01.03.2023 Tonight's junior lesson continued our Wrestling with the introduction of the underhook/ankle pick and the senior lesson looked the way hook punches are integrated into Muay Thai. After our sport specific warm-up, we moved back onto the ankle pick. We went back over the basic collar-tie ankle pick and two of its counters (against a downward block and against an opponent who postures up). Then we looked at the underhook variation. In this version the fighter's strategy is to get his opponent to throw their weight onto the front foot, which will be targeted for the ankle pick. The opponent might be in a Japanese or low square stance, which is very common in stand-up grappling. In order to prompt a bladed stance response with weight thrown forward onto the lead leg, the fighter should drop low on the underhooked side, let go of their wrist-grip and reach across for that side's leg. The opponent will instinctively step back with the leg that is being attacked. Keeping low, the fighter punches up through the underhook on an angle and shoots across with his free hand for the opponent's ankle. In essence, the fighter is pushing with their underhook and pulling on the ankle whilst attacking on a 45 degree angle. The opponent is toppled by the two opposing rotational forces. The three of us (nephew, uncle and I) all then sparred for 3 x 5 minute grounds of takedown wrestling. The senior class resumed our work on revisiting and rebuilding Muay Thai basics. Having looked at the jab, the straight and lead hook in the previous lesson and how they were best executed within the sport of Thai Boxing, it was time to look at the rear hook punch. We also had a lengthy tangent into improving the basic round kick, addressing bad habits that often creep into practice. When it comes to rear hooks, there are is a lot of debate in Boxing circles regarding when and if it should be used. A lot of Boxing coaches have excluded or discouraged its practise due to the way it leaves an opponent open. As discussed in this episode of my podcast, the rear hook probably has the most primal of lineages within Pugilism. Its origin is in the haymaker or wild swing, a technique frowned upon during Boxing's bare knuckle days in favour of the straights. Pioneering pugilist, Jack Broughton did well to bring in a punching element to this punch but it seems to have fallen out of favour once Boxing declined throughout the 19th century. After the left hook was "invented" at the turn of the 20th century and the dawn of the gloved era, similar technical developments were made to its older, rowdier cousin. Nevertheless, as punching became more sophisticated in Boxing a good number of coaches didn't believe the risk at long range, and even often at mid-range, was worth it. Exceptions are often made for the mirror-stance match (southpaw versus orthodox). However, there are still fighters, especially in MMA and Muay Thai, who will use the rear hook at long range. We tested shin-checks and guard defences when executing the technique and then chained in the rear round kick. It's important to note the opening to the ribs provided when throwing this punch. The rear round kick can work well off a counter e.g. rear hook/shin-check/rear round kick or as part of combination such as rear hook/rear round kick. At this point I went into some finer details to correct bad habits creeping into practice. We looked at stepping the toes off to 90 degrees at the beginning of the kick and throwing forward the same side arm. This arm action not only throws weight over the kick but also acts as a distracting tactic. As the kick moves through its arc, the supporting foot's heel should come off the ground and the toes should pivot another 90 degrees (180 degrees in total). Our lesson finished with 2 x 3 minute rounds of sparring. https://clubbchimera.com/services/
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