14.04.18
This lesson brought my client up to the four and a half hour point of his second Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross-Training. The main focus of the lesson was to improve flexibility for kicking and improve kick-based combinations.
We warmed up with mirror footwork and then did some kick placement before moving onto dynamic stretching. This included Cossack stretches and split-squats, which serve as good callisthenic as well as mobility exercises. We also performed a series of dynamic stretches from a fighting stance, which helps keep maintain good posture and to make the exercises as specific as practicable. Rising kick, spear knee, crescent kicks (inside and outside) and crescent knees (inside and outside) are all effective dynamic stretches that also allow the fighter to maintain a good, relevant posture. We used these movements to build up to mid-line and highline round kicks.
After some more targeting, we moved onto the focus mitts and began scrutinizing positioning. Blending kicks with punches, we used the opposite sides work and then began introducing same side work as well as chaining kicks. We then went back over the side-kick recovery from a missed round kick, the back kick and general spinning kicks. The back kick and the spinning kicks were taught in isolation, as part of a combination, and as recovery techniques should the round kick miss. These were trained as placement exercises, as line work and then against the focus mitts.
We then did two rounds of Muay Thai sparring. We then discussed various strategies and tactics used in the free-sparring. The lesson was finished with some Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching.