Transitioning Patterns for Stand-up and Clinch (diary entry)

English: Knee in muay thai clinch (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

31.07.14 The sixth of my client’s series of private lessons on Muay Thai for cross-training continued looking at blending stand-up with Thai clinch. From early on we looked at how certain simple punch/kick combinations could be conveyed over into clinching tactics. One of the key principles to successful cross-training in martial arts is to be able teach a student to find familiar patterns between superficially alien techniques. Some combinations, once you accept the key principles of how to move the body correctly, are pretty obvious. Others require a bit of exploration, experimentation and creativity. We should also be mindful of dead ends and not try too hard to connect certain techniques to conform to a set pattern. Here are the two examples: Jab/cross/lead round kick was interchanged with left clinch/right clinch/left knee strike. Jab/cross/hook/rear round kick became left clinch/right clinch/left horizontal elbow strike/rear knee strike. After some freestyle focus mitt work I looked at how my client’s heavy bag-work was coming on. This was then followed with some sparring drills, focusing on defensive combinations. Next we did some specific sparring, introducing head cages to allow for controlled elbow and knee strikes to the head. The session finished with full Muay Thai sparring.