Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns

Posted by: MattJ

Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 11:06 AM

Yes, I am the MAN. I saved this from google. Originally posted by MuayThai:


Hope you all find this interesting. may I add that in Thailand certain throws were allowed but sweeps not, in the fights I had that is.

Muay Thai: Throws and Takedowns

In the sport of Muay Thai, you do not often see a competitor throw his opponent to the canvas during a bout. This is because in most cases, takedowns and throws are not legal in Muay Thai.
There are however, situations where you can legally perform a takedown or throw in the ring, and I will outline below the basic takedowns and throws of Muay Thai.
TAKEDOWNS:
In Muay Thai, takedowns are typically sweeps. There are many different ways to get a sweep on your opponent, but there is one important thing to keep in mind: You may not perform a sweep or takedown by throwing the opponent over any part of your body.
What this means is that hooking-style sweeps and hip throws are not to be used. If you "sweep" someone’s leg, it must be done using a roundhouse style kick.
That being said, the most common takedown in Muay Thai is after catching an opponent’s roundhouse kick, you kick their support leg out from under them.
This can also be accomplished by kicking their support leg out from under them without catching their support leg. This requires excellent timing, but as start to kick, you will kick to the inside of their support leg at the same time, taking them off of their feet.
Another takedown, which I don't see used often enough, is the push kick. Unfortunately, the push kick is rarely utilized to its fullest benefit in the ring. Someone who masters the push kick can easily knock an opponent off of their feet with a well-timed kick to their opponents hip. The most opportune time is when your opponent begins a roundhouse kick, push kick him in the hip on the same side he is kicking from. Done correctly, your opponent is going down. Their is a Thai phrase to describe the body motion made by the falling boxer, which describes the motion made by a fisherman casting his nets. The falling fighter spins in a very similar fashion.
This next takedown is rare (I've only seen it once), and may have been a fluke, but I once saw Rambah step in close and knee his opponents thigh without clinching. His opponent’s leg went out from under him and he dropped like a sack or wet rice.
THROWS:
As mentioned, throwing an opponent over any part of your body (ala Judo) is illegal in Thai boxing. There are two basic throws we teach in my gym.


When clinching, I have mentioned how you turn your opponent like a steering wheel to take him off-balance to counter his knee strikes. Well, take this same technique a step further and take him to the ground. Performed correctly, your opponent can actually go down performing a cartwheel.
With all due respect, the best example I can think of is when Kit Songrit fought Rick "the Jet" Roufous. For those of you who are familiar with the match and have seen the tape, Kit Songrit spun Rick to the ground midway through the 3rd round (I think it was that round) and lost 3 points for a major foul (there was apparently a HUGE language barrier problem and Kit Songrit and his corner were unclear on the rules of the match. At least, that's their official version of the story). However, you could not ask to see that throw performed with more precision than that. A textbook-perfect throw. When a throw is performed in the Muay Thai ring, this is the most typical one seen.
The atypical throw seen in Muay Thai is the Belly-to-Belly Suplex. OK, it isn't really that, but we refer to it that way b/c it is a belly-to-belly throw. When you are clinched with your opponent, you grab him around the torso and hug him tight, then lift and throw him sideways. The beginning of the throw is identical to a true suplex, but rather than throw yourself with your opponent to the ground, you release. The object is to break the clinch and get your opponent off of you. Your opponent will not always fall to the ground due to this throw, but you do get him or her off of you.
Well, that's essentially it. Their are subtle variations of course which I don't believe I need to describe. You get the idea, that’s enough…

Clinch (Prumb)
Clinch or PRUMB in Muay Thai terms is one of the most distinctive features of Muay Thai fight. If you want to become complete fighter you must know how to enter clinch, what to while clinching and how to exit clinch.
I stress that when you enter a clinch, grab at your opponents arms first and pull down and across your knee. Throw a quick knee or two, THEN go for neck control.
Do not wait until you have the control position to throw a knee. When you feel your balance is right and there is an opening, STRIKE!
As you close in for the clinch, get in a straight knee strike on the way in! This may be the most important knee strike of the clinch exchange. It is doubtful that once you get to the inside fighting that you will always be successful at gaining the control position to fire off the devastating clinching straight knees.
OFFENSIVE CLINCHING:
I agree with Muay Thai tradition on entering with hand techniques, those work best in most cases, especially when you're at range to throw uppercuts and hooks. Its very easy to transition from a punch to a grab. We might as well include elbows in this category.
You can also enter off of a roundhouse kick. Throw the roundhouse kick, but don't let it rebound. Drop it to the floor right at the point of impact, then step in, grab opponent’s shoulder and pull him over a knee strike.
IP: Logged



