What are the differences with kickboxing, muay thai and tae kwon do??

I was practising in mixed martial arts untill recently.. I had been training for 2 years but moving house has made me also have to change martial arts schools.. But there is not a mixed martial arts school near me, only ones I can find are the three mentioned above, if anyone can shed some light between the differences in these arts that can help me with my decision making, it would be much appreciated..

What are the differences with kickboxing, muay thai and tae kwon do??
Kickboxing is only a more toned down version of Muay Thai, which is often used more for the fitness and cardio aspects, whereas Muay Thai is more power and strength oriented along with it's emphasis for accuracy and utilizes the knees and elbows but kickboxing in general only has punching and kicking.





Tae Kwon Do is an 80% kicking and 20% punching Martial Art that's been considered a "flashy" Martial Art due to some of it's high and sometimes unorthodox kicks. also many practitioners (and even people who don't practice Martial Arts) of other martial arts consider it to be ineffective because of this stigma; as well as it's induction into the Olympics as a sport doesn't help much either.





but Tae Kwon Do is effective in it's own right.





it's gonna be difficult to substitute any of these for mixed Martial Arts, because these three disciplines you listed don't have any ground fighting techniques which MMA utilizes both the "standing game" and "ground game" aspects.





each of the three you mentioned only have "standing game" aspects, or fighting techniques that work while you're on your feet.





good luck in your training
Reply:muay thai was practicing in thailand and tae kwon do is from south korea, they have also mostly the same forms but in muay thai are mostly offensive there is no rules while tae kwon do in general they have some certain rule not to hit the vital points.
Reply:You will find differences among the schools, location, area, etc.


Muay Thai is popular kick boxing style based of the native style K..... something. It teaches front kicks, side, roundhouse, knees, cinching, elbows, and some punches. It teaches powerful hits, usually has a lot of sparring. There are rules in the ring, there are things you just can't do. American Kickboxing is a bit different. They tend to train more punches. Elbowing, kneeing usually isn't allowed normally. They also teach a lot of practical kicks (like Muay Thai). They wear gloves, tend to spar a lot, teach good timing as well. The rules for engagement are different.


TKD varies a bit. This is an Olympic sport as well. The Olympic sport allows contact and has its own scoring. Hitting too hard or without control can get you into trouble (unlike the kickboxing where the harder you hit to knock out your opponent the better). TKD probably has the best range of types of kicks. As far as if I could or would want to use them all, probably not.


It has a huge following and is extremely popular.


Hope this helps a little.
Reply:If you were training mixed before, you should probably go with muay thai, assuming you want to stay in that frame of mind. It will be more like mixed than traditional TKD. However, you may find that one of the instructors in the other schools will work mixed with you- it pays to ask.
Reply:quiksilver8676 is a freaking stud.... listen to what he just said and pick for best answer.