08.11.2021 Hour seven of my couple client’s course on the Muay Thai clinch brought kick-catching together with the clinch. We looked at countering after having a kick caught. We began with the simple drag down and then we covered clinching to break and knee strike. All of this was preceded with a revision of upright Muay Thai grappling and knee strikes. We finished 3 x 2 minute rounds of clinch-specific sparring. Services
11.10.21 Monday night’s lesson took my couple clients to hour four of their Muay Thai clinching course. We focused on entries into the clinch. This began with the simple jab entry. However, I made a particular emphasis on half-shelling with one arm to maintain protection on the way into the clinch. We looked at taking the clinch on the inside and the outside, use of the hips and the all-important positioning. After jabbing looked at combining the long-guard/pawing jab with […]
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 […]
21.09.21 Monday night’s lesson saw my client couple begin their course in the clinch for Muay Thai. We thought it best to start at the beginning as one of the two clients has not covered this area before and no one is above basics anyway, including yours truly. So, after a warm-up geared towards aspects of grappling as well as strikes I introduced the main knee strikes. These were performed as line work and also as muscle activation exercises. This […]
16.08.21 Monday night brought my clients up the sixth hour of their 10 hour course on switch-hitting my Muay Thai. Tonight we looked at using marching knees to set up a mirror-side attack. After a warm-up of specific callisthenics, mobility and dynamic stretching exercises, we moved onto switch-hitting drills using shuffles and direction changing. I then taught two set-ups using marching knees. Both used a rear leg teep stepping into a mirror-side stance (typically southpaw), followed by two marching knees […]
22.02.21 The final lesson for this month’s special workshops for Athena Karate brought us up to kickboxing combination seven, designed to promote rhythm and flow. This particular combination was designed for close range outside fighting using an upstairs/downstairs strategy – jab/low jab/cross/liver shot/head hook/long knee. We discussed different hand positioning for the knee stike. Personally I don’t like to pull down arms for any knee strike other than with the diagonal knee. The long knee is a rear spear knee […]
19.11.20 My client’s third hour of a 10 hour Muay Thai course was a high intensity 10 x 3 minute round session. We began with isolated combinations and techniques, we had a round of virtual focus mitt training and then three rounds on the heavy bag, building up techniques. Given the client’s high level of skill and experience, this was an extremely focused lesson of explosive techniques. The shadow technique rounds were all separated into 1.5 minutes per combination. The […]
21.08.19 Tonight’s junior lesson introduced another attack from the two-on-one for stand-up grappling as well as foot sweeps and the senior lesson went over some core material to be covered in Sunday’s Vagabond Warriors Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. The junior lesson began with agility ladder warm-ups, this time including double leg takedown drills. We followed this with bulling/collar and elbow tie, where we continued our work from the two-on-one. It was important to ensure this […]
22.04.19 Easter Monday morning’s private lesson was my two junior clients’ seventh hour in Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. We spent a lot more time on the clinch and also its use as a counter-technique from a kick-catch. After Indian press-ups and single leg raises we did some line-work focusing on setting up spear, diagonal and round knee strikes. Here we focused a lot on positioning, ensuring the hips were dropped back for the spear knee that […]
10.04.19 Wednesday night was my normal junior/senior nephew/uncle double lesson. The junior lesson continued Muay Thai training, introducing escapes from kick-catches, whereas the senior lesson continued work on escapes from pins, focusing on escapes from the adjusted scarf-hold. The junior lesson generally concentrated on refining everything that has been covered over the course. We worked on maintaining stance and good hand positioning throughout the execution of various combinations. The back kick and spinning elbow were also taught as […]
06.04.19 Saturday morning brought my two junior clients up to the five hour point of their course on Basic Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. We worked on combining stand-up striking and clinch into combinations. I brought in the round knees at the clinch range and also taught tactics for breaking the clinch and following up. The lesson started with the usual set of dynamic stretching and callisthenic exercises. We then did some mirror footwork and technique […]
23.03.19 This morning my junior clients continued into their fourth hour of Basic Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. This lesson introduced the clinch and we also continued work on kick-catching. We warmed up with mobility exercises, dynamic stretching and specific callisthenics before we moved through basic punch, kick and knee combinations. This led us onto kick-catching and the importance of breaking an opponent’s postures. We covered both the cross-arm check from a round kick into a catch and […]
05.03.19 The fifth hour of my client’s basic course in Muay Thai for martial arts cross training brought him onto the clinch. The picture above is a totally illegal form of takedown for Muay Thai, but perfectly legal in MMA. We also revised all previous techniques and introduced the diagonal knee strike. We warmed up with mobility training, sport specific calisthenics, mirror footwork and simple one-for-one technique exchanges. This moved us onto checking mid-section round kicks. From here we developed […]
21.02.19 Tonight my client began his third hour of his Course on Basic Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. Work was primarily geared toward creating flow and building stronger transitions between techniques. We warmed up with mirror footwork, paying particular attention to angling off, creating distance and taking ground. The rhythmic rocking motion of Thai footwork was emphasised to help generate momentum in techniques. These began with the jab and the teep. Then we used the four-punch […]
06.02.19 Tonight I trained my regular nephew and uncle team. This session comprised of one junior lesson and one senior lesson. The nephew is currently on a Muay Thai course and the uncle is a long-time client of mine, studying martial arts cross-training. The nephew did more work on the clinch. The uncle continued to explore Filipino martial arts as a form of attribute training and then we continued our focus on elbow strikes. This was also trained within the […]
23.01.19 Tonight I continued my work with the nephew and uncle team, which comprises a half an hour junior lesson and an hour senior lesson. The junior lesson brought in aspects of footwork and how they relate to the Muay Thai clinch. The senior lesson transitioned between stick-work, punching and elbow strikes, including groundwork. The junior lesson built up a series of punch-kick combinations. These were then connected with shin-checks, Dracula guard and teeps. Homework for this section was to […]
