Muay Thai Article
The Knees Of Muay Thai Are Arguably The Most Lethal Of All It's Techniques...Just Watch A Typical MMA Fight. Learn How To Defend Against Them
When you watch a muay thai fight in a western country you come across a familiar scenario in the crowd when two fighters go into a clinch. The crowd invariably starts shouting... "KNEES, KNEES!"
It's just one of those things that the crowd wants to see because when knees are flying it seems as though someone is going to get hurt soon. If you've been in the ring you know that this is usually true... even if no knees get through flush they still hurt.
Even in MMA fights when the fighters get into the clinch they either start trying to take each other down or start throwing knees. They're very dangerous.
This should be motivating you to improve your knee defense as soon as you can because you will most definitely be receiving some if you fight or even train in muay thai.
As usual I will discuss the different defensive tactics one at a time...
1 Getting out of the way - if your opponent throws a free standing knee you can step backwards or sidewards out of harms way but when you are in a clinch situation it is a little different.
You can use a side-stepping action as you feel which side the knee is coming...don't wait until you see it, it will be too late. As your opponent goes to knee, side-step in a circular fashion in the same direction as the knee is traveling.
Grab your opponents hips, torso, or head/neck to turn them in that direction also. This has the effect of neutralizing the power of the knee.
You can use this technique against a front knee as well.
2 Parrying - this tactic doesn't work in this situation. The knee is a short and powerful technique that doesn't travel very far and you haven't got the time or the strength to pull it off.
3 Shielding - using your elbows to shield against a knee will have minimal effect and you won't be able to take too many doing this. The knee is too powerful and will just slam your elbows into your ribs which hurts just the same as getting one flush.
Get your own knee up high and catch your opponents knee on your shin or knee area. An even better technique is to lay your shin across your opponents thigh area just before they throw the knee.
This blocks your opponents leg so that they can't get it up and around for the knee strike. Just don't lay your leg their for too long as your opponent will grab it and probably leg kick you.
4. Neutralizing with your own attack - for knee attacks that your opponent throws free standing you can just throw something that has a longer reach like a punch or a foot jab just as they throw their technique.
For knees in the clinch you can use your own counter knee to the inside thigh of your opponents kneeing leg. This stops them from throwing another knee anytime soon.
5. Grabbing the weapon - you can try to grab a knee but you probably won't have much success unless your opponent is poor at kneeing and leaves his leg up after the knee strike... which is unlikely. A person who has their leg bent as with knees has very good leverage to just stomp their foot down if you managed to get your arms under the knee.
Muay thai knee defense is essential practice for not just the Thai boxer but also for self defense situations as well. If you have the confidence to stand up to muay thai knee strikes you can face pretty much anything someone will throw at you.
