By Meaw Boonpradub, Wildcat Muay Thai, Chiang Mai
Before the first kick, there is the stance. Every technique in muay thai, from the simplest jab to a spinning elbow, depends on how you stand. Our Thai coaches here in Chiang Mai start every beginner with the same sequence: stance, guard, footwork, jab, drills. In that order, no shortcuts.
This is exactly that walkthrough. Not “what to expect at your first session” (that is a different conversation, you can find it on our beginner muay thai classes page). This is the technique itself, explained the way our coaches teach it, with the mistakes they correct every single day.
1. The stance: your foundation for everything
Good muay thai starts from the ground up. Get this wrong and every technique that follows will feel uncomfortable, because it will be.
Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. If you are right-handed, your left foot goes forward (orthodox stance). Left-handed, your right foot goes forward (southpaw). Your lead foot points roughly toward your opponent. Your rear heel sits slightly raised, maybe a centimetre or two off the ground, enough to let your hip rotate freely when you need to strike or move.
Weight is 50/50 between both feet. Not leaning forward, not sitting back. A simple test: try to bounce lightly in place. If you feel stuck or heavy, you are too planted. Good stance feels springy.
Knees soft, never locked. Locked knees slow down every single movement. Bent knees load your legs like springs so you can push off in any direction without needing a preparatory dip first.
Hips square but relaxed. Not rigid, not slouched. Feel like you could sit down slightly without moving your feet.
One thing coaches say constantly in the first week: “You are not taking a photo. Move.” The stance is not a statue pose you hold. It is the position you return to between everything you do.
2. The guard: protecting what matters
Your hands are not decoration. They are your first and last line of defence, and keeping them where they belong is a skill in itself.
Both fists up, roughly chin-to-temple height. Your lead hand sits a little more extended than your rear hand. In muay thai the guard sits higher than in Western boxing, because kicks to the head are very real and very common.
Elbows tucked in and pointing down, protecting your ribs. An elbow pointing out to the side is an invitation for a body kick to slip through.
Chin down. Not chest-down, just slightly tucked toward your collar. This protects your jaw and makes your head a smaller target.
The mistake that never goes away: dropping the rear hand when you throw the jab. The moment your front hand goes out, your rear hand wants to drop to your hip. Every coach in Thailand corrects this. Every beginner does it. It is simply what the body does when it is new to this, you give with one hand and the other follows. The fix is awareness first, then repetition. Your rear hand stays at your cheek no matter what your lead hand does.
Keep the guard not just while you hit, but while you receive a pad, while you rest between combinations, while you are thinking. It should become the default position of your hands whenever you are on the gym floor.
3. Footwork: moving without losing your base
Most beginners want to learn punches and kicks as quickly as possible. The coaches here spend more time on footwork than beginners expect, and there is a real reason for that. You cannot throw a technique properly if your feet are in the wrong place.
The step-and-slide principle is simple: when you move forward, the lead foot goes first, then the rear foot slides to restore your stance width. Moving backward, the rear foot goes first. Moving right, the right foot goes first. Moving left, the left foot goes first. The foot closest to the direction you are going moves first, and the other foot closes the gap.
Never cross your feet. Crossing your feet means there is a moment where your weight is split awkwardly between tangled legs. In that moment you cannot punch, kick, or move again quickly. You are simply stuck there. It is the first thing a more experienced partner will notice.
Stay on the balls of your feet, not tip-toes and not flat-footed. This keeps you mobile. Flat-footed movement is slow movement.
A practical drill: mark a square on the floor (or imagine one). Move to each corner using only step-and-slide: forward, backward, left, right, then diagonally. Your stance width should not change. When it starts to feel mechanical, close your eyes and do it again. The goal is for footwork to wire itself into muscle memory so your brain is free to think about everything else.
4. The jab: your first real weapon
The jab is the first punch coaches teach because it sits at the foundation of everything that comes after. It teaches you to rotate, to snap, to breathe, and to stay protected while you attack.
From your guard, extend your lead fist toward the target. As your arm extends, your fist rotates so that at full extension your palm faces down. At the same moment, your rear heel drops slightly and your lead hip drives forward slightly. The whole body is involved, not just the arm. Then snap the fist back to your cheek, faster than it went out.
