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Muay Thai learning path

32 skills in a suggested learning order. Difficulty is the learning order scaled from 1 to 5.

Beginner (11 skills)

Step	Skill	What you learn	Difficulty	Tutorials reviewed
1	Choosing gloves and shin guards	Pick glove weight and fit shin guards for training and sparring.	1.0 / 5	38
2	Thai style hand wrapping	Wrap Thai-style with extra knuckle build-up.	1.1 / 5	37
3	Stance	Square, rear-loaded stance with the lead leg free to check.	1.3 / 5	37
4	Guard	High, wide guard that covers elbows and knees; introduces the long guard.	1.4 / 5	41
5	Footwork	Marching rhythm and stepping to create kicking angles without bouncing.	1.5 / 5	38
6	Jab	A long, probing jab from the square stance, paired with the teep.	1.6 / 5	34
7	Straight punch	The rear straight with hip commitment held back so a kick can follow.	1.8 / 5	35
8	Teep	The push kick: range control, off-balancing and setting up.	1.9 / 5	40
9	Roundhouse kick	Hip rotation, shin contact and follow-through for body and head kicks.	2.0 / 5	45
10	Shadow boxing	Shadow with kicks, knees and teeps, not just hands.	2.2 / 5	43
11	Hook	Hook with a short pivot and the hand returning high.	2.3 / 5	43

Intermediate (10 skills)

Step	Skill	What you learn	Difficulty	Tutorials reviewed
12	Uppercut	Uppercuts inside and to open the clinch.	2.4 / 5	35
13	Low kick	Chop the lead leg with the shin and get out safely.	2.5 / 5	37
14	Knee strikes	Straight, diagonal and long knees from range and in the clinch.	2.7 / 5	40
15	Holding Thai pads	Hold pads for punches, kicks, knees and elbows.	2.8 / 5	38
16	Checking kicks	Check low kicks with the shin and the other low-kick defences.	2.9 / 5	36
17	Elbow strikes	Horizontal, uppercut and spinning elbows at close range.	3.1 / 5	40
18	Clinch basics	Plum, arm control and posture in the Thai clinch.	3.2 / 5	37
19	Combinations	Punch-kick-knee chains that flow.	3.3 / 5	34
20	Shin conditioning	Condition the shins without wrecking them.	3.5 / 5	35
21	Sparring for beginners	Light Thai-style sparring and its etiquette.	3.6 / 5	39

Advanced (11 skills)

Step	Skill	What you learn	Difficulty	Tutorials reviewed
22	Catching kicks	Catch the body kick and counter or sweep.	3.7 / 5	33
23	Defending the teep	Parry, catch and counter the push kick.	3.8 / 5	36
24	Defending body kicks	Block, absorb and counter kicks to the body.	4.0 / 5	41
25	Setting up kicks with punches	Use hands to open the body and legs for kicks.	4.1 / 5	34
26	Long guard	Use the extended guard to control distance and frame.	4.2 / 5	34
27	Head movement	When head movement works in Muay Thai and when it walks you into a knee.	4.3 / 5	35
28	Defending elbows and knees	Block elbows and stop knees at close range.	4.5 / 5	26
29	Switch kick	Switch stance and fire the lead-leg kick.	4.6 / 5	38
30	Sweeps, trips and dumps	Take opponents down from the clinch and off caught kicks.	4.7 / 5	34
31	Spinning back kick	Turn and drive the heel through the target.	4.9 / 5	37
32	Dutch kickboxing style	The Dutch approach: high-volume combinations and low kicks.	5.0 / 5	34

See also

Learning order and levels from the Subskills sports technique taxonomy (subskills.xyz), licensed CC BY 4.0.

Data: Subskills sports technique taxonomy (CC BY 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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