Clinch
For the past maybe six fights Den has been yelling at me for turning sideways in the clinch. I don’t know where that came from, but it’s in there and I do it without thinking so it’s hard to stop doing it without thinking. But I haven’t done it in the past two fights, which is good. So now he’s working with me on getting my arms inside instead of reaching around over and outside my opponent, grappling for the head. In the US and especially watching the UFC you’ll hear Joe Rogan calling everything “the Thai clinch” when they go behind the neck or at the head, but Thais don’t really clinch like that very much – it’s arm control. So I’m working on keeping my elbows in, like T-Rex, and guarding from the opponent getting around my body while casting my hips back to land straight knees. It’s coming along, but clinch is an art form within an art form so there’s always still a long way to go – that’s a good thing though. (You can see a sample of him working with me in the video above.)
Boxing
I landed my hands a lot more in my last fight for one reason: I let my hands go more in my last fight. I was throwing double rights, double jabs, long jabs, some hooks… good start. When I spar with Neung I’m pretty comfortable throwing combinations and then when I get to the ring and legs are brought into the mix it’s harder to do, but it’s starting – the seed is sprouting. The boxing has helped so far so it will absolutely help more as I continue with it. I need to get my legs into the punches more without fully adopting the boxer’s crouch, which isn’t conducive to Muay Thai – but everything coming from the hips is universal and it’s how I learned from Master K, so it’s there already it just has to be brought to the fore. (A sample round of pad work with Neung from today who has been teaching me boxing in extra sessions is above.)
