18.11.19
My Monday night Muay Thai lesson brought my client up to the eighth hour of her second course. She looked at retaining and improving her balance as a theme which is an obvious underlying principle of kick-catching.
The lesson began with simply callisthenics before moving onto mirror footwork and one-for-one sparring. From here we looked at countering off a shin check. The idea was to concentrate on weight transference from one leg to another, strengthening balance. We went through some simple combinations before going back over getting one’s round kick caught. Here I encouraged straight hand striking, hopping and either ripping the leg free using the angled drive down or closing to clinch. We followed up each leg-retrieval with a retaliatory kick.
The lesson finished with a three minute round of one-legged sparring (30 second teep on the left, 30 seconds teep on the right, 30 seconds round kick on left. 30 seconds round kick on right, 30 seconds any kick on left, 30 seconds any kick on right) and then 2 x 3 minute sparring. After teaching my client about the benefits of having good balance and how to counter getting one’s leg kick caught I had my own teep intercepted and I unceremoniously found myself looking up at the ceiling. Maybe martial arts teachers, like me, have a screw loose. There is definitely something wrong with people who are pleased that others have done this to them! PS This was a reward for those of you who read my entire blogs to the end.