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I initially planned on doing a long-ass post on the clinch and all of the nuances that I want to see more people using, but I decided that before I do that it makes more sense to make this guide.
In writing this post, I'm assuming a few things about the reader:
1) You're competing or thinking of competing
2) You don't compete at a high level
3) You want to become a high level striker
4) You don't already make use of these techniques
So in that sense, this post might not be the most useful for everyone, nevertheless I wanted to write the sort of post that I wish I'd read when I first started training, I've never fought professionally, but I've come up with this piece based on the problems that I've had developing as a martial artist and watching others. It's a long post, and it's very detailed but it's free. So hopefully this will be good for you:
When I look at the people I train with, I tend to notice a very specific pattern in the way they strikes. Generally people who compete at the lower levels seem to treat each technique as its own thing, and don't put these techniques into the greater concept of a fight.
So quite often a muay thai smoker can end up looking either like two robots fighting, or two people banging away at each other but without any real grace or technique.
I most commonly see these three crucial problems with strikers:
1) Their technique is sloppy
2) They lack flow
3) They lack simple, effective, controlling techniques
First let's talk about:
Ever look at a local 'championship' muay thai bought and wonder why the two fighters look so messy? Well it's partly a strategy thing but its also because they lack particularly clean technique. While guys like Liam Harrison and John Wayne Parr have very clean technique, it's far more often that you'll see professional fighters who don't exactly look pro.
I haven't got much of a comment, I just thought it was a fairly nice sweep
Take this fight for example. Now I'm not saying either of these guys are bad fighters, they'd kick my arse any day of the week, but I'm sure you can watch and see that it's pretty scrappy lookings and the kicks often look particularly janky.
A lot of the time in this fight you'll see that the timing is off, and strikes are delivered awkwardly, a kick sort of glances off the opponent and then weirdly comes back to the body. This is what I mean by sloppy technique, while you can certainly win a fight with it, everyone wants to have Thai level technique and the only way you can avoid it is by trying to perform better than this.
So what are my tips?
Tip 1 - Practise striking form
I know, it sounds obvious but there is a lot more to punching and kicking than you'll initially be taught. I've lost count the amount of time I've seen even pretty good fighters flare their elbows out before they punch, telegraphing it to the world, and they don't sit down on that punch either meaning that they lose a lot of the stopping power they could have had with it.
Something I can't emphasise enough is training every day. Now I don't mean you have to be in the gym every day, but you should certainly be shadowboxing in front a mirror on the regular, not only that but you should be recording yourself as much as possible so that you can see what you look like from the side.
Focus on the smaller details of the strike, keeping the elbow pointing down on your rear straight, making sure that you're transferring weight correctly, and if you're unsure as to what that means be sure to look it up. It's very important that you understand the positioning of your body itself as opposed to focussing on the arm. For an example of excellent balance and positioning look at Sergey Kovalev:
He frequently pivots and is always circling, but most importantly even though those punches are coming straight out he's not leaning into them. A rather high profile example of someone who leans way forward with every punch is Conor McGregor:
Regardless of whether he is in a fight with a tall opponent, a short opponent or just training, McGregor throws a beautiful straight, elbow pointed down, no wasted movement... at least in the arm, however he brings his head well past his hips a lot, something that has gotten him into trouble before and will again in future.
Kicks can be trickier to get the form down on but what you really want to make sure you have down is the hip turnover and the correct angle, and making sure you do it as efficiently as possible. It's important to practise marching with kicks and kicking going backwards with the correct footwork.
When you're able to do this fluidly you'll be able to attack on the front or back foot with ease (although I'm going to touch more on that later).
Tip 2 - Practise Recall
Just as important as it is to throw a strike with no telegraph, it's crucial that you recall your strike in a way that either gets you back into your stance or into superior defensive position. The two mistakes I see most often are hands dropping after throwing a punch, and legs just flopping down after throwing a kick. I not only see these in beginners but even in experienced fighters in my local regional circuit.
Which is again why a mirror is so important. You need to set aside a little bit of time to ensuring that your hands are always coming back by your face, unless you enjoy the idea of getting countered. It sounds obvious enough but even as the person writing this, I make this mistake all the time and have to make sure I pay a lot of attention to getting it right.
When it comes to controlling kicks good recall is crucial, which is why I've made use of of Sakmongkol's floating check. Which is demonstrated in numerous 8limbs videos.
