13.02.19
Tonight the nephew and uncle team tackled the Thai clinch and sweeps in groundwork respectively. The nephew’s junior lesson is part of his course in basic Muay Thai. The uncle’s senior lesson is part of his current exploration of martial arts cross-training.
The junior lesson began with a revision of Muay Thai punch/kick combinations, changing over to punch/knee combinations. We then moved onto the clinch and focused on the changing stance v-step used to break an opponent’s posture. This was then combined with a spear knee. Next we brought in a horizontal elbow, set up the v-step/knee and finally we followed the entire movement through with a takedown. The lesson finished with horizontal, slashing, uppercut and side elbow strikes.
The senior lesson’s warm-up consisted of transitional two-stick work, freestyle footwork with two sticks and single stick angle revision. We then moved straight onto the guard. Due to the lesson’s length these two areas seem somewhat disconnected on the whole. However, my intention is build a stronger base for attacking and defending sweeps, which facilitates better striking. From this point on we will layer in attributes taken from the stick-work.
The sweeps we went back over were scissor guard sweep, kimura sweep, butterfly guard sweep and electric chair sweep. These were then tested in a five minute round of ground-grappling sparring. Sparring was restricted to sweeps only.