18.07.2023 Hour seven of my client's current course in Muay Thai was a bit of clear up session. I was aware that we hadn't covered enough on curve knees, especially the lateral movement setups for this technique, as well as elbow strikes within the clinch and I also wanted to begin focusing more muay mat tactics. The curve knee (aka round knee or side knee) is a less powerful knee to spear or diagonal knee strikes. However, it is delivered in greater volume during the clinch due to the way an opponent typically defends the other strikes. When clinching nak muays default to a more neutral stance with their hips close to each other. This deprives the straight knees from getting much momentum or acceleration. The curve knee comes in from the outside and is usually aimed at the ribs, although the head can be manipulated into its path and the sides of the thighs are also open. By using lateral footwork in the form of a rhythmic Newton's cradle action, the nak muay can fluidly throw these strikes from side to side and get a decent amount of range. We shadowed this side-to-side stepping before it was applied as a technique. The fighter needs to get used to hopping regularly and switching from one foot to another. As might be expected, the technique can leave a fighter open to be thrown off balance and this can be prompted by starting the curve knee exchange and timing an opponent's counter. We moved onto elbow strikes and looked at different ways the collar and elbow tie might manipulated to work in horizontal, spear, uppercut, slashing and smash down elbows. This began with a horizontal elbow strike over an opponent's collar tie. An elbow bump or spear elbow to the sternum off the fighter's collar tie is a good follow up or distraction move that helps work in this close range assault. If the collar tie can be cleared, especially when the opponent is defending the spear elbow then a slashing elbow might be thrown off the rear hand. The lead spear elbow might then be turned into an uppercut elbow. Should these technique miss it can come down as a smash down. Whilst this these elbow guard manipulations are taking place, the fighter also has options for sweeps as the opponent might take a staggered stance in response and this also leaves them open for straight knee strikes. Before 2 x 3 minutes sparring, I changed the theme to introduce a muay mat combination. With my client wanting to switch back to boxing in the next course in preparation for his fight in November, I thought a useful bridge and helpful crossover would come in the form of punch-oriented Muay Thai. We trained jab/shovel hook/rear low round kick. This hits three targets and keeps attention on the rear side of an orthodox fighter's body before attacking the exposed lead leg. Round 1 of sparring was all clinch and Round 2 was freestyle. https://clubbchimera.com/services/
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