How do you throw your long knees?

[Hatake88]

Hey everyone

Just curious, but how do you throw your long knees (ie the knee you throw when coming in - not while you are in the clinch)?

I have always thrown them by stepping straight forward, leaning back and having my knee slightly turned inward.

Got told tonight by a teammate that I am doing it completely wrong.That I should step forward but also pivot the supporting leg, that I should be aiming to pull myself up rather than lean back and my knee should be really tucked in and that leg should be pointing straight down.

Anyone have any pointers? Also he told me it is the outside area of the knee cap that should land. Any thoughts on how to do that?

Tagging @Frode Falch , @shincheckin and @AndyMaBobs in advance for that sage advice

 

[shincheckin]

The way that you described is how I was taught the way your friend mentioned it I do not fully understand or does not make sense. The leg pointing down? Regarding pivoting yes you can pivot in for more power but it's harder to retract it is similar to stepping through with a kick

 

[aerius]

I think your teammate is on the right track but kinda missing the big picture. A pretty common mistake that many folks make when throwing knees is lifting the leg up to knee rather than driving it through with the hips & body. This results in a weak knee that doesn't do damage rather than a powerful knee strike with lots of weight behind it.

Pivoting on the support leg and aiming to pull yourself up instead of leaning back is a way to setup your hips and posture to get more power into the knee, but it only works if you know the purpose and focus on the hip drive, weight transfer, and balance.

Lamnammoon has a nice video on how to throw the long knee. Watch his hips & his balance. When he knees, he drives his hip forward and uses the momentum of the step-in and rotation to power his knee through the target.

 

[RemyR]

Best (and most hilarious) advice I’ve been given by my instructor about that is “good strike comes from balls, hit them with your balls” in a very broken Thai accent.

Make sure you drive forward with your hips to create power, but not so much that you curve your back and put yourself off balance. You should be able to knee and teep forward and be able to bring your hips back quickly. It’s almost like a hip thrusting motion.

 

[SandisLL]

If one gets his knee impact point at first on sternum , impact most likely will not be as power/ success value like if a knee impacted point a bit under floating ribs and " lifted " a guy with a kick, when then knee connected lower part of ribs during " lifting " moment.
As this is ideal centrelined frontal middle section Hiza Geri variation.

Otherwise Thai variants still looks pretty good.

 

[AndyMaBobs]

Hey everyone

Just curious, but how do you throw your long knees (ie the knee you throw when coming in - not while you are in the clinch)?

I have always thrown them by stepping straight forward, leaning back and having my knee slightly turned inward.

Got told tonight by a teammate that I am doing it completely wrong.That I should step forward but also pivot the supporting leg, that I should be aiming to pull myself up rather than lean back and my knee should be really tucked in and that leg should be pointing straight down.

Anyone have any pointers? Also he told me it is the outside area of the knee cap that should land. Any thoughts on how to do that?

Tagging @Frode Falch , @shincheckin and @AndyMaBobs in advance for that sage advice

Knees are my main focus in Muay Thai,

You're probably not wrong. You just do it YOUR way. Everyone does their knee in their own way.

I personally knee similar to the way Lamnamoon does for my default knee, but I also found a lot of success with Dieselnoi's knee:


I also quite like a chicken wing knee. In my opinion the main thing you should focus on with any knee strike to the body, is that if you are not specifically hitting the sternum, don't aim for the six pack. The six pack is very hard and very well conditioned, what I'd recommend is aiming at the space where the oblique muscle and six pack connect, that part of the body collapses inwards when hit.

The only thing that I PERSONALLY don't advise you do is lean back on a knee, I don't mind leaning back Lamnamoon does - but not all the way back like some fighters do.The reason for this is as Yodkhunpon says, it leaves you open for elbows. Yodkhunpon is the greatest elbow fighter of all time, so I will trust his judgement.

 

[SandisLL]

The only thing that I PERSONALLY don't advise you do is lean back on a knee, I don't mind leaning back Lamnamoon does - but not all the way back like some fighters do.The reason for this is as Yodkhunpon says, it leaves you open for elbows.

Great comment.

 

[Lucas Coradini]

 

[AndyMaBobs]

Worth noting - Damon Faulkner is the head coach at London Singdayt, the same gym that Damian Alamos currently teaches at.

 

[Frode Falch]

I almost never use my right (rear) knee from the outside.

I do a step into south paw into a long left knee. I set ut up from a punch combo if i fight/spar a guy who tend to move back instead of good footwork.

I also like to do a knee from the long guard. Or from me pretending to get the clinch (like overeem vs lesnar)

 

[spinup]

I almost never use my right (rear) knee from the outside.

I do a step into south paw into a long left knee. I set ut up from a punch combo if i fight/spar a guy who tend to move back instead of good footwork.

One I really like is the same but with a switch before to feint a left roundhouse: switch, step into orthodox, long right knee.

