Exploring the forgotten Cambodian martial art of Pradal Serey

Pradal Serey is often referred to as Cambodian kickboxing. Overall, this is a fair summary, seeing as it’s very similar to conventional kickboxing and comes from Cambodia. To an outsider, Pradal Serey can look very similar to Muay Thai, however there are a few subtle differences. Taking of Muay Thai, most people believe that Pradal Serey came first. Pradal Serey was popularized in Cambodia during the Khmer empire so it has been around for a while. The name Pradal translates to fighting whilst Serey means free, hence the name.

Historically speaking, it’s likely that Muay Thai was heavily influenced by Pradal Serey through Muay Boran, at least in its earlier days. Interestingly since then, Muay Thai has grown massively in popularity, whilst Pradal Serey has barely gained any exposure outside of its country. In this article, we shall look at Pradal Serey and how it works, as well as its differences from Muay Thai and other kickboxing styles.

Cambodia and its history with martial arts

Interestingly, Cambodia has a rich history when it comes to producing martial arts disciplines. Although these days it isn’t known as a martial arts hotbed, it’s fair to say that it is responsible for a lot of effective fighting styles and certainly had a big influence on Muay Thai.

Aside from Pradal Serey, it also created Bokator, Khmer wrestling, and Kbach Kun Dambong Veng. As a brief summary, Bokator is a battlefield combat system that involves using certain weapons as well as jumping attacks, Khmer wrestling is as you’d expect and Kbach Kun Dambong Veng is a long-staff martial art, much like Bojutsu.

Combining all of these together, you’d create a very well-rounded practitioner, especially hundreds of years ago and the outcome would look like an ancient MMA fighter. Sadly, Cambodia doesn’t get enough recognition when it comes to its history with martial arts.

Pradal Serey is big on movement and evasiveness

One of the main features of Pradal Serey is that it has a strong emphasis on dodging strikes. Of course, every martial art focuses on this aspect, but in Pradal Serey the art of dodging hits seems more emphasized. Basically, there’s a lot of work put into footwork, pivots, and moving out the way of getting hit.

A good comparison of this is that it’s like Shotokan Karate, whereby speed and timing are often taught. This is different from Kyokushin Karate where power and aggression have a bigger emphasis. If you want to nitpick, you could say that Pradal Serey is closer to Shotokan, whereas Muay Thai is closer to Kyokushin in this regard. As a result, if you were to spar Pradal Serey, it may be typically more cagey compared to Muay Thai with fewer hits landing.

Pradal Serey vs. Muay Thai

Comparing Pradal Serey to Muay Thai is only natural. However, saying which one is better is down to personal opinion. Perhaps the biggest indicator that Muay Thai is better is down to its popularity. Simply put, there’s a reason why Muay Thai is global – and that is because it’s so effective. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone truly critical of Muay Thai as it’s universally accepted as one of the best martial arts going.

Having said this, Pradal Serey isn’t far behind. There is perhaps one issue with Pradal Serey which will be addressed below. This issue has been solved in Muay Thai which arguably makes it more rounded and effective as a result. Regardless, if you were to fight a skilled Pradal Serey fighter then you’d certainly be in for a battle and as far as martial arts disciplines go, Pradal Serery is no joke.

Pradal Serey focuses more on kicks, elbows and less clinch work

One of the main factors of Pradal Serey is kicking. Like many of the far-eastern martial arts, it has a big emphasis on throwing kicks, and generally speaking, the throwing of punches is secondary. This is kind of like Taekwondo, where you will see punches thrown – but usually they’re not as emphasized as kicks. To sum up, a strong focus on kicks, as well as dodging strikes is what makes Pradal Serey unique when compared to Muay Thai.

Interestingly, because boxing is bigger in Muay Thai, elbow strikes are more popular in Pradal Serey which seems to be a natural compromise compared to striking with punches. If you’re to watch a Pradal Serey fight, many of the bouts will be won by elbow strikes. On a similar note, Pradal Serey is more open whereas Muay Thai has more clinch work. In this sense, you could argue that Pradal Serey is a bit like kickboxing with elbows thrown in. However, it does also uses clinches, just not as much as Muay Thai does.

Muay Thai has better boxing

Undoubtedly, the boxing featured in Muay Thai is better than the boxing used in Pradal Serey. This is because Muay Thai was influenced by western boxing and took the good parts, which in turn made it a stronger martial art. Throughout history, martial arts that are open to change and growth tend to perform better in the long run. This is certainly true of Muay Thai. Arguably, up until this point, there really wasn’t much difference between Muay Thai and Pradal Serey, however the difference is quite noticeable now.

Often when fighting, Nak Muay will block with their elbows and check with their legs, whereas the boxing in Pradal Serey is simply less advanced. To sum up, a top Muay Thai fighter would probably defeat a top Pradal Serey fighter due to more efficient boxing and upper body strikes, which is where Pradal Serey isn’t as strong.

Rules

Honestly, the rules of Pradal Serey and Muay Thai are pretty similar and for the most part they’re the same. Typically, Pradal Serey has fewer rounds but aside from this, the rules are almost identical. This means that sweeps are scored in the same way, as are significant strikes. Even illegal techniques share the same crossover. This means if you trained Muay Thai and wanted to compete at a local Pradal Serey event then you’d have nothing to worry about in terms of abiding to a different rule set.

Outside of Cambodia, Pradal Serey is unknown

It’s fair to say that Pradal Serey is not a mainstream martial art. And, with the influence of Muay Thai, it probably never will be. Outside of Cambodia, you won’t really find many Pradal Serey gyms at all. So, for your average practitioner, the reality is that if you’re into that style of fighting – then you may as well go and train Muay Thai anyway.

Obviously, if you ever visit Cambodia then training Pradal Serey is relatively easy and you’ll be able to find a gym to train at. As far as costs go, this is very cheap – even more so than Muay Thai in Thailand which may be due to the lack of popularity and appeal that Pradal Serey has. Just make sure to be respectful and don’t call it Muay Thai. Remember that Pradal Serey influenced Muay Thai and Cambodians can be very proud of their martial art!

Summary

Pradal Serey is still practiced today and has a following in its home country of Cambodia. However, due to the success of Muay Thai, it is largely overlooked by a more effective, similar martial art. At the same time, if you do happen to visit Cambodia then it’s definitely worth training. The reason for this is that they do things differently compared to kickboxing and Muay Thai which means you may learn a new skill.

Remember, always be open-minded and humble when training a new martial art as you can potentially learn new ideas and better ways of fighting. In summary, Pradal Serey is certainly its own martial art – but honestly speaking it is often viewed in the shadow of its cousin, Muay Thai.