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Clinch Video Resources in the Muay Thai Library and Beyond

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
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Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu Fellow Traveler

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

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Clinch is one of the hardest things to learn, both in and out of Thailand. In Thailand it's hard because it often doesn't involve lots of instruction. You get thrown in the water in long clinch sessions and you learn by experience and by watching. Outside of Thailand it can be even more difficult because you generally are not surrounded by high level clinch technique, so its hard to improve from basics. In any case the Muay Thai Library project can help because in many of the sessions a great variety of clinch techniques are shown. Just watching the videos can give you idea for positions or principles to try in your own training, and break you out of whatever you are already practicing. One of the best things about clinch in Thailand is how varied it is.

Clinch in the Muay Thai Library

You can find all the clinch-oriented sessions of the Muay Thai Library, or sessions that have some substantive clinch (you may have to skip around in the session), in this tag. Just scroll down and you'll find over 30 documented hours. What you'll see is that there is so much to learn from Thailand's clinch that isn't usually taught. You are learning from legends of the sport, and from great krus, and seeing how clinch fits together with various Muay Thai fighting styles. This kind of documentation is incredibly valuable: 

Clinch in the Muay Thai Library

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Muay Thai Clinch Playlist

Also, I've made a YouTube Playlist of all the (free, public) videos covering clinch that I've done over the years. There are over 50 videos there that anyone can browse and learn from: watch the playlist here

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watch the clinch playlist here

 

Muay Thai Clinch Basics

 

If you are just starting out, or are experienced and would like to review basics, the above 1 hour seminar is my version of an introduction to clinch, from what I've learned, given to the team out of the SMAC gym. People really love it, and its free for everyone. 

 

Going beyond clinch

You might also like to study my technique vlogs in the Library. Below is a list of those published up to this point in time. They share thoughts about techniques that I've learned from the Library itself, as I filmed it, and which I work on as a fighter. They can give ideas on how to approach techniques, aside from just trying to copy them:

All my Technique Vlogs for Patrons

If you enjoyed this technique vlog check out my other Patron-only technique vlogs:

#21 Your Ambient Footwork (15 min) 

#20 Jang-wa, Rhythm and Timing (15 min)

#19  Training Ruup & Composure  (13 min)

#18   Closing the Door in Long Guar (11 min) 

#17  Static Block for Balance (9 min)

#16 The Diamond Guard (20 min)

#15 Mental Gym, Beginning to Advanced Visualization (19 min)

#14 Getting the Right Hand In (13 min)

#13 Rising on Techniques (6 min)

#12 Control of the Kick (6 min)

#11 Body Position First (11 min)

#10 All About How I Recover (12 min)

#9 Creating Power and Distance At Close Range (9 min)

#8 Where Are Your Feet? Foot Position (9 min)

#7 Evolving in the Long Guard (10 min)  

#6 The Power of Eye Contact (10 min) 

#5 Dieselnoi's Lowkick in the Clinch (12 min) 

#4 Air Knees in the Corner (8 min) 

#3 Acceleration at the End of Strikes (10 min)

#2 The Kem Pivot (12 min) 

#1 Dealing With Fear, How to Cut it Out (13 min)

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    • Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
      Entertainment Muay Thai isn't really like Warfare at all

      By Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu · Posted

      Speculatively, it seems likely that the real "warfare roots" of ring Muay Thai goes back to all the downtime during siege encampment, (and peacetime) Ayutthaya's across the river outer quarters. One of the earliest historical accounts of Siamese ring fighting is of the "Tiger King" disguising himself and participating in plebeian ring fighting. This is not "warfare fighting" and goes back several hundred years. One can imagine that such fighting would share some fighting principles with what occurred on the battlefield, but as it was unarmed and likely a gambling driven sport it - at least to me - likely seems like it has had its very own lineage of development. Less was the case that people were bringing battlefield lessons into the ring, and more that gambled on fighting skills developed ring-to-ring. In such cases of course, developing balance and defensive prowess would be important.  Incidentally, any such Ayutthaya ring-to-ring developments hold the historical potential for lots of cross-pollination from other fighting arts, as Ayutthaya maintained huge mercenary forces, not only from Malaysia and the cusp of islands, but even an entire Japanese quarter, not to mention a strong commercially minded Chinese presence. These may have been years of truly "mixing" fighting arts in the gambling rings of the city (it is unknown just how separatist each culture was in this melting pot, perhaps each kept to their own in ring fighting).
    • Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
      Entertainment Muay Thai isn't really like Warfare at all

      By Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu · Posted

      For anyone who follows my writings I do not argue for any sense of a "pure" Muay Thai, or even Siamese fighting art history. Quite different than such I take one of Siam and Thai strengths is just how integrative they have been over centuries of development (while, importantly, preserving its core identity). For instance Western Boxing has had a powerful influence upon the form and development of Muay Thai for well over 100 years, and helped make it perhaps the premiere ring fighting art in the world, but Western Boxing itself was a very deep, complexly developed art which mapped quite well upon traditional Muay Thai in many areas, allowing it to flourish. This is quite different than the de-skilling that is happening in the sport right now, where instead the sport is being turned towards a less-skilled development, for really commercial reasons.  The story of whether the influx of attention, branding, not to mention the very important monetary investment that Entertainment Muay Thai has brought will actually help "save" traditional Muay Thai is yet to be written. It very well might, as the sport was reaching some important demographic and cultural dead-ends, and it needed an infusion. But, let's not have it be lost, what itself is being lost, which is the actual very high level of skill Thailand had produced...and how it had developed it. Let's keep our eye on the de-skilling.
    • Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
      Entertainment Muay Thai isn't really like Warfare at all

      By Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu · Posted

      One of the more slippery aspects of this change is that in its more extreme versions Entertainment Muay Thai was a redesign to actually produce Western (and other non-Thai) winners. It involved de-skilling the Thai sport simply because Thais were just too good at the more complex things. Yes, it was meant to appeal to International eyes, both in the crowd (tourist shows) and on streams, but the satisfying international element was actually Western (often White) winners of fights, and ultimately championship belts. The de-skilling of the sport and art was about tipping the playing field hard (involving also weigh-in changes that would favor larger bodied international fighters). Thais had to learn - and still have to learn - how to fight like the less skilled Westerners (and others). In some sense its a crazy, upside-down presentation of foreign "superiority", yes driven by hyper Capitalism and digital entertainment, but also one which harkens back to Colonialism where the Western power teaches the "native" "how its really done", and is assumed to just be superior in Nature. The point of fact is that Thais have been arguably the best combat sport fighters in the world over the last 50 years, and it is not without irony that the form of their skill degradation is sometimes framed as a return to Siam/Thai warfare roots. It's not. Its a simplification of ring fighting for the purpose of international appeal. 

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