Not only will it protect you from your opponent's kick (although using it too often could get you swept if you're against someone particularly good) but drilling this technique makes you think about bringing your leg back, which is something that most people don't do. The kick isn't over once it makes contact, you need to get your leg back safely.
Sakmongkol recalls his kick in a very deliberate fashion, and he's always in his stance ready to throw again. He's never in a position where his legs are slightly too close together and has to awkwardly adjust, he simply gets it done.
All too often I see strikers throw a kick, they could land it but then they do nothing with it. They just fall back into their stance and wait for their next opportunity, as opposed to immediately landing a jab after recalling their leg. As a result their opponent immediately advances and gives them more trouble.
Strikers will get so caught up in drilled combinations like "1-2-3, Low kick" that they forget that they need to be able to flow in the fight. A kick should not just be the end of a combination, it should be able to appear mid combination or even as a lead if you're savvy enough. This keeps your opponent off kilter and you in control. If your leg gets caught and parried you should be comfortable with returning with a spinning back fist.
Tip 1 - Spar light and mix up your kicks and punches
This is probably the single best tool for developing your flow as a martial artist. When you're put into difficult situations, within a context where you can't get seriously hurt it allows to test out new techniques and develop the kind of flow that all the best fighters have.
Doing this will give you opportunities to follow kicks with punches and test out new combinations. In Thailand combinations aren't something that are hugely emphasised, flow is emphasised over combinations purely because it allows you to be ready in most situations. In the west however we do quite like our combos, and this will give you a great chance to really test them.
Tip 2 - Drill for Unfortunate Situations
What my coach does with me that has helped me to no end, is put me in the worst sort of situation and drills how to counter it. Things like a drill starting with him catching my kick and me having to bounce in order to prevent myself from getting swept as he drags me around the ring. Parrying my kick and having me come back with a spinning elbow in order to keep control of the fight Artem Levin style.
In drilling these bad situations frequently, you'll be more comfortable with them when they arrive. One of the things Thai's are famous for is their ability to kick on the counter and kick off of caught kicks. The reason their so good at counter kicking is because they drill it all the time in padwork, in sparring and in drills. In grappling it's common for a drill to start with you being mounted, being caught in a scarf hold etc, and having to escape those bad positions. Striking should be the same way.
Tip 3 - Learning to deal with aggressive opponents
If you're about to have your first fight and you've only been sparring, the aggressiveness of some opponents can catch you off guard. It's been said before that sometimes its more important to learn how to fight and brawl than it is to learn technique. While this might sound dumb it's certainly important to learn how to not freeze up and actually fight back when someone starts spamming punches at your face.
What I'd recommend over getting into gym wars is to learn specifically how to shut down aggressive opponents, which is where I get on to my third and final point about effective, controlling techniques. But before I move on, this video is probably something you should check out:
Lacking Simple, Effective, Controlling Techniques
So you're in a fight, and your opponent is coming on a little strong? What are you supposed to do? Well obviously the answer is to tell him "Fuck you, I do what I want" and not allow him to gain momentum over you. How are you supposed to do that? Fight back harder right?
That's another issue I tend to have watching less experienced strikers. Rather than trying to shut down their opponents aggression they try to match it. While it could certainly make for a more entertaining fight, and fighters are technically only there to entertain the crowd, it's better for your health if you learn to control your opponent's pace and impose your own.
My favourite types of fighters are the ones who are able to counter and then follow up with aggression. Guys like Vasyl Lomachenko, Buakaw Banchamek, Giorgio Petrosyan and many, many more, are fighters who draw the counter they're looking for, and then after they've landed that counter continue to attack to weaken their opponent, and then exit on an angle.
So what are my chosen controlling techniques? While while I certainly think that everyone should practise pivoting in sparring as much as possible I've chose to leave that out to focus on some techniques that are a little easier for you to start with.
Tip 1 - Baits 'n' Feints
There is no better way to control your opponent than by challenging his perception of the fight. Making your opponent think that you're going to attack, when you're not, and that you're open, when you're not is the single best thing you can do to put pressure on your opponent without having to get suckered into a brawl.
In this gif, you'll notice that before Lomachenko lands that wicked left straight his right hand drops. This is a very subtle bait that you'd probably miss watching the fight, but a trained opponent immediately jumps on. His opponent and full time Nate Diaz lookalike, Martinez, sees the opening for the jab and takes it like any fighter would. As the jab leaves Vasyl's right glove is immediately up, blocks the incoming jab and the left straight comes.
