week of 6/21/2021
My primary martial art I practice is Muay Thai. A major component of Muay Thai is the clench work, or clenching. I have heard some people call it standing grappling.
I will say that is one area I am not great in. However, I feel like I have made huge strides for the better in this area.
I have scoliosis and clenching is hard on your neck shoulders and back. However, I have been working on strengthening my neck, shoulders, and back. Not only that I have been working on getting my footwork correct, and trying to execute the moves as intended. When you study Muay Thai, you will realize that this art form uses body mechanics in everything you do. I mention this because when you perform the movements correctly it can almost become effortless in some cases.
Now don’t get me wrong… there is a lot of effort in clech work. In some cases the tired I get from clech work is the kind that seeps into your bones and you feel like you could sleep for days. But when you execute an off balance just right, or you swim out of a clench and get the clench on some one else it can seem effortless.
Now what do I mean by clench work is feeling your opponent?
If you have done any grappling. You will note/remember/understand that most of the time you are protecting your head, and keeping it close to the body of your opponent. This happens in BJJ, this happens in Muay Thai. When you keep you head close to the body of your opponent in grappling you cannot see what they are doing.
You have to feel. You have to feel what your opponent is doing. You have to feel the moment they lift their leg, so you can off balance them. You have to feel for when they try to spin you off balance, so you can use their momentum against them.
Everything is by feel. The slightest movement and that can me you dump your opponent. Most of the time you cannot see where their head is, you know that it is at the top of their bodies, but you have to feel for it and push their heads away to get out of clench.
It is small nuances the we learn in the way the opponent cants their bodies as if they are trying to elbow you.
With clench work, we often off balance and throw our opponent. Which is to say we end up on the floor often… I was really happy that when we did, I remembered my little bit of BJJ and based. Denying my opponent the ability to roll me over and be in control. This too was done by feel, where he moved I moved so that he could not get an opening.
I really love the nuances of Muay Thai, it is also one of the reasons it is so frustrating at times. Just the small little things to clean up your form, to make it so that it seems/feels effortless. Watch great practitioners of Muay Thai and watch them closely, they look like it is not hard. It is but they have learned to work their bodies, and with their opponents bodies.
Every martial art I have had the pleasure of working and learning, Muay Thai, Kali, JKD, Weng Chun, and especially BJJ all have a component of feeling where your opponent is. You either go with their force or meet their force. You feel their movements often times before you see it. That is when you are supposed to respond. Of course easier said then done, it takes years of practice to notice small movements and then know what to do when you notice them.
Schedule: This week I was on target and got everything done. Yay! I stayed on schedule even if it was hard. Well mostly, I missed one day of Muay Thai training because of work.
- Monday 6/21/2021: Mile Run, and Weight Lifting 1 hour
- Tuesday 6/22/2021: Muay Thai Training 1 hour
- Wednesday 6/23/2021: scheduled rest day
- Thursday 6/24/2021: 1 hour of Weight Lifting, Muay Thai Training 1 hour
- Friday 6/25/2021 : scheduled rest day
- Saturday 6/26/2021: 2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali training, Weight Lifting 1 hour
- Sunday 6/27/2021: Weight Lifting 1 hour
My Martial Art Focus:
- This week we focused:
- We worked gunting (scissor or destruction) of incoming attacks.
- We worked clenching, off balance, offence to entry into clench, and defence to entry into clench, defending against clench.
- In kali we worked on Espada y Daga, and footwork
Drills for this week:
Muay Thai Training:
1) jump rope
2) jab, cross, catch parry
3) jab, cross, inside gunting
4) jab, cross, back hand gunting
5) parry jab, cross, hook, return vertical gunting, the tie up, (I specifically worked the single wing, take down, abs knee to face)
6) fed for H
7) jab, cross, inside backhand, fence
8 ) held pads for H
9) jab, cross, hook, rear knee, step in and switch stance, cross, hook, cross, lead kick, step back into original stance.
10) held pads for H
11) jab, cross, hook, destroy face, reverse puta kapala
12) same as above
Areas I need to work on:
- I need to work on my break falls, namely my side break falls
- Tighten up my footwork with clenching.
- Problems/solutions:
- Practice break falls on the bed at home, or on the matts at the gym
- more practice with clench
- makes sure I have better head control of my opponent
Training focus: Weight Lifting and Running
- This week is week 2 of an 8 week program. 4 day split, 2 upper body, 2 lower body.
Weight Lifting: back and bicep focus
1) 3 minutes of fast feet
2) dumbell inclined chest press – reps – 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
3) dumbell chest flys – reps – 10, 10, 10, 10
4) diamond push ups – reps – 10, 10, 10, 10
5) cable/resistance bands tricep extensions -reps- 12, 12, 12
6) barbell overhead shoulder press -reps – 10, 10, 8, 8
7) leaning one arm dumbell lateral raises – reps – 10, 10, 10, 10
Nutrition:
- I was able to get closer to my carb and fats goals but was complete trash on my protein goals. I did not meet those by half. Ok gonna need to focus on protein this coming week.
- Have I mentioned I am a carbasaur. Love carbs… not so much love for the meat.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Average | Goal | Difference |
| 76 | 136 | 79 | 128 | 97 | 108 | 104 | 104 | 190 | 86 |
| 142 | 156 | 220 | 176 | 135 | 260 | 217 | 186.571429 | 160 | -26.57142857 |
| 47 | 77 | 46 | 92 | 81 | 106 | 89 | 76.8571429 | 67 | -9.857142857 |
| 1295 | 1861 | 1610 | 2044 | 1657 | 2426 | 2085 | 1854 | 2003 | 149 |
Anyway that is the training post for this last week. I stuck to my schedule except when work got in the way on Sunday. But I got all of my weight lifting days in. I am feeling it today.
What martial art do you practice? Did you notice in your martial art that feeling your opponents movements are as important or more so when you are grappling, or in contact bodily with them?
Thank you for reading. If you want to talk to me please feel free to comment. Like this post if you liked it, and please subscribe if you want to see more of my adventures. My day to day stuff is on instagram @sharpcupcake.
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Thinks with Spinks 