Ballet and muay thai

[Michelle Nicole]

Has anyone crosstrained between disciplines ? Specifically ballet and muay thai ? If not those, any other cross training ? Have you seen any improvement as a result of cross training or decline in abilities as a result of doing so ?

 

I am starting ballet lessons Friday to help improve my balance and flexibility, especially in my hips and legs. I've heard of people doing so, but not much past that.

[NewThai]

It was suggested to my mother after 7 years of lessons that I pursue another after-school activity ... so hopefully you fare better. :')

[Michelle Nicole]

Well, I hope so, too lol. I'm more or less going for muay thai than ballet, though I suspect they'll go hand in hand if I fare well.

[Micc]

I'm sure you will learn a lot at ballett classes, but I consider crosstraining with such far away disciplines a bit distracting. I used to do a lot of various sport activities in my years off martial arts, but I see that I get the best progress when I crosstrain only muay thai with muay thai and a bit of weight training in between ;) I want to add yoga to it, but don't have enough time. I manage to go to one yoga class a month, which can not be considered cross-training ;)

I'm curious of what you're experience with ballett will be  :) 

[bbf3]

I don't know of anyone who has cross-trained in ballet, but I'm sure there's something to be gained from it. Whether or not there are other methods or disciplines that would better improve your muay thai than ballet is a different question. I do BJJ once or twice a week, but just out of interest in the sport itself. I've only just started so I'm yet to see if that improves my stability/strength in the clinch. I do cross-train in western boxing once a week and it has improved my boxing technique but I haven't taken any sparring classes yet. 

You might enjoy this article if you haven't already come across it :) The Muay Thai Fighter and the Ballerina: A Portrait of Two Artists

[Flowermuay]

I've learned ballet in the past and I find it helps with understanding Muay Thai as a new student--understanding how to rotate the leg in the hip socket, the precision of movements in the legs, balance, etc. Not sure I'd take a class now to help my Muay Thai training though.

[lawrencekenshin]

If I remember correctly, Ali had a background in dancing. 

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-485250.html- Marquez did ballet training before his infamous knockout of Pacquiao. 

An olympian I met at wild card said he believes his success was from ballet when he was a kid. 

Enough evidence of usefulness? :)

Also, Expert Boxing's Johny Nguyen swears by dancing as a compliment to boxing -- his brother is a dancer. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

If I remember correctly, Ali had a background in dancing. 

 

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The (other) GOAT Sugar Ray Robinson was a dancer, a street dancer as a kid, in fact when he retired at first he became a song and dance man. Here he is dancing with Gene Kelly:

[515]

An article about it ;-)

http://heatrick.com/2015/09/13/muay-thai-ballet-common-ground/?inf_contact_key=14bbd10a10f75467ff1a2312f26fe83623eb4fe47641921770b8db0545565ff2

[Rachel Bond]

i have trained in ballet. I find it useful as it has strengthened all of my muscles, i have good flexibility and range for stretching joints. i have an understanding of directing the body, good co ordination, balance and experience in learning routine ( good for combos). also a thorough ballet training should offer some study of physiology. i am ashamed to say i missed most my physio classes and so missed a wealth of information that would inform ballet and muay thai. An awareness of muscle groups, bones etc would be amazing knowledge. I think this is only offered in advanced levels.

Mentally, ballet is great for discipline of mind. Practically for training routines and also for remaining focussed. awareness of warm up importance, spatial awareness, timing, rhythm. Obviously the legs and feet feature predominantly in both forms for example I can throw good knees because I understand how they 'look' as a dance aesthetic.Working your partner/opponent is also something dance experience helps with in terms of movement through fight space and improvised movement/leading movement. 

Energy is channelled in dance and in muay thai. This is a skill that is practiced in ballet. In muay thai I've been taught to fight from centre..'centre' is also where ballet is brought from.See Martha Graham's practice for work on the use of 'centre' in ballet and M.Cunnigham's practice of 'centre' as a dance form.

The rotation in the joints especially the hip joints for kicking as mentioned above is also a ballet skill. the use of the mind to visualise movement is present in both forms.

The main difference i find is that within dance it is more usual to work with partners in a fluid way...ie they are allowing you to move them around for e.g..Obviosuly fighting is about an opposition of forces..which does occur in dance of course but dance will explore the dynamics of both fluidity and opposition. Great dance can be made form one partner refusing to move and causing momentum in their partner...which is in some way similar to fight partners opposing each other s force. 'ducking' blows or moving out of the way of punches and kicks is also something that contemporary ballet will explore...moving out of the dance partners movements to create dance. 

Both dance and muay thai are improvisational even though they both have definite routine. the improvisation skill will come in when deciding how to attack, which moves to make.

On a downside..in ballet I was taught to work from centre in 2nd position. 2nd position is where the hips are turned out (as we do for kicks)but the feet are heels together and then rotated in line with the hips to an open position (its a lot easier to do or see this than describe in type!)  Every dance movement falls BACK into centre and 2nd. This is find impedes my muay thai practice because of course we are fighting from centre, but in stance. Stance is completely different from 2nd ballet position and so if you're like me and trained to always go back there you have to mentally check that and make sure you fall in stance. Its hardly a big deal tho when you think of all the positives. 

I would recommend ballet to anybody. Its great for lots of things but I would say that cross training both at the same time may be confusing. You may need a very agile mind to keep all the movements separate.

I describe muay thai as a dance, an art. both disciplines are beautiful to watch.

[Rachel Bond]

louise le cavalier: lalala human steps..  

Louise le Cavalier (principle dancer: lalala human steps.) I would recommend watching 'human sex'in which lecavalier displays some great movement, strength and dynamics that represent a fight between people. Another good examples of fight dynamics in contemporary dance are company DV8.Their piece 'Monochrome Men"looks at latent violence within homosexuality....:) These companies are from the late 80's early 90's which is when I was dancing and fully engrossed in dance scene. Louise LeCavalier is my favourite of all dancers. I went to see her perform in Leeds with her new company and by the end of the show it felt like my whole body wanted to explode. I would like to offer this as an example around ballet as ballet has many contemporary forms outside of its traditions.Swan Lake by M.Bourne for example is an all male contemporary ballet. The freedom from tradition has allowed many creations of dance around fight dynamics. Its not all about en pointe and pink tutus. :)