Building the Teep (diary entry)

31.07.23 My couple client's two hour lesson brought them up to hour three of their new course on Muay Thai. Tonight we layered on the teep to the punching covered in the previous lesson. Punching combinations were built up with a full defensive structure. Jab/crosses were paired with covers, hooks with shield blocks and uppercuts/shovel hooks with body blocks. I also brought in shin-checks as we looked at intercepting kicks with punching combinations. The teep was first introduced as a range finding and measuring weapon. We drilled one-for-one work, learning to receive lighter teeps to the mid-section and firing them back as well as initiating. I went through the basic mechanics and nuances of the teep. We looked at the reasoning behind swinging the arm to create momentum, help generation force behind the hip and to provide distraction to encourage an opponent to raise their guard. Teep's distinction not just from the front snap kick popular in other martial arts but also from other push kicks was also covered. My two clients worked to throw the technique with natural regularity, remaining relaxed in the eye of the proverbial storm that is the Muay Thai range of fighting. Next we looked at Muay Thai tactics, pairing the technique with the jab where we used feints from one to set up the other. This moved into 4 x 3 minute rounds of specific light sparring, pitting jabs and teeps against everything. The lesson finished with some questions and answers where we went through all the defences to the teep: absorb, catch and unbalance, scoop block and inside knee check.