Muay Thai Technique

[phengeng]

Hey guys, i posted a vid afew weeks back of some of my lead left roundhouses and got alot of good feedback on my technique and have tried my best to learn from it. Anyways, i've got another vid of me training various punching and kicking techniques. my stance is orthodox btw. I haven't been training long so i'm still in the learning process. I visit these forums frequently and most of you guys seem to kno wat ur talkin about so since i learnt afew things last time, i figured i'd ask for some more advice. Anything i can do to further improve my technique?
I'm trying to learn muay thai and will start to go to classes soon, but i'm just wondering with muay thai and boxing, is there alot of difference in the punching techniques? I'm not sure which im doing. thanks

Also i know that i tend to drop my guard when i kick so i gotta work on keeping it up higher, but i think some drop of the guard is necessary to get the leverage and i tend to telegraph abit too so also gotta work on my explosiveness.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z6Xuq1D8G3Y

 

[sweepsubmit]

I'm not expert but from what i saw, when you come in for a combo it seems like you flick your punches a little too much instead of planting and getting power and accuracy behind them. On the kicks, both of your hands drop a lot of the time. Overall though you seem pretty good. How long have you been training? Hope that helped a little.

 

[RandomXMAN]

I've seen worse, the one thing I see that you REALY, REALY need to work on is your hooks.

 

[R. Flagg]

I'm no expert either, but I think you look pretty good for a beginner.
One thing I noticed is that you do a lot of habitual foot movement patterns and toe-tapping before punching and kicking, especially before your roundhouse kicks (tap-tap-tap-kick, tap-tap-tap-kick). I'd recommend practicing making your punches and kicks less telegraphed-- avoid the pre-strike movement patterns and vary the intervals between strikes. I know this wasn't your focus when taping your video, but a good thing to keep in mind.

 

[phengeng]

well i used to to taekwondo like when i was 10 for like a year and then i started muay thai training at home 2-3 months ago. My brother taught me most of what i know since his had some training and is pretty good imo. He trained with an instructor named Nick Kara who actually played "Big Bear" from Ong Bak.

His 24 and i'm 18 atm, my main goal is to destroy him. We're both around the same height, 5'7 (175cm) but he weighs 77kg and i'm only like 64kg atm. I'm starting a weight gain diet so i can atleast hit the 72kg mark and get more power and hopefully do some damage.

Thanks for the tips.

I appreciate u telling me to work on my hooks XMAN, but what was wrong with them?
I know the the main factor is the rotation, the pivot in the hips. I kno they say arms should be like parallel to the ground.

The habitual patterns is probably because i like to keep or rhythm or something, like when listening to music.

When i spar i obviously try to be unpredictable, feints, explosiveness, moving around my opponent, all that good stuff.

 

[Centaur]

Not too bad man

My advice, for what it's worth.

-Keep your chin tucked in when throwing punches. This is a good habit to get into, esp. when first starting. I didn't and it's taken me forever to correct.

-Round kicks look good, but if you're going to take that much time between, maybe use the time to work on your footwork

I did notice your pivoted when throwing hooks, which lots of new people don't do, and you brought your gloves right back to protect, so thats good.

Anyhow man, keep it up, you look like your on the right track. Start the classes yesterday though, no point on practicing things without an expert to point out any weaknesses.

Train Hard!

 

[Braderlei]

yeah like the guy above said, good job pivoting on the hooks. a few things i noticed

-your hooks need some work, you just need to slow it down and practice keeping your elbows up. you'll kinda want to keep your arms parallel to the floor when throwing hooks, if you can visualize that.

-try to throw every punch like you mean it. some of your punches were just kinda half assed so why even waste the energy?

