Dutch & Thai Combinations Continue (diary entry)

05.05.20 Tuesday night continued my teaching training as we continued to blend Dutch Kickboxing concepts with Muay Thai. Tonight we delved deeper into the Thai clinching side. The lesson began with the routine warm-up of kick exchanges, building to double kick exchanges and finally the 1,2,3 semi-free sparring that has been covered in previous diary entries. Framing, pawing setups and posting are now all par for the course. Emphasis was now placed on improving footwork and timing. The Dutch area looked at improving speed through restrictive training methods and flash-pad drilling. These combinations, which can get quite lengthy and complex, camouflage the low kicks that are eventually chained on. We then revised some of the Dutch combinations before moving onto the clinch. Here we went through various different directions chaining appropriate knee strikes throughout. This sequence, which teaches consistent posture breaking with striking, was sandwiched between a Dutch style punch/kick combination entry to clinch and a Thai long-guard posting exit followed up with a round kick.