30.12.15
The third lesson of my client’s second course in Muay Thai and Kickboxing for martial arts cross-training continued the same side striking theme and also looked at efficient countering to kicks as well as the 45 degree round kick.
We warmed up, as we have generally been doing on this particular course, with a one-for-one exchange of kicks. We progressed with checking, blocking and evasions, moving up the body as the hips became looser. After some back combinations, we revised the round kick/hook same side combination. This led us onto other same side combinations.
The double-jab/round kick/cross combination is not a traditional Muay Thai combination. I learnt a version of its execution from Peter Consterdine and found it to have many solid training values. Foremost it is a great tactic that can take opponents at the stand-up sport range by surprise. It is also a great teaching guide for getting the all-important synergy between punching and kicking. This moves us into the realm of Muay Thai and many Southeast Asian boxing sports, and one of their key strengths. This is the way they blend all their limbs in combinations. If there is one thing a mixed martial artist can learn from the way Southeast Asian boxing stylists fight it is the way can execute so many different techniques in the same way. A punch is just as likely to come from the same stance and movement as a kick or a clinch.
We looked at the mid-section check and scoop response to round kicks along with the subsequent counter and also brought it onto the defence against teeps. This highlights how much Thai Boxers absorb techniques and roll off and into counter-attacks.
We then focused back on the 45 degree round kick. This technique is simpler, not relying much on a pivot, and faster than a conventional round kick, but one has to be selective in its execution. The kick is designed for going under and over defences at short to mid-range. It works great in the double-jab/round kick/cross combination. After a couple of rounds of International rules Kickboxing sparring (no clinch, elbows and knees) to focus on punching and kicking, my client finished with two 30 second bursts of high-speed 45 degree round kicking. We then warmed down with a series of flowing mobility exercises.