-on the kicks, like the guy above said try not to do all the crazy toe tapping and leg raising before you kick. i used to do that, i think cause it made me get all psyched and ready to throw a kick i dunno. kinda like when you are about to do a trick on a skateboard you kinda shuffle your feet and rub your toe on the back of the tail. youll get caught telegraphing like mad if you continue to do that

other than that you don't look too bad for a beginner. just keep paying attention when you go to class and just give 100% on everything. especially when its time to do pad holding rounds 1 on 1 with your instructor

 

[ziggity]

i pinpointed a few things while watching, phengeng.

Jab: in the video, every time you put the jab out there, your right hand drops a few inches, like you're loading it up for the 1-2. when you jab, your rear hand (in your case your right hand) should mate with the side of your face, so it's right there in case you have to block a cross or hook. fire your cross from the face to avoid telegraphing.

Roundkicks: when you kick, you start moving your hands for leverage before the kick is in the air. try to explosively start swinging the leg, turning the hip, and let your hands crank during the movement, not beforehand.

Hooks: good to see that you're taking it slow, going for form over speed or power. thing is, you'll never get away with dropping your hands away for the hook, unless you can do it extremely quickly. professional boxers are faster than the lot of us, but they usually don't get away with telegraphing either. when you're going to throw, quickly turn your elbow out parallel to the ground, and drag the hook through with your foot pivot, your hip rotation, and your shoulder turned into it. don't swing it like a club (maybe later, when you're george foreman), but rather, fire off a hard rotation of your body, and let the hook be the bullet. King Kabuki posted a video of Tyson training in the training of the pros thread, and you can see tyson unloading tight but extremely hard hooks on the bag. that comes from perfect rotation, so i'm told.

 

[Max Shane]

I wish I had your setup at my house.

 

[Rudy Richter]

Hey guys, i posted a vid afew weeks back of some of my lead left roundhouses and got alot of good feedback on my technique and have tried my best to learn from it. Anyways, i've got another vid of me training various punching and kicking techniques. my stance is orthodox btw. I haven't been training long so i'm still in the learning process. I visit these forums frequently and most of you guys seem to kno wat ur talkin about so since i learnt afew things last time, i figured i'd ask for some more advice. Anything i can do to further improve my technique?
I'm trying to learn muay thai and will start to go to classes soon, but i'm just wondering with muay thai and boxing, is there alot of difference in the punching techniques? I'm not sure which im doing. thanks

Also i know that i tend to drop my guard when i kick so i gotta work on keeping it up higher, but i think some drop of the guard is necessary to get the leverage and i tend to telegraph abit too so also gotta work on my explosiveness.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z6Xuq1D8G3Y

Not bad for self taught..... here are some things I would however change/work on. Remember though that there are usually more than one way to do things properly and in the end it has to work for you.

1) Raise your rear heal!!!! Your jab and cross lack hip and shoulder movement because you have the rear heal on the ground. Some pros get away with this because they raise the heal right before they punch. For most beginners this will turn their punches into arm punches.

2) Fire the jab and cross from the guard position/chin instead of readjusting(dropping hands) and then punching. This should happen more easily again, once you raise the rear heal. You can also try to rotate your fist a little as you punch because it will help you fully extend your punches and you give you more "snap". When you are done with a jab, your chin should be tucked inside your left shoulder.

3) It doesn't look to me like you have your body behind your kicks. They aren't too bad, just try to "drive" your shin "through" the target. Of course roundhouse kicks can be executed in more than one way, but I thought I would point that out just incase want to add more power.

4) Hooks: Actually your body movement is not bad because you rotate. Like others said get those elbows up! Imagine that you would nail somebody with your elbow if you missed with your fist!

 

[phengeng]

I wish I had your setup at my house.

yea i'm pretty proud of it hehe. The speedball setup isn't complete though and i have some other equipment not in the picture(floor to ceiling, chin up bar). I'm training in gymnastics too so i need abit of room which could also be used for sparring. Not that girly shit, but mostly interested in learning flips, tricking i think they call it.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, there's alot of valueble advice. With the telegraphing for the kicks, i can be more explosive it's just that when i train i don't do 100% for some reason, i just take it easy like i don't even sweat really. To go 100% i have to focus and tell myself to push myself beforehand for some reason, i think it's because i'm pretty lazy. And i live in Victoria, AUS and the temperatures have been above 30 degrees celsius lately which would be in the 90's farenheight. Is it bad to train in really high temperatures or better? Well you sweat faster obviously and i guess the guys in Thailand do it all the time but i train less because i get so drained from the heat.

