How long does it take to get decent at Muay Thai?

Six months until you move, kick and defend without thinking about each part; a year to eighteen months until you hold your own in light sparring. The clinch and the elbows arrive last. Two or three sessions a week is the pace those numbers assume.

Why do I keep getting low-kicked?

Because you stand like a boxer: bladed, weight on the front leg, hands up and legs forgotten. The Thai stance is squarer and lighter on the front foot so the leg can lift into a check. Fix the stance and half the low kicks stop landing on their own.

Should I check kicks with the shin or step back?

Both, depending on distance, but learn the check first, because stepping back from every kick means retreating all round. Lift the knee, turn the shin out, keep the hands up. It hurts less than taking the kick on the thigh, and it hurts the kicker.

How do I stop dropping my hands in the clinch?

Fight for inside position with the hands high, elbows in, forehead down. Hands drop in the clinch because beginners try to muscle the neck; the clinch is won with posture and inside position, not with pulling.

Is it normal that my shins hurt?

Yes, for months. Conditioning comes from regular bag and pad work with correct technique, not from rolling bottles on your legs. Pain on the instep or ankle means the wrong surface; pain on the shin is the entry fee.

Should I learn kicks or boxing first in Muay Thai?

Stance and teep first, then kicks and hands together. The teep controls distance and is the easiest technique to learn; kicks and hands are useless without a stance that can throw them, which is why every good trainer starts there.

Training

Seven Common Muay Thai Beginner Mistakes – and How to Fix Them

A boxing stance in a kicking sport, no check, a lazy teep, hands down in the clinch: seven mistakes Thai trainers correct in every beginner, each with a drill.

TechniqueBeginnerMuay Thai Kickboxing

By Carlo Santana · Editor, Beyond Dojo

8 min read · 20 September 2026 · updated 21 September 2026

In this article

Muay Thai is generous to beginners. Within a few months you can kick a pad hard enough to hear it from the car park, and that sound is what brings people back. It is also an art with a very specific way of standing, moving and defending, unlike any other striking sport, and beginners who arrive with habits from boxing, kickboxing or films make the same seven mistakes in the same first months. A Thai trainer corrects them with a tap of the pad and one word. I am going to use a few more.

The short version: stand square and tall with the weight back, check the kicks, teep before you kick, keep your hands high in the clinch, set up every kick with a punch, block instead of leaning, and spar like it is practice, because it is.

The seven mistakes

1: Standing like a boxer
2: Not checking kicks
3: A lazy teep, or no teep at all
4: Hands down and head up in the clinch
5: Kicking without a set-up
6: Leaning back from strikes instead of blocking
7: Sparring like it is a fight

1. A boxing stance in a kicking sport

What the trainer sees: Bladed stance, weight loaded on the front leg, hands high, front leg planted like a fence post. A fine boxing stance. A terrible Muay Thai one.

Why your body does it: You have seen more boxing than Muay Thai in your life, and the boxing stance is what the body offers when asked to protect its face.

What it costs: Your front leg, first. A planted lead leg cannot check and eats every low kick thrown at it; a bladed torso cannot throw the rear kick with a full hip; a weight-forward stance has no teep. Thai fighters stand square and tall with the weight on the back leg because every weapon and every defence in the art comes out of that position.

The fix: Feet shoulder-width, hips and shoulders nearly square to the opponent, sixty percent of the weight on the back leg, front heel light or off the floor, hands high with the elbows in. It feels exposed for a month. It is the base of everything.

The drill: Three rounds of shadow boxing where every ten seconds you lift the front knee into a check without shifting your weight first. If you have to rock back to lift it, the stance is wrong. Fix it, carry on.

2. Taking the kick on the thigh, again

What the trainer sees: The low kick lands on the thigh every time, you limp for a week, and next session it lands again in the same place.

Why your body does it: Checking is unnatural – lifting a leg towards a strike – and it hurts the first twenty times. You also do not see the kick coming, because you are watching the hands.

What it costs: Your mobility, then the round. Three clean low kicks take anyone's legs away; a checked kick hurts the kicker more than you and makes them think hard about the next one.

The fix: Lift the knee on the side the kick is coming to, turn the shin out so the kick meets your shin or knee, keep both hands up while you do it, and put the foot straight back down into stance. Watch the hips, not the hands: the hip turns before the kick does.

The drill: Partner throws slow low kicks left and right, announced at first, then not, and you check every one with the hands at your head throughout. Three rounds. When the check is automatic, answer each one with a kick of your own.

3. The teep you keep forgetting

What the trainer sees: You never throw the push kick, or you throw it as a flick that would not move a shopping trolley.

Why your body does it: The teep is not spectacular. It does not make the sound. The roundhouse is the kick everyone came for.

What it costs: Distance, which is most of Muay Thai. The teep is the jab of the legs: it keeps people off you, stops them mid-attack, and sets up everything else. Without it you are always either too close or too far, and you never chose which.

The fix: Lift the knee, drive the hip forward and push through the ball of the foot into the opponent's hip or stomach, pushing off the standing leg. It is a shove, not a kick; the standing foot should be pushing you forward as it lands.