So Lomachenko is just a great counter puncher right? Well, no because whenever he's not doing that he's doing something like this:
Constantly feinting high and low punches really makes it hard for Martinez to know what's coming. This allows him to attack with impunity. It's not just punches though, Andy Ristie fakes knee strikes and uses them as a method to change stance. Here he was able to knock out, arguably the greatest kickboxer of all time (who was winning on points at the time) just via confusing him with feints and overloading his computer.
Tip 2 - Jabs 'n' Teeps
The great thing about muay thai and kickboxing is that its completely okay to push an opponent. Which is why it's a pretty good idea to push your opponent when he tries to bumrush you. Developing a great push kick and getting good at feinting it to throw punches, elbows and round kicks is a great way to stop your opponent from doing pretty much anything.
The teep is by far the most underused strike outside of Thailand. It's fast, its effective and is great at knocking people over mid kick. If every time you spar you make sure to throw lots of teeps whenever your opponent tries to do something you don't like, you'll get great at dictating the pace of the fight. Fake a teep, then teep them anyway, fake a teep and then hit them with something else, teep when they advance, throw rear teeps to force them back on the ropes, teep them in their dumb fucking face, your teep should be as versatile as your jab. In fact, mix your teep and your jab together and you can attack your opponent's centerline for days.
And of course in talking of flow, it's important to make sure that like when you catch a kick, you do your best buakaw impression and actually follow up with something after the teep assuming you didn't knock them down.
Not to mention you can mix your teep in with a front snap kick which is very similar, but with a trajectory different enough that you can really catch someone off guard and make them hurt.
And of course it's important to make sure that your jab is, as the kids say, 'on fleek'. Being able to feint a jab and then come in with a more powerful power jab is great, but knowing many variations on the jab is even better. This is where watching a guy like GSP, or Miguel Cotto comes in handy as they're both fighters with a jab that can be... pretty much whatever they need it to be.
For more information on jab variations I'd strongly recommend the sherdog sticky "The Magical Jabs" put together by @Sinister because it explains the variants of jabs with a lot of detail. I'd recommend you have at least three variants on the jab in your arsenal, a good power jab, a step-then-jab (in which you step before the jab and cause your opponent to react before it's even arrived) and a quick flicking jab to set up your strikes and gauge distance.
Tip 3 - Hitting Moving Backwards
While I'm sure many are sick of hearing about him, Jean Claude Van Damme was damn right on the money about Conor McGregor when he pointed out just how good McGoat is on the back foot. While never a great offensive striker going forwards, he has made a career off of the best back step counter outside of boxing.
Learning to strike while moving backwards is one of the most beneficial things you can learn as a striker. To be able to step backwards and still be able to throw kicks will make you very hard to deal with (as the standard method for dealing with a kicker is to back them up) and I'd strongly recommend the video from earlier in the post on refining your technique.
Punching going backwards is thankfully a little easier, although mastering a back step counter is going to take a lot of light sparring and pad work to get right.
Notice that McGregor isn't exactly punching while walking backwards so much as he moves backwards for long enough that you think he's going to continue to do so and then lands the counter shot.
Tip 4 - Intercepting Elbows and Knees
If ever there was a better way to control aggression it's through counter elbows. Now of course depending on the rules you're fighting under these may not be available to you, but that's no reason not to train them. If there is a better way of stopping an opponent advancing on you than to hit them in the face with a large slab of bone, that doesn't involve use of a firearm then I'm not aware of it.
The old uppercut elbow is a classic move that is a staple of traditional muay thai. While it doesn't score unless it visibly hurts the opponent, it almost always does some underlying damage. It's all in the timing and is simple enough to do, all you need to is raise your elbow and that alone will hurt, and because your opponent will run head first into it it will do even more. Paul Felder recently got a knock out over Alessandro Ricci with one.
If you're not allowed to use elbows then there's no reason to panic, intercepting knees are just as good.
Over all this is probably a lot to take in, and it would be silly to try to learn all this at once. But in my experience these are the techniques that make the elite the elite. The ability to dictate the pace of the fight and bring a level of technicality to their striking beyond just hitting for hittings sake.
So my advice? Find something here that you think you need to work on and work at it for a good solid month until you're happy with it and then move onto the next technique and before long you'll be laughing. No one becomes an elite striker over night, and most of us probably won't get there, but that's no reason to try.
If you managed to get to the end of this long ass post then well done, you're a far braver man than I. I hope it's been informative and in a few weeks I'll probably crack on with making and indepth post about the clinch!
