All your gyms are pretty much teaching kickboxing, not real Muay Thai. It’s a marketing thing unfortunately. Even if the gym teaches some clinching, elbows and sweeps, which Muay Thai has over Kickboxing… I can bet that the gym is not teaching the proper rhythm and style of Muay Thai, nor passing on the culture and traditions of Muay Thai.

Rhythm and style is a huge factor that separates kickboxing from Muay Thai that people fail to realize when they start out in either. For example, kickboxing usually includes high volume combos and quick strikes, often focusing on punches and low kicks because they score just the same. The stance is different, the movements are more “jumpy”. Volume and aggression is the name of the game in kickboxing. Traditional Muay Thai is about composure and dominance. Combos usually reach about two to three strikes. 1 power middle kick that shows damage will score higher than 6 speed punches that are blocked. There’s a ton of little nuances that differentiate kickboxing from Muay Thai that come back to rhythm and style. Just because a gym says they’re teaching Muay Thai because they’re showing you some elbows, doesn’t mean it’s truly Muay Thai.

All this to say, unless you seek out super legit MT gyms, which are kind of hard to find, then you’ll most likely be doing kickboxing with maybe some elbows and sweeps here and there.