Rudy Ritcher, my bro tells me to drive me shin in and follow through also. Thanks

I have a good idea of what i have to improve on now. Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

 

[jlagman]

1. You drop your hands a lot when you punch, you drop your right more than your left, the longer you combo, the worse your guard gets. Watch that guard.

2. You also still drop bothyour hands way too much when you kick; if you buy into that "throw your lead arm backwards as you throw your roundhouse" thing, then fine, but guard with the other hand.

3. Telegraphing: you noticed you telegraph your kicks, that's because you wind up your hands before you throw the kick, don't do that...it's not generating power like you think it is.

4. Footwork, don't cross over your feet when you circle or side step; use the step-drag method.

You still have a lot of work, but I am impressed how much your kicks have improved from the last time, keep it up. My suggestions are i) don't ever drop your hands below shoulder level, you're just asking for someone to floor you. ii) When you do your rear leg roundhouses, you utilize the diagonal step inwards, which is good and it generates a lot of power, but you won't always have the chance to do that. Practice the roundhouse from a relatively stationary place; open up your hips to get power.

 

[dethmetalanimal]

it looks like your kicking with your ankle, you should be using your upper shin.

 

[naantje]

I wish I had your setup at my house.

Haha, that was what i was thinking . I don't even have room for 1 heavy bag.

 

[funkgsus]

push of your left foot to go right and push right foot to move left. Try just working footwork, moving back and fourth, side to side. Moving around just staying light on your feet.

 

[phengeng]

it looks like your kicking with your ankle, you should be using your upper shin.

i'm kicking with my lower shin, i try to make sure i don't make impact with my foot, instep, ankle etc. I figured the lower part of the shin i connect with the more power it'll have because it'll have a bigger arc and therefore be travelling at a higher speed then a higher part of the shin.

 

[Marvin Covar]

your hooks are pretty good with the rotation and all but you seem to wind up before each hook. also, your hands drop when punching, this is not a habit you want to have. your kicks are alright, though it could be better if you get your hip more involved. also, the winding up of the hands before a kick is a dead give away. just my two cents.

 

[phengeng]

well when i spar, i most likely won't be throwing too many lead hooks, i'll prob do jab, cross, hook combos etc so after my cross i'm already in a good position to throw my hook without a wind up. The practice on the bags was mostly isolating each technique.

Yea, everyone been sayin the same thing with my dropping of the guard with punching and kicking so i'll work on that keeping my guard even higher. thanks

 

[UgotKTFOUT]

maybe when practiceing your kicks get into the habit of setting them up with a punch or two. get in the habit. for example if u just go into throw an outside leg kick someone with skill will eventually pick up on it and floor u with a straight right. make em flinch with punches then throw the kick. don't just throw the punches out there lazy. it might get u in bad habits. do them with technique, just start slow if u don't feel comfortable with it.

 

[Jiu-Jitsu Cop]

i'm kicking with my lower shin, i try to make sure i don't make impact with my foot, instep, ankle etc. I figured the lower part of the shin i connect with the more power it'll have because it'll have a bigger arc and therefore be travelling at a higher speed then a higher part of the shin.

Hey I am glad that you are training. I thai-boxed for 18 years and you do not want to kick with the lower part of your shin. The bone is thinner down there and sooner or later you will break it. Try to come higher up on your shin with your kicks, it may feel awkward at first but it is better.

Please take this as constructive advice only. I am happy to see people thai-boxing and you have a nice set up in your yard. If you have any questions about thai-boxing post them here or PM me. I still work out with a couple of former world champions so if I do not have the answer I will find it out for you.