Thanks again!
In writing this post, I'm assuming a few things about the reader:
1) You're competing or thinking of competing
2) You don't compete at a high level
3) You want to become a high level striker
4) You don't already make use of these techniques
So in that sense, this post might not be the most useful for everyone, nevertheless I wanted to write the sort of post that I wish I'd read when I first started training, I've never fought professionally, but I've come up with this piece based on the problems that I've had developing as a martial artist and watching others. It's a long post, and it's very detailed but it's free. So hopefully this will be good for you:
Winning Your Fight
When I look at the people I train with, I tend to notice a very specific pattern in the way they strikes. Generally people who compete at the lower levels seem to treat each technique as its own thing, and don't put these techniques into the greater concept of a fight.
So quite often a muay thai smoker can end up looking either like two robots fighting, or two people banging away at each other but without any real grace or technique.
I most commonly see these three crucial problems with strikers:
1) Their technique is sloppy
2) They lack flow
3) They lack simple, effective, controlling techniques
First let's talk about:
Sloppy Technique
Ever look at a local 'championship' muay thai bought and wonder why the two fighters look so messy? Well it's partly a strategy thing but its also because they lack particularly clean technique. While guys like Liam Harrison and John Wayne Parr have very clean technique, it's far more often that you'll see professional fighters who don't exactly look pro.
I haven't got much of a comment, I just thought it was a fairly nice sweep
Take this fight for example. Now I'm not saying either of these guys are bad fighters, they'd kick my arse any day of the week, but I'm sure you can watch and see that it's pretty scrappy lookings and the kicks often look particularly janky.
A lot of the time in this fight you'll see that the timing is off, and strikes are delivered awkwardly, a kick sort of glances off the opponent and then weirdly comes back to the body. This is what I mean by sloppy technique, while you can certainly win a fight with it, everyone wants to have Thai level technique and the only way you can avoid it is by trying to perform better than this.
So what are my tips?
Tip 1 - Practise striking form
I know, it sounds obvious but there is a lot more to punching and kicking than you'll initially be taught. I've lost count the amount of time I've seen even pretty good fighters flare their elbows out before they punch, telegraphing it to the world, and they don't sit down on that punch either meaning that they lose a lot of the stopping power they could have had with it.
Something I can't emphasise enough is training every day. Now I don't mean you have to be in the gym every day, but you should certainly be shadowboxing in front a mirror on the regular, not only that but you should be recording yourself as much as possible so that you can see what you look like from the side.
Focus on the smaller details of the strike, keeping the elbow pointing down on your rear straight, making sure that you're transferring weight correctly, and if you're unsure as to what that means be sure to look it up. It's very important that you understand the positioning of your body itself as opposed to focussing on the arm. For an example of excellent balance and positioning look at Sergey Kovalev:
He frequently pivots and is always circling, but most importantly even though those punches are coming straight out he's not leaning into them. A rather high profile example of someone who leans way forward with every punch is Conor McGregor:
Regardless of whether he is in a fight with a tall opponent, a short opponent or just training, McGregor throws a beautiful straight, elbow pointed down, no wasted movement... at least in the arm, however he brings his head well past his hips a lot, something that has gotten him into trouble before and will again in future.
Kicks can be trickier to get the form down on but what you really want to make sure you have down is the hip turnover and the correct angle, and making sure you do it as efficiently as possible. It's important to practise marching with kicks and kicking going backwards with the correct footwork.
When you're able to do this fluidly you'll be able to attack on the front or back foot with ease (although I'm going to touch more on that later).
Tip 2 - Practise Recall
Just as important as it is to throw a strike with no telegraph, it's crucial that you recall your strike in a way that either gets you back into your stance or into superior defensive position. The two mistakes I see most often are hands dropping after throwing a punch, and legs just flopping down after throwing a kick. I not only see these in beginners but even in experienced fighters in my local regional circuit.
Which is again why a mirror is so important. You need to set aside a little bit of time to ensuring that your hands are always coming back by your face, unless you enjoy the idea of getting countered. It sounds obvious enough but even as the person writing this, I make this mistake all the time and have to make sure I pay a lot of attention to getting it right.
When it comes to controlling kicks good recall is crucial, which is why I've made use of of Sakmongkol's floating check. Which is demonstrated in numerous 8limbs videos.
Not only will it protect you from your opponent's kick (although using it too often could get you swept if you're against someone particularly good) but drilling this technique makes you think about bringing your leg back, which is something that most people don't do. The kick isn't over once it makes contact, you need to get your leg back safely.
