27.09.2021
The second hour of my couple clients’ course on the Thai clinch proceeded from the warm-up into plum position revision. They partnered off to work forward, backward, lateral and angling footwork, working on push/pull setups to break each other’s posture. Then we layered in the spear and diagonal knee strikes on a one-for-one basis. I then held the Thai focus mitts for working these particular knee strikes in the clinch.
We then moved onto the collar and elbow clinch and the curved knee. They executed a simple drill of throwing a curved knee to provoke one in return and then countering by breaking their opponent’s posture. Next we worked on a couple of simple escapes into counter from the collar and elbow tie. This included variations on locking off one side, putting the fighter into a superior position. I argued the importance of achieving better positioning rather than just coming up with counter-techniques. A good position ensures the opponent has to achieve two more moves rather than one in order to launch their counter-attack.