take hundreds of fights before you get an IQ to match some of Muay Thai’s most intelligent fighters.

Following these three keys will ensure that your fight IQ is always developing. By becoming a Muay Thai superfan and maintaining the humble approach of a beginner you’ll always keep yourself in that uncomfortable space where growth happens. So, whether it is through watching fights, talking about your favorite fighters, training your weaknesses or being open to new ideas, there is always a way for anyone to continue developing their fight IQ.

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