Things Being Worked on in the Clinch
This is my first clinching practice in a couple of weeks and the video is just the last three or so minutes of abut 25-30 minutes of clinch at the end of training. Daeng wants me to stop focusing only on the arms and come in for the neck when I already have a position in which I can take it. I don’t have a great grip yet, so it’s a bit sketchy. I also have had pretty limited clinch training and much of that at Lanna has been with the Thai boys, most of whom throw me – a lot. So I’m a little scared of throwing knees and keeping my hips at the right distance because I’m trying to stabilize to not be thrown, but it’s a bad habit. Knees all day.
Daeng wants me to turn (Den yells at me for this all the time) and so we’re working on that. He wants me to make the step out and the knee one fluid progression, very quick. He also wants me to get my hips back and throw the knee faster, rather than hanging out to see if I’ll get pulled and then deciding whether or not to knee. You pretty much will always decide not to that way.
And he wants me to throw jumping knees, which I’m actually pretty good at when I have a good grip up top. Again, it’s apprehension due to risk of being thrown but when I land them (which is when I throw them), they’re pretty nasty.