MMA/Muay Thai

24.07.2023 Monday's lesson was a two-hour booking for my couple clients, finishing their 10-hour MMA styles course and beginning a new Muay Thai course. After a dynamic stretch and sport specific calisthenic warm-up, we began an overview of the styles work. This began with some light specific sparring. One fighter stuck to their swarming/muay bouk style and the other to out-boxer/muay femur style. I pitted attack against defence only, forcing the individual styles to work on their own way of handling strikes and takedowns. The swarming fighter covered up and smothered whereas the outside fighter used circling footwork and long range checking. In attack mode the swarming fighter used angled footwork, switch-hitting and going to the body and legs in contrast to the outside fighter who picked shots off and set up shoots. We then moved into instructive sparring where different situations presented learning points. Both clients have come on tremendously, showing a rich variety of techniques and answers to problems. With coaching, the swarmer remembered to take advantage of knee strike positions within the clinch. She also improved on using her hips more when fighting from underneath. Likewise, the outboxer's guard defence has strengthened and he began to see more openings for joint locks on the ground. The Muay Thai half of the lesson was a much more technical affair. As has been the case with all my regular clients going back to Muay Thai, I brought everything back to basics for a total revamp. We began with stances and boxing. The stance is square on, narrow and most of the weight is on the back leg. I explained contrasts with semi-contact combat sports, boxing, American kickboxing and Dutch kickboxing. Then we went through the four basic punches. Thai jabs are typically step-jabs. Their crosses or straights come in at an off-centre angle and beside being helpful with the clinch don't present any obvious advantages of Boxing's version. Hooks are mainly long range and thrown with a horizontal fist. This is because shorter range versions tend to be displaced by elbows and clinching. Uppercuts more resemble upward angled hooks or smash punches than orthodox versions due to elbow strikes. I also went through the classic defences - slips, covers, shield blocks and body blocks. Then I layered in shin-checks before putting them all into combinations. We discussed pivoting and concessions that need to made to protect the leg. https://clubbchimera.com/services/