Muay Khao's Spear Knee (diary entry)

16.01.2024 My second returning client from the three-day workshop was my teacher client from the Athena School of Karate. We continued our work on the muay khao style (knee-fighter) and focused on the spear knee. The spear knee is simply the straight knee strike thrown in Muay Thai. Due to the close-range nature of Muay Thai there is little demand for a lead knee strike so this technique is either thrown as a rear knee or switch-knee. Outside of the clinch it is thrown from any of the staggered stances, although the traditional 90/10 stance is ideal. Inside the clinch it is thrown from both a neutral/parallel stance and any stepping back or pivoting stances.

                              As is often the case with the liberal way Muay Thai has been taught across camps and its filtration outside of Thailand and back, there isn't a robust consensus of agreement regarding the exact terminology for the strike. For example, I always made a distinction between a straightforward  spear knee and a diagonal knee. The former has the supporting foot facing directly at the target whilst the latter has the toes pointed at a 90 degree angle. The long knee is also another word used for this strike but usually refers to its execution coming from outside the clinch. Knee bomb is a term I have come to use for any spear knee used from a great distance. This includes the running, jumping and scissor/bicycle kick knee.

The lesson began with five minutes of flow sparring. This was followed by a 3 minute round on just clinching. We then sparred for 2 x 3 minutes with the client working to land the spear knee. Extended rest points were used to drill using the long guard, blending straight punching combinations into collar ties and limb manipulation/hand-fighting. 

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