 

[Hatake88]

The way that you described is how I was taught the way your friend mentioned it I do not fully understand or does not make sense. The leg pointing down? Regarding pivoting yes you can pivot in for more power but it's harder to retract it is similar to stepping through with a kick

Thanks for the reply. His toes were pointing straight down as opposed to pointing slightly diagonally as he didn't rotate his knee.

Out of interest, which part of the knee do you hit with for the long knee?

 

[Hatake88]

The only thing that I PERSONALLY don't advise you do is lean back on a knee, I don't mind leaning back Lamnamoon does - but not all the way back like some fighters do.The reason for this is as Yodkhunpon says, it leaves you open for elbows. Yodkhunpon is the greatest elbow fighter of all time, so I will trust his judgement.

Thanks for the help guys. The problem I'm having though with not leaning backwards is that I don't feel like I'm generating power? When you thrust your hip forwards, doesn't that send your shoulders backwards? So, when you don't let yourself lean backwards, doesn't that stop the hips from coming forwards? I try to do the C shape knee but I end up kneeing more up than in.

But then, when I do lean backwards (maybe because I'm leaning back too much) I feel like I'm too slow. Like throwing and retracting the knee and going back into stance takes too long. I also feel the way I'm doing it is not crisp - the sound that comes from the pads aren't crisp - its just a dull thud and the whole thing feels clumsy. (And no, I'm not mistaking the long knee with the knee you do on the inside either where you first lift it to a certain height then push in).

What my friend does is unconventional but he has really strong, swift knees. Any tips please?

 

[AndyMaBobs]

Thanks for the help guys. The problem I'm having though with not leaning backwards is that I don't feel like I'm generating power? When you thrust your hip forwards, doesn't that send your shoulders backwards? So, when you don't let yourself lean backwards, doesn't that stop the hips from coming forwards? I try to do the C shape knee but I end up kneeing more up than in.

But then, when I do lean backwards (maybe because I'm leaning back too much) I feel like I'm too slow. Like throwing and retracting the knee and going back into stance takes too long. I also feel the way I'm doing it is not crisp - the sound that comes from the pads aren't crisp - its just a dull thud and the whole thing feels clumsy. (And no, I'm not mistaking the long knee with the knee you do on the inside either where you first lift it to a certain height then push in).

What my friend does is unconventional but he has really strong, swift knees. Any tips please?

Put your hands on the back of your head, and as you thrust the knee, pull the back of your head forwards to make your body crunch. That should fix the issue.

Walk up and down the gym, or where-ever doing marching knees like that and it should help a lot. That's how Singdam was taught to knee.

 

[Lucas Coradini]

Keep your abs braced as you throw it. In the end the posture for throwing these knees and kicking is quite similar: Glutes in, hips out, abs flexed

 

[shincheckin]

Thanks for the reply. His toes were pointing straight down as opposed to pointing slightly diagonally as he didn't rotate his knee.

Out of interest, which part of the knee do you hit with for the long knee?

maybe I can make a video on how to knee if I get a chance.

I hit with the point of the knee............an easy way to clarify things, or an easy way of thinking is this analogy......when you bend your fingers and make a fist, you make your knuckles, and you punch with your knuckles right........well your knee is a knuckle as well (so is the elbow while were at it)........so hit with your knuckle.

Theres many different types of knees, with minor variations.....but for the long knee.......you have to lean back.......thats what makes it long. For the long knee, raise up on your toes, lean back, and pop your hip......your leg should be tight......meaning your heel should be close to your butt......if that makes sense.......think of it as perhaps making a tight fist...doing this "creates" the knuckle, and makes it pointier.

Also, regarding the angle of the knee, most people tend to throw the knee up too much, rather than out.....the trajectory of it, should be on the same angle as a plane taking off.

You dont need to pivot/rotate your foot (like a kick) but you can.......more power, but draw back is you will fall through/forward with it if you miss......if you land it, you can return to your stance. Pivoting gives you more power but I dont think I have ever used that type of knee while fighting.

The video posted on the C-shape knee is a good one, but nail the lean back before you move onto that. C-shape knee is pretty much a lean back knee, without the lean back, or very minimal lean back.

the raising on the toes, leaning back, and popping the hip for the knee, is similar to the movement of the teep in this video........one word of advice, lean back enough, but not too much, regularly leaning back to much is bad for your back.

Oh yeah, regarding kicking the leg out to the side a bit with the knee is good, but it never really worked for me, i found it difficult to do, I would just knee straight.

 

[Paradigm]

Best (and most hilarious) advice I’ve been given by my instructor about that is “good strike comes from balls, hit them with your balls” in a very broken Thai accent.

Make sure you drive forward with your hips to create power, but not so much that you curve your back and put yourself off balance. You should be able to knee and teep forward and be able to bring your hips back quickly. It’s almost like a hip thrusting motion.

Haha...I got something similar from Thais I trained under. They'd make a hip thrusting motion and say something along the lines of "like boom boom." <45>