Cobra Punch and Back-Kicks (diary entry)

20.04.19 Saturday morning's lesson was the third hour of my client's tailored Stand-up Striking/Submission Grappling course. We continued looking at advanced Muay Thai techniques, set ups for the cobra/superman punch. We also spent a lot of time on the back kick. In Submission Grappling we moved onto the next pin escape, repeating the escapes from scarf-hold I did with my client on Wednesday. We warmed up with Indian press-ups and standing leg raises. Then we went to the focus mitts for advanced combination work. This included hook/low round kick/cross/mid-section round kick, teep/round kick/diagonal knee strike and jab/round kick/45 degree round kick/cobra punch. With the last of these combinations I tagged on a lead hook punch in order to stop my client from overly committing to the cobra punch, Muay Thai's version of the superman punch. We then revised the teep/knee bomb, teep/jump push kick and jab/cross/turn/jump push kick. With the first of these I emphasised the importance of keeping control after the knee bomb had landed. We put in a long-guard push to establish this part. Next we covered set-ups for back-kicks. I began with a simple attack, where my client stepped across to be in a strong position for the back-kick. He jabbed stepped across and then hit with the back-kick. The back-kick has a risk factor as does any technique where you turn your back on your opponent. We used a simple counter to a teep using a spinning elbow to demonstrate the positioning. I also taught to reverse the path of the kick once it had impacted in order to retain control. Ground-work was the same as Wednesday's lesson (please see previous blog entry) without the sparring.