Spear Knee Strikes - Martial Arts Teacher Training

31.10.2025

Intense Muay Thai knee strike training session with skilled instructors. Dive into the blog for an inside look!

This morning my client from Cotswold School of Karate finished his current block of lessons with me. He will be continuing next week with further work on knee strikes. Today we decided to isolate the spear knee or straight knee strike from Muay Thai.

We looked at the following variations:

Long knee - This is delivered like a teep, using the same downward arm swing for momentum, balance and good hip extension.

Helmet guard knee - The same knee strike delivered closer and therefore with the hands held in a high, close guard position.

Swiping knee - Here the hands swipe or pull down obstructions when the knee is delivered. This is often the opponent's arm and head. Sometimes this is referred to as a diagonal knee strike as there is a pivot involved.

Switch knee - Like switch-kicks, the rear foot drives forward in a quick, explosive action creating momentum for the front knee strike.

Scissor knee - A jumping version of the spear knee, jumping into the air with a leg-scissor action to drive the striking up following the lead leg.

Knee bomb - The longest range knee strike. Sometimes delivered with a jump. The nak muay propels themselves across the ring into their target.

We combined teeps, switch-kicks and long guard pushes to set these strikes up.

The lesson finished with skipping knees on the heavy bag.

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Equipment used included the Thai pads, the belly pad and the heavy bag.