The martial system where Muay Thai originated from has everything, there are a lot of throw techniques banned from Muay Thai as they are simply very dangerous but still a part of Muay Thai.
I once asked an older teacher in Chiang Mai, the place I was at for a while *not Lanna Muay Thai*, how do I defend myself when I am on the ground, he said "...you dont want to be on the ground in the first place so get up as quickly as you can..." to me that makes sense. There are however practical techniques to "get up" again.

you said about dumping a kicker, in Muay Thai its exactly what is taught to do, grab him and dump him as often as you can, grab the leg your opponent kicks you with then kick away his supporting leg. That takes skill to do without hurting yourself in the process.

here are some throws etc, look at these :
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Kanghuntonglom.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Pligpandin.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Haknguangaiyala.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Nakmudbadan.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Tayaekhumsao.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Rueseehern.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Praramadeandong.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Banpodthalom.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Radngungerawan.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Khonrookamoon.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Haklekpech.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Hanuamnfad.html
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Hanuamntayan.html <--- this is one of my favorites, in fact someone said about Muay Thai fighters are sometimes left with their back turned to their opponent.
http://www.muaythai.com/En/Konmuay/Praramateetap.html


I cant seem to find the throw I wanted to show you, but i recommend looking through these techniques and bare in mind these are from maemai muay thai, there is also a martial system way more deadlier than this

Muay Thai is a lot more than just a ring sport.
Posted by: imcrazy

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 01:58 PM

Although not being a practitioner of Muay Thai myself, I have a lot of respect and admiration for its traditional forms.

Too many people know only of the ring based one, which IMO really isn't Muay Thai any more. Too much has been removed from the art b/c it just doesn't work for the rules of the ring. It has become a sport rather than an art.

But thankfully there are still places around that teach its traditional forms with those deadlier moves (which may just save your life some day, in a real fight anything goes and rules don't apply, therefor you have to be ready for anything).

I can't emphasize this enough:
Quote:

Muay Thai is a lot more than just a ring sport.




Good post MattJ! Thanks for digging it up.
Posted by: Foolsgold

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 05:50 PM

Good post, but it's too bad that the links aren't working very well. Or maybe it's me

I hope to see MuayThai (the member) return to the forum sometime before I die off. He had a great deal of technical knowledge!
Posted by: 1st Round KO

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 07:32 PM

excellent post although i disagree with imcrazy about MT being a sport and not an art. try saying that while youre being fed an upper cut elbow followed by an elbow smash and 3 knees to the face. GOODNIGHT SALLY !!! regardless of the fact that some of the fatal moves been removed from conventional MT training, its still a deadly system and the most lethal of the stand up styles.

as for sweeps, im not sure if MattJ mentioned the hard low roundhouse. if performed properly you can take out a guys legs with a well placed kick below the blocking leg and across the inside of the supporting leg..or even power through both legs if hes in a narrow stance.
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 08:36 PM

1st Round -

Just to be clear, I did not write that post, MuayThai did. I thought it was very informative, and went berserk when it got deleted in the transfer. imcrazy (member) found a way to get some of the old posts off of Google. So I found it and re-posted it.

MuayThai did mention roundhouse type sweeps in the "takedown" section.

Enjoy!
Posted by: imcrazy

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 08:43 PM

Quote:

excellent post although i disagree with imcrazy about MT being a sport and not an art. try saying that while youre being fed an upper cut elbow followed by an elbow smash and 3 knees to the face. GOODNIGHT SALLY !!!




hehe I wouldn't

I'm not debating whether a sport based Muay Thai artist could fight or not, because I know they would and quite well to. However I am a big fan of the more traditional forms and hate when things are removed from arts for the sake of sports. Guess I'm more of a traditionalist.
Posted by: imcrazy

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 05/08/05 08:45 PM

Quote:

1st Round -

Just to be clear, I did not write that post, MuayThai did. I thought it was very informative, and went berserk when it got deleted in the transfer. imcrazy (member) found a way to get some of the old posts off of Google. So I found it and re-posted it.

MuayThai did mention roundhouse type sweeps in the "takedown" section.

Enjoy!




Good to see that the trick helped someone out.
Posted by: Raul Perez

Re: Muay Thai clinch, throws and takedowns - 03/15/06 09:10 PM

What ever happened to Muay Thai? Last I remembered he lost a fight in the ring and went boozin but was bent on getting back into training. Hope he is still training!