Lerdrit
เลิศฤทธิ์The military form of Thai fighting used by the Thai army. It builds on muay thai but aims at taking an opponent out at once, not at scoring in a ring.
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ThailandCharacter & Origin
Training
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What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Lerdrit
Lerdrit is the military form of Thai fighting used by units of the Royal Thai Army. The Thai words lert rit translate as superior or supreme force. Its basis is the same as that of muay thai, namely the so-called nine natural weapons: both fists, both feet, both knees, both elbows and the head. The difference lies in purpose. Sport muay thai is bound by rules, gloves, rounds and scoring, whereas lerdrit is built to take an opponent out at once, whether or not he is armed. For that reason it trains what the ring forbids: head butts, attacks to the neck, the eyes and the joints, joint locks and breaks, and takedowns to the ground. The doctrine rests on four older combat procedures which Thai tradition sums up as throwing, crushing, seizing and breaking. Fighting is done at close range. The practitioner tries to close the distance in a single step, take the opponent's balance in the clinch, known as muay pram, and finish the attack on the ground or with a hard knee and elbow. Conditioning of the limbs, strengthening of the neck and tolerance of pain are an integral part of the preparation. Work with the knife and the stick, and disarming, are also trained. Historically lerdrit is associated with the palace guard, the capital's defence corps, the units protecting war elephants and the special infantry. The system is passed on within the army and its detailed syllabus is not publicly published, so descriptions in civilian sources differ in the details.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.