Sakmongkol recalls his kick in a very deliberate fashion, and he's always in his stance ready to throw again. He's never in a position where his legs are slightly too close together and has to awkwardly adjust, he simply gets it done.
Lacking Flow
In the intro to this post I talked about strikers treating each strike as though it exists on its own as opposed to part of something more complex. I attribute this lack of flow, to the lack of light sparring in most western camps. When you're constantly hard sparring you're getting hurt and you don't get much of a chance to develop flowing technique.All too often I see strikers throw a kick, they could land it but then they do nothing with it. They just fall back into their stance and wait for their next opportunity, as opposed to immediately landing a jab after recalling their leg. As a result their opponent immediately advances and gives them more trouble.
Strikers will get so caught up in drilled combinations like "1-2-3, Low kick" that they forget that they need to be able to flow in the fight. A kick should not just be the end of a combination, it should be able to appear mid combination or even as a lead if you're savvy enough. This keeps your opponent off kilter and you in control. If your leg gets caught and parried you should be comfortable with returning with a spinning back fist.
Tip 1 - Spar light and mix up your kicks and punches
This is probably the single best tool for developing your flow as a martial artist. When you're put into difficult situations, within a context where you can't get seriously hurt it allows to test out new techniques and develop the kind of flow that all the best fighters have.
Doing this will give you opportunities to follow kicks with punches and test out new combinations. In Thailand combinations aren't something that are hugely emphasised, flow is emphasised over combinations purely because it allows you to be ready in most situations. In the west however we do quite like our combos, and this will give you a great chance to really test them.
Tip 2 - Drill for Unfortunate Situations
What my coach does with me that has helped me to no end, is put me in the worst sort of situation and drills how to counter it. Things like a drill starting with him catching my kick and me having to bounce in order to prevent myself from getting swept as he drags me around the ring. Parrying my kick and having me come back with a spinning elbow in order to keep control of the fight Artem Levin style.
In drilling these bad situations frequently, you'll be more comfortable with them when they arrive. One of the things Thai's are famous for is their ability to kick on the counter and kick off of caught kicks. The reason their so good at counter kicking is because they drill it all the time in padwork, in sparring and in drills. In grappling it's common for a drill to start with you being mounted, being caught in a scarf hold etc, and having to escape those bad positions. Striking should be the same way.
Tip 3 - Learning to deal with aggressive opponents
If you're about to have your first fight and you've only been sparring, the aggressiveness of some opponents can catch you off guard. It's been said before that sometimes its more important to learn how to fight and brawl than it is to learn technique. While this might sound dumb it's certainly important to learn how to not freeze up and actually fight back when someone starts spamming punches at your face.
What I'd recommend over getting into gym wars is to learn specifically how to shut down aggressive opponents, which is where I get on to my third and final point about effective, controlling techniques. But before I move on, this video is probably something you should check out:
Lacking Simple, Effective, Controlling Techniques
So you're in a fight, and your opponent is coming on a little strong? What are you supposed to do? Well obviously the answer is to tell him "Fuck you, I do what I want" and not allow him to gain momentum over you. How are you supposed to do that? Fight back harder right?
That's another issue I tend to have watching less experienced strikers. Rather than trying to shut down their opponents aggression they try to match it. While it could certainly make for a more entertaining fight, and fighters are technically only there to entertain the crowd, it's better for your health if you learn to control your opponent's pace and impose your own.
My favourite types of fighters are the ones who are able to counter and then follow up with aggression. Guys like Vasyl Lomachenko, Buakaw Banchamek, Giorgio Petrosyan and many, many more, are fighters who draw the counter they're looking for, and then after they've landed that counter continue to attack to weaken their opponent, and then exit on an angle.
So what are my chosen controlling techniques? While while I certainly think that everyone should practise pivoting in sparring as much as possible I've chose to leave that out to focus on some techniques that are a little easier for you to start with.
Tip 1 - Baits 'n' Feints
There is no better way to control your opponent than by challenging his perception of the fight. Making your opponent think that you're going to attack, when you're not, and that you're open, when you're not is the single best thing you can do to put pressure on your opponent without having to get suckered into a brawl.
