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Hello, after i wrote my experience with Sagat in a seperated post the last weeks of my training were pretty much consumed by a minor part of the techniques learned by Sagat. This regards the positioning of the elbow within the extension of the arm when punching straight. Within the MTL there are a lot of sessions were Sylvie talks about chicken winging and that this is (was?) a problem with her punching technique. Chicken winging describes the part of the arm movement of a straight punch where the elbows flares out to side. This could mean that the tip of the elbow should always face down to the ground or have a maximum angle of 45 degree to the ground. But within my training and after reviewing my sessions with sagat i would argue that there is definitly room for lifting and rotating the elbow upwards at the very end of the arm movement. For reference i added a 3 minute cutout of my training with sagat where it is all about the straight cross and with lots of corrections. The best feeling and the most feedback (from my body and from Sagat) i got while training was when the tip of my elbow "looked to the side" and not downwards. I would also say that the wrist feels more supported when the driving force at the very end of the movement comes from the elbow. You can even try this with overrotating the fist like Chatchai Sasakul. The moment the thumb turns downward the elbow automatically rotates and points to the side. What are your thoughts on the positioning of the elbow? For my part i never thought much about it until this year. sagat.mp4

Well he picked me up at the Sports Authority of Thailand and we went to Jaroenthong Muaythai Gym/Pracha Uthit Rd, Phlabphla, Wang Thonglang, Bangkok 10310, Thailand. One sessions costs 3000 Baht. If u want to contact him either just call him (if you speak thai) or try to contact him via sylvie through insta or facebook.

Hey everyone reading this, as the MTL and this forum was the initial factor of me going to train at Bangkok i want to share my experience of training with Sagat for a week and what i learned from it. First of all Sagat is a really nice person overall, He was willing to pick me up with his car and bring me to the training and also take me back afterwards every single day. He also shared several lunches with me and invited me more or less to a fight event at lumpinee stadium to show me more of muay thai. You also get a very nice feedback during training with him, depending on your technique the responds vary from critique, to good, to perfect, to uwee and of course "how feel" with a bright smile. What i learned: 1. Go straight: Sagat teaches of what i would call a traditional/old school way of everything. Most of the basic strikes we went through were supposed to travel the minimal distance. For example the kick is supposed to angle at about 45 degree and go straight up like a soccer/football kick, returning the foot by going directly back. Thus the hip snaps more, so you dont fully close the hip(if that makes sense). Also you dont turn in the shin on the last second like in "the golden kick", he corrected this many times as i was very confused with this. 2. Acceleration at the end of strikes: With punches and elbows there was big emphasise on accelerating "after" the hip and body rotation or even more so at the end of the upper body rotation. This way you can go through the target more easily (like when somebody tells you to hit behind the bag). 3. Straight punches: Sagat teaches to throw without turning the fist. Instead you lift the elbow at the end of the arm movement, so that your elbow (not the upper arm) ist positioned behind your fist, this way you get the "snap" in the punch or at least i feel this way. You also come in on a little angle with the fist, instead of coming pinpoint straight. Thinking about it i believe all of his punches work with the "elbow behind the fist". This way the wrist, the elbow joint and the fist feel more supported and the forearm comes as a whole. 4. Stepping in on strike and afterwards step out: I was supposed to step on every punch with the weight mostly on the front leg. I tried on different ocassions to switch my weight back and forth (like in the chatchai sasakul sessions) but i was corrected about it, because i couldnt get back fast enough this way. He also tried to teach me to breath in deeply before stepping in, so that you have enough energy to throw your strikes. I hope somebody finds this in any form useful.

What a refreshing exchange in terms of a conversation about combat sports. When i was in my twenties and in my training peaks i always thought about the concepts of self control versus the concept of raw emotion and what is more human. Really interesting how concepts of life influence combat sports. You could also argue that abstract in general it is about the journey (the fight itself) and not about the destination (the KO/decision), which is of course a very common phrase.

If you need any input in terms of getting a better gas tank: For me personally i was able to take away a lot from "Ultimate MMA Conditioning from Joel Jamieson" and some training programm from the website "sweetscienceoffighting" based on that book. To sum it up. If you feel lacking in terms of cardio you can try to do 3 standalone (starting with 30mins) cardio sessions a week. The important part here would be to keep your heart rate between 130-150 bpm (meaning you can breath relaxed through your nose).

Thanks for your thoughts. To connect the practical terms with the scoring of the ruleset didnt even come to my mind, very good point. I thought more about if it works without the clinch(lock) in terms of damage, kind of simple minded here.

The illustration is just pure gold from a technical viewpoint, thank you very much!

Hey everyone, i want to build up my knee striking from 0, after i saw the vicious variation esp. from dieselnoi in the library. So the last few weeks i tried to imagine how effective/realistic the "dieselnoi knee" is under different kickboxing rulesets, where you can´t clinch the opponent. Any thoughts on that? From my perspective the knees feel very short (compared to a "spear-knee") and iam 1,96m/6,4ft tall boxing from southpaw stance. So in my world every strike is kind of long... Greetings from Germany

How about a session about the early grind of the young fighters? In many sessions it is said that there is heavy grind in the early years of training, for example the session with Singdam Kiatmoo9, which leads to a solid foundation in most of the future fighters.

There are of course lots of ways to become faster with your kicking. But first of all you need to polish the general techinque of your kicks (step-in, hip rotation, arm swing, retracting the leg). Afterwards you can start with adding resistance to your kicks in both ways, so that not only your kick lands fast, but that you can retract your leg fast