21.03.2023
This morning my teacher client from Athena School of Karate began a 10 lesson block of Muay Thai. After going through the six-part combination pattern, she decided that it was time she took a deeper dive into Thai Boxing.
We began with stance and range familiarity. The Muay Thai stance is very square and short compared to other stand-up fighting arts. Weight is on the back leg. The stance allows for better shin-checking and clinching. However, it sacrifices the type of footwork used by boxers. Dutch Kickboxing makes a compromise between the two due to its greater use of punching and not needing the clinch. The Thai guard is a debatable point. “Traditional” Thai guards tend to be high and loose with the elbows slightly flared. This allows for better kick-catching opportunities and elbow defences, both of which aren’t features of most kickboxing styles outside of the Southeast Asian combat sports. However, the Dutch guard is gaining popularity in Muay Thai. It is also very high but also tight. With punching improving in Muay Thai and more crossover with the Dutch style in K1, it is understandable why this would happen. However, it makes the all-important clinching part a greater challenge. At this point it is probably worth mentioning that high guards are not unheard of in Boxing. In fact, these days they are often taught as a basic guard due to the greater protection offered to novices who need more experience to get their timing in for slipping and rolling.
Range is very important for Muay Thai due to it differing a lot to Boxing and most other combat sports. Nak Muays fight at a closer range than most other kickboxing styles. Therefore their edge of range is also a lot closer despite using a long range weapon: the teep. I introduced this as the first tool and looked at particular features of the kick. Firstly, as many a helpful YouTubing martial arts cross-trainer will point out, it differs from a snap-kick. I don’t want to confuse matters too much by saying it differs from a front kick as it really is the main form of front kick used across most Southeast Asian Boxing styles. In essence, it is a push kick but that sells its versatility short. Teeps can be delivered with impact and knockouts aren’t uncommon either. Indeed, it is described as being like a speer and can have piercing function as well as a pushing one. Like other martial arts, it is generally delivered using the ball of the foot but the heel and even flat of the foot are also used. There is even a type of side-teep that bears some similarity to the more widely recognised side kick.
Regardless of the above, the teep is used like a boxer’s jab. It allows a fighter to control their range, to defend, set up techniques and to unbalance opponents. Like all Muay Thai techniques, it should be delivered whilst maintaining an upright posture. The arm on the kicking side is swung as a counter-balance to the kick. A regular push kick taught in other full-contact stand-up combat sports tends to be delivered through a guard. This is the most obvious superficial distinction between the Thai teep and the regular push kick. However, there are more subtle nuances that aren’t typically covered in online articles and videos. The Thai teep has a stronger reliance on the hips and although there is a definite hinging action with the knee it is not as sharp and pronounced as you find in other martial arts. This has a lot to do with the Thai stance where a kick coming straight off the lead leg needs to be relaxed.
Indeed, everything has to be relaxed in order to put over a good image to Muay Thai judges. In Thai Boxing everything is scored on effect. So if a technique has no visible effect on an opponent then it isn’t scored. Similarly even if a technique is blocked it can be scored should it move the opponent. Nak muays adopt a very nonchalant and almost contemptuous-looking air about themselves when fighting as they freely exchange full-contact techniques within a tight range.
We then went through the basic blocks – the cover, the shield blocks, the elbow blocks to the body and the shin-check. They were layered onto the footwork.
Next we brought in the jab and the cross where we looked at the step-jab as a basic Thai jab and the Thai cross/rear straight variation. These two punches, along with all the defences were put together with the teep and footwork for some padwork combinations.