In this gif, you'll notice that before Lomachenko lands that wicked left straight his right hand drops. This is a very subtle bait that you'd probably miss watching the fight, but a trained opponent immediately jumps on. His opponent and full time Nate Diaz lookalike, Martinez, sees the opening for the jab and takes it like any fighter would. As the jab leaves Vasyl's right glove is immediately up, blocks the incoming jab and the left straight comes.
So Lomachenko is just a great counter puncher right? Well, no because whenever he's not doing that he's doing something like this:
Constantly feinting high and low punches really makes it hard for Martinez to know what's coming. This allows him to attack with impunity. It's not just punches though, Andy Ristie fakes knee strikes and uses them as a method to change stance. Here he was able to knock out, arguably the greatest kickboxer of all time (who was winning on points at the time) just via confusing him with feints and overloading his computer.
The great thing about muay thai and kickboxing is that its completely okay to push an opponent. Which is why it's a pretty good idea to push your opponent when he tries to bumrush you. Developing a great push kick and getting good at feinting it to throw punches, elbows and round kicks is a great way to stop your opponent from doing pretty much anything.
The teep is by far the most underused strike outside of Thailand. It's fast, its effective and is great at knocking people over mid kick. If every time you spar you make sure to throw lots of teeps whenever your opponent tries to do something you don't like, you'll get great at dictating the pace of the fight. Fake a teep, then teep them anyway, fake a teep and then hit them with something else, teep when they advance, throw rear teeps to force them back on the ropes, teep them in their dumb fucking face, your teep should be as versatile as your jab. In fact, mix your teep and your jab together and you can attack your opponent's centerline for days.
And of course in talking of flow, it's important to make sure that like when you catch a kick, you do your best buakaw impression and actually follow up with something after the teep assuming you didn't knock them down.
Not to mention you can mix your teep in with a front snap kick which is very similar, but with a trajectory different enough that you can really catch someone off guard and make them hurt.
And of course it's important to make sure that your jab is, as the kids say, 'on fleek'. Being able to feint a jab and then come in with a more powerful power jab is great, but knowing many variations on the jab is even better. This is where watching a guy like GSP, or Miguel Cotto comes in handy as they're both fighters with a jab that can be... pretty much whatever they need it to be.
For more information on jab variations I'd strongly recommend the sherdog sticky "The Magical Jabs" put together by @Sinister because it explains the variants of jabs with a lot of detail. I'd recommend you have at least three variants on the jab in your arsenal, a good power jab, a step-then-jab (in which you step before the jab and cause your opponent to react before it's even arrived) and a quick flicking jab to set up your strikes and gauge distance.
Tip 3 - Hitting Moving Backwards
While I'm sure many are sick of hearing about him, Jean Claude Van Damme was damn right on the money about Conor McGregor when he pointed out just how good McGoat is on the back foot. While never a great offensive striker going forwards, he has made a career off of the best back step counter outside of boxing.
Learning to strike while moving backwards is one of the most beneficial things you can learn as a striker. To be able to step backwards and still be able to throw kicks will make you very hard to deal with (as the standard method for dealing with a kicker is to back them up) and I'd strongly recommend the video from earlier in the post on refining your technique.
Punching going backwards is thankfully a little easier, although mastering a back step counter is going to take a lot of light sparring and pad work to get right.
Notice that McGregor isn't exactly punching while walking backwards so much as he moves backwards for long enough that you think he's going to continue to do so and then lands the counter shot.
Tip 4 - Intercepting Elbows and Knees
If ever there was a better way to control aggression it's through counter elbows. Now of course depending on the rules you're fighting under these may not be available to you, but that's no reason not to train them. If there is a better way of stopping an opponent advancing on you than to hit them in the face with a large slab of bone, that doesn't involve use of a firearm then I'm not aware of it.
The old uppercut elbow is a classic move that is a staple of traditional muay thai. While it doesn't score unless it visibly hurts the opponent, it almost always does some underlying damage. It's all in the timing and is simple enough to do, all you need to is raise your elbow and that alone will hurt, and because your opponent will run head first into it it will do even more. Paul Felder recently got a knock out over Alessandro Ricci with one.
If you're not allowed to use elbows then there's no reason to panic, intercepting knees are just as good.
So my advice? Find something here that you think you need to work on and work at it for a good solid month until you're happy with it and then move onto the next technique and before long you'll be laughing. No one becomes an elite striker over night, and most of us probably won't get there, but that's no reason to try.
If you managed to get to the end of this long ass post then well done, you're a far braver man than I. I hope it's been informative and in a few weeks I'll probably crack on with making and indepth post about the clinch!
Thanks again!
