Muay Thai - Day 464 - PT on clinch, shadow drills, agility ladder; Group class on feints

Day 464
Eight Limbs, 8th June 2023
PT with Mosi in the morning - largely focusing on clinching.
We started off with some shadow drills: left checks and right or left kicks, then knees. Don't over-revolve when kicking, make sure it's at its maximum speed at the target, not after the target. Don't be too abrupt on knees, be smooth but fast. Consider twisting rather than leaning as the counterbalance. All the usual tips.
In the clinch we worked on moving between three basic positions:
Inside double bicep control
Left or right hand behind the neck
Double collar tie
The double bicep control position is where we begin, we will move to other positions from here to gain advantage. Make sure that the hands have firm authority over the opponent’s bicep, strongly rotated in, and the opponent should not be able to pull my arms up too easily. The head should be beside their head to one side or the other.
In all these positions we should have a square stance, balanced, on the toes; stand strong and do not allow your opponent to push you back. Close the space between you. Unless you want to attack, open space makes you vulnerable - so open it only for a brief moment when you are attacking.
As much as possible be relaxed, save for where tension is required, and don’t remain static. Stiffness wastes energy, instead be always moving and rocking your (and their) arms up and down a little.
So these inside positions are desirable. One thing is elbow access, the other is controlling your opponent’s arms. Don’t keep your elbows too low. When clinching, the higher your elbows, the less authority you’ll have to control your position, you can’t throw strikes, and so on. Hence, if you’re on the inside, with your elbows underneath your opponent’s arms, by keeping your elbows high, you keep the opponent’s higher and thus disadvantage more. Use your forearms to raise their arms up, while keeping a firm grip on their bicep. Then you can move them and strike them more easily in the openings. Additionally, if your arms are too low on the inside, your opponent can readily push them down and elbow you. All of this control is easier with your shoulders in close rather than far away. You can’t properly get underneath them without being close, and it also minimises the length of your levers, so you get more torque.
If on the outside, you want to counteract this, though you’re not trying to keep the opponent down exactly. Just trying to keep your own arms under control. You have to take away their liberty of motion in the inner space between you, lest they elbow you. So make sure you have your arm wrapped around and your hand firmly over their inner bicep. Outwards pressure.
Now, how to get on the inside - don’t drop your arm too low, which will expose you to elbows - but quickly loop your hand downwards and inside. Do this one arm at a time, not both sides at once. Be snappy and minimise the radius of the loop. Slow, excess motion can be intercepted. Stopping this loop by your opponent will be mainly done with the elbow.
Once you have a grip on the back of their neck, either with one hand or both, the next step is to break their posture.
1. Use your body weight and footwork. To pull their head downwards, if you’re gripping their head with your right hand, step back with the right leg to move backwards and pull down on that side. And symmetrically on the other side.
2. Pulse the pulls on their neck. This will be more concussive, and you can generate higher peak force rather than and sustained and unsurprising pressure that can be resisted. Twice is likely enough, if combined with the step back, and especially if you do it when the opponent throws their own knee, but more pulses is possible.
Once the posture is broken you can knee them in the head or gut after the step back, or turn/throw them as you wish. Never stop kneeing. Every time you set up a position, throw a knee. You should not grant the opponent any oxygen to get their own weapons out. But don’t rush anything, stay stable and controlled.
In the evening, drills focusing on faked kick into knees. I found selling the fakes and moving elegantly out of them tough. Gotta practice.
Plenty more thoughts, but this description is too small to contain them.
Chapters
0:00 Shadow kicks and knees
5:20 Hand pads
6:55 Retreating checks
12:20 Clinching
20:05 Hand wrapping
21:05 Clinching - opening them up for knees
25:40 The face smush and turns
26:25 Back to clinching
31:45 A discussion on Tae Kwon Do kick preparation
37:00 Entering the clinch from a checked kick and knee
38:55 How to throw the training clinch knee
44:30 Back to freestyle clinching
46:50 Adding some kick sparring
52:00 Sweepsville
52:30 What to do when your opponent grabs you around the waist
54:55 Agility ladder
1:01:15 Chats
1:08:40 Bag knees
1:11:20 Shadow boxing
1:15:25 Warmup - trading combinations
1:20:20 Jabber-teeper vs defender
1:31:40 Thai pads - fakes
1:52:10 Freestyle pads, no talking
2:02:00 Bag