The drill: Teep a heavy bag and make it swing away from you on every rep, fifty each leg. Then shadow box with a teep every time you would have stepped back, until pushing has replaced retreating.

4. Wrestling in the clinch, and losing

What the trainer sees: The clinch starts and your hands drop to the partner's waist or arms, your head comes up, and knees land on your body one after the other like a metronome.

Why your body does it: The clinch feels like wrestling, so you wrestle: grab low, pull, muscle. The Thai clinch is a game of inside position and posture, and nobody has explained that yet.

What it costs: Every knee, and then the sweeps. Whoever has inside position and the lower forehead controls the clinch; the beginner with hands low and head high is hand-delivering their body to the knees.

The fix: Hands high and inside, fighting for the position on the back of the head, elbows squeezed together, forehead down into the partner's collarbone, hips forward so there is no room for a knee. Posture first. Pulling comes much later, if ever.

The drill: Light clinch rounds where knees are only touched to the body, never driven, and the sole goal is to get and keep inside position with both hands. Whoever has it after thirty seconds wins the exchange. Five minutes a session, every session.

5. The naked kick

What the trainer sees: A rear kick from range with nothing before it, telegraphed by the shoulder, checked or caught every single time.

Why your body does it: The kick is your favourite weapon and it worked beautifully on the bag. The bag does not catch kicks.

What it costs: The kick gets caught, and a caught kick is a sweep and a lost round. Kicks land when the opponent is thinking about something else.

The fix: Punch, then kick. A jab or a jab-cross brings the hands up, then the kick goes to the leg or the body while the guard is high; or a teep makes them step forward into the kick. Thai fighters also kick the instant the opponent's foot lands from a step, when it cannot lift to check.

The drill: Pad rounds where every kick must be preceded by at least one punch. The trainer simply refuses to hold for a naked kick. Then the same rule on the bag, enforced by you.

6. Leaning back like the strike is a bad smell

What the trainer sees: You pull the head back and the chin up to avoid a punch or a high kick, hands drifting down as the body arches away.

Why your body does it: Leaning away works against a slow partner, and it feels safer than letting a strike land on the guard.

What it costs: Balance, the chin and the legs. A leaning body cannot check, cannot counter and cannot move, and the second strike – the low kick that follows the punch – finds a planted front leg with all your weight on it.

The fix: Block with the guard and the shins, keep the head over the hips, and move the feet instead of the spine. Muay Thai defence is upright: forearms take punches, shins take kicks, the head stays where it is.

The drill: Partner throws slow punch-kick combinations and you may only defend with blocks and checks – no leaning, no stepping back. Three rounds. The guard learns to trust itself, which is the whole point.

7. Sparring like the title is on the line

What the trainer sees: A beginner in their first sparring round throwing everything at full power, empty after ninety seconds, and hurting a partner who was going light.

Why your body does it: Adrenaline, and the idea that sparring is a test you pass by winning.

What it costs: Partners, learning and eventually the gym. Thai gyms spar light and technical, often at a fraction of full power, because that is where you can try the check, the teep and the set-up without paying for every mistake in blood. Hard sparring belongs in fight camp, and not every week even then.

The fix: Match your partner's power and go one notch below it. Aim to land techniques, not damage. The goal of a sparring round is to try three things from this article, not to win.

The drill: Sparring rounds with a theme announced beforehand – teep only, kicks only, one attacks and the other only defends – so the round has a purpose that is not winning. You will learn more in one of those than in ten wars.

Where to go next

The kick in detail: The Muay Thai Roundhouse Kick: Six Common Mistakes.
The hub and the history: Muay Thai and The History of Muay Thai.
Sparring, for every striking art: Sparring Mistakes Beginners Make.
Which art is which: Muay Thai vs Kickboxing and Boxing vs Muay Thai.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to get decent at Muay Thai?: Six months until you move, kick and defend without thinking about each part; a year to eighteen months until you hold your own in light sparring. The clinch and the elbows arrive last. Two or three sessions a week is the pace those numbers assume.
Why do I keep getting low-kicked?: Because you stand like a boxer: bladed, weight on the front leg, hands up and legs forgotten. The Thai stance is squarer and lighter on the front foot so the leg can lift into a check. Fix the stance and half the low kicks stop landing on their own.
Should I check kicks with the shin or step back?: Both, depending on distance, but learn the check first, because stepping back from every kick means retreating all round. Lift the knee, turn the shin out, keep the hands up. It hurts less than taking the kick on the thigh, and it hurts the kicker.
How do I stop dropping my hands in the clinch?: Fight for inside position with the hands high, elbows in, forehead down. Hands drop in the clinch because beginners try to muscle the neck; the clinch is won with posture and inside position, not with pulling.
Is it normal that my shins hurt?: Yes, for months. Conditioning comes from regular bag and pad work with correct technique, not from rolling bottles on your legs. Pain on the instep or ankle means the wrong surface; pain on the shin is the entry fee.
Should I learn kicks or boxing first in Muay Thai?: Stance and teep first, then kicks and hands together. The teep controls distance and is the easiest technique to learn; kicks and hands are useless without a stance that can throw them, which is why every good trainer starts there.