The snap matters. A jab that lingers is an arm you are leaving for someone to grab. The return should feel like an elastic band pulling back. Out and back in one motion.
Keep breathing. This sounds obvious. It is not. Almost every beginner holds their breath the first time they throw punches. Holding your breath tightens your shoulders, slows your hands, and makes you gas out much faster. The habit to build: exhale sharply as you throw (a short “tss” sound), inhale through the nose as you reset. The coaches here will remind you out loud in the first sessions. Pay attention to it.
In muay thai, the jab is a measuring tool. It tests distance, sets up other techniques, and keeps your opponent from walking straight through you. It is not (yet) your power shot. Power comes from rotation, from the hips, from combination work. For now, focus on the mechanics: rotation, snap, guard hand stays up, feet stay grounded.
5. Beginner muay thai drills: making it stick
Knowing the technique and being able to use it when someone is moving at you are two different things. Drills are what close that gap.
Shadow boxing: the underrated fundamental
Fifteen minutes of shadow boxing at the start of every session is standard at most camps in Thailand, including ours. It looks like you are fighting air, and you are, but that is the point. No pad holder to worry about, no timing to match, no distraction. Just you working through stance, guard, footwork and your basic combinations.
Good shadow boxing starts slow and deliberate. You move between positions, check your guard in between, return to stance. As it feels more natural you can pick up the pace. The goal is to wire the movements into muscle memory, so they happen automatically rather than requiring active thought.
Jab-cross on the heavy bag
The heavy bag gives honest feedback. If your punch is powered only by your arm, the bag barely moves. If you are rotating from the hip and snapping back properly, you will feel and hear the difference.
The classic beginner combination is jab-cross: lead hand, rear hand, return to guard. Coaches here will have you repeat this hundreds of times before adding anything new. It might feel repetitive. The repetition is the training.
Common bag mistake: pushing rather than snapping. If your fist lingers on the bag for a fraction of a second too long, you are pushing. The technique should feel like touching a hot stove, in and out as fast as possible.
Pad work basics
Pad work is where technique meets a moving target, and it is genuinely one of the most enjoyable parts of training. In your first sessions your coach controls the pads and the rhythm: they hold, you hit. Later you learn to read where they are placing the pad before it is even there. (Wondering what gear you actually need before your first session? Our muay thai gear guide for beginners keeps it simple.)
Start with single techniques (jab, then cross, then jab-cross) before combinations. At the beginner level the goal is not speed, it is correctness. A slow, correct jab that you feel in your hip is worth more than a fast sloppy one.
The mistakes coaches fix the most
After years of training beginners at our camp, the same patterns come up every week. Not because people are careless, but because these are exactly where the body defaults before it learns better.
Dropping the rear hand on the jab. Already mentioned, still the most common. The fix: consciously press your rear fist to your cheek before you throw, then throw. The contact point gives your hand a reference to return to.
Holding the breath. Often tied to concentration or nerves. The fix: make a sound when you hit. Any short exhale. It breaks the holding reflex.
Planting the feet after a combination. You throw a jab-cross and then freeze in place, hands half down, weight forward. That frozen moment is when you are most open. The habit to build: after every combination, move. Even one step. Get your feet back under you and your guard back up before anything else.
Tense shoulders. When beginners are tired or nervous, the shoulders creep up and forward. Tense shoulders slow your hands and exhaust you faster. A quick reset between combinations: shake your hands out loosely and let the shoulders drop. Relaxed hands are fast hands.
A note from Meaw
Every person who comes to train here starts somewhere. The stance feels awkward at first, your rear heel is up, your knees are bent, and you are trying to remember four things at once. That is normal. Within a few sessions it starts to feel natural, and within a few weeks it becomes automatic.
If you are curious what the beginner program looks like in practice, and what we cover session by session, our beginner muay thai classes page walks through all of it.
And if you are already thinking about practising at home between sessions, the principles here apply directly: stance, guard, footwork, jab. Shadow boxing in your living room counts.
Train at your own pace. Ask questions when something does not feel right. That is what the coaches are there for.
Meaw
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