09.03.16
The thirteenth lesson in the CCMA second course for Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross-Training looked more at combinations with advanced techniques. This is the third extra lesson requested by my client on top of the standard 10 lesson course in order to focus on these more difficult techniques.
We warmed up with our standard mobility exercises and then went onto some basic combination work on the focus mitts. We then revised some isolated advanced techniques. It is worth noting that many of these techniques are often thrown in isolation during a bout. They have a high risk factor, but also carry a good deal of power. A fighter uses the dramatic nature of the move to surprise an opponent and, even if not wholly successful in creating a stoppage, a successful execution can help throw the fight in his favour. Therefore, it is not unusual for these techniques to be thrown singly using a good set-up, timing and as a confident tactic.
However, the focus for tonight was on incorporating these techniques into combinations. We began this work using the hands, using an intermediary swinging punch to set up for a spinning elbow. The combination began with a jab to set up a rear hook punch. This was immediately followed up by a rear swinging punch, which was aimed to miss the target. The fighter then flowed on from the swing into a spinning elbow strike. Here the tactic is to make an opponent back off in order to set him up for the elbow. The two round punches – the hook and the swing – are aggressive and rapid strikes executed to put the opponent on the back foot and to use evasion, little suspecting the element of surprise offered by the spinning technique.
We then carried this same principle over to the legs. The fighter threw two rapid round kicks off the back the leg, the second one aiming high to miss and then flowed into a reverse round kick (back spinning kick/spinning heel kick). Rear leg kicks, being heavier and more compromising on balance than arms, leave the fighter opponent to a lot of counters. Therefore, as with the arms, I set the combination up with the lead side technique. We used a teep in this instance.
We then moved onto the spinning hook kick. This technique offers more control, is arguably faster and is easier to retrieve than the reverse round kick, but doesn’t have the same power. Taking advantage of control and speed benefits, we threw two in succession following on from a lead leg round kick.
Next lesson will see a return not to the self-defence line, but to the Mixed Martial Arts line to see how the various aspects covered in this course relates to MMA strategies.