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Attacking the Defense: Muay Thai

December 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Muay Thai is a popular sport based in the ancient hand to hand arts of Thailand. Oftentimes, Muay Thai is called Thai Boxing or Thai Kickboxing and that is essentially what it is: the indigenous striking arts of Thailand boiled down to their essentials with a few tools banned for sportsmanship. Muay Thai has had its evolutions over the decades as it spread across the globe, but the overall structure remains the same. So how does it stack up in terms of defense?

Let’s look at the guards of Muay Thai first. Muay Thai has a number of different guarding methods. These are more dependent on the fighter than the art, just like Western boxing. You’ve got long guards, dracula guards, shells, high guards, but it all boils down to keeping your shoulders high, chin low, and hands in front of your face. 

The long guard and the high guard are the two essential shapes of Muay Thai guards, the others are variations of the two. The long guard is essentially keeping your head protected with one hand while the other is outstretched towards the opponent. This outstretched hand can be used to probe, parry, and stick to your opponent. It also lets you connect to an oncoming opponent and take up the clinch. The high guard in Muay Thai is the same as the high guard in Western boxing. Hands up near your brow, shoulders high and rolled forward. Where the long guard is more of a transitional shape, the high guard is where you spend a lot of your time.

Nak muay often hold their weight in a 70/30 distribution, though there are plenty of fighters who are closer to 50/50. The 70/30 split gives the lead leg a faster reaction and makes that front kick snap like a whip. But it does make angulated evasions a little tougher. It’s a very tall stance when compared to some boxers and karateka, but it’s also very balanced. The feet stay shoulder width apart and Muay Thai rarely uses footwork that brings it closer than that. You can absolutely off balance a nak muay, but it’s certainly harder than a Taekwondo practitioner.

Shield Block: This technique works just like in Western boxing. Bring up your glove to defend the head against strikes. Nak muay are quite skilled at pairing the shield with evasive footwork to reduce the impact. One problem I do see often is that they are so used to blocking with the glove on that they don’t effectively block when they are gloveless. Luckily this is an easy fix, you just have to put in reps with smaller gloves or bareknuckle.

Body Shield: The body shield is an effective technique that can protect the body without losing too much head protection. Essentially you are still protecting from attacks with the fleshy portion of the forearm, but this time you are tightly covering the ribs and protecting the core. The body shield is an essential tool for self defense and the great part is you don’t drop your hands too low. A lot of other body defenses open you up to headshots and this one reduces that likelihood.

Defensive Teep: The teep is a front kick in Muay Thai, with various forms. Some people treat it as just a front kick, others say that it is its own beast. There are many ways to hit the teep, but I would like to just give two examples of the teep’s use here. The first is a kick to the chest and the second is a kick to the leg. 

If you want to move a guy, don’t kick him in the belly. That bends him over. Kick his chest to knock his balance backwards. This type of teep makes space and gives you the chance to control where the fight goes. The kick to the leg is another thing.

When your opponent starts their kick you can shut it down quickly with a teep to the thigh. The teep works best at the thigh, because it requires less precision than stopping at the shin. This method hits the part of the leg that moves the least in its arc. You’ll also be hitting muscle when you kick the thigh; if you try at the shin, you’re kicking bone. Even if you’re successful that still hurts.

Leg Checks: A leg check can be a very useful defense against a kick, especially leg kicks. Leg checks work well because they aren’t stationary and can be done within larger motions. This means that leg checks can be linked into combinations or evasive footwork. A lot of arts block kicks very statically, but Muay Thai’s leg checks can make or break rhythm.

Super Shield: The Super Shield (aka Full Shield) is a block using the same side arm and leg meeting to block a kick. It’s essentially a body shield and leg check together. This is that full body block that most people associate with Muay Thai. Oftentimes it is blocking a kick coming at an unknown angle. Maybe it’s to the head, maybe the body, either way you don’t want to wait and find out. When executed with the proper pressure, this block can handle an incoming attack and set you up to counterstrike. The problem with the super shield is that you are left on one foot with a lot of your body weight crunched in a single area. If you don’t have proper pressure, you will be knocked back or even knocked down. This doesn’t mean the Super Shield is a bad block. It just has its drawbacks.

Destruction Blocks: Muay Thai makes excellent use of destruction blocks. The most common is using the knee to block the opponent’s shin. This is the defense made famous by Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva at UFC 168. While most destruction blocks won’t break the shin, it is a possibility. This defense is the most important destruction block to learn, but it isn’t the only one. You can also take your knee or foot to the front of the thigh, to bruise the quadriceps. It’s a lot harder to kick when those muscles are seizing.

Spearing Guard: A variant of the long guard, the spearing guard in Muay Thai is often used to handle wide hooks. Essentially you raise both arms high and spear them forward into your opponent’s attacking bicep and the respective collarbone. Though not as popular as other tools, it can still be useful as the spearing guard keeps your shoulders high to protect the head and the forcefulness of such a technique often handles the opponent’s momentum. Plus you’re right there ready to clinch and throw some knees.

Catching Kicks: Catching kicks can be done well, but I don’t always agree with Muay Thai’s method. It’s more of an overhook method, which increases the risk of taking the kick’s force on your ribs. Muay Thai does teach stepping in, past the point of greatest impact. That does reduce the chance of taking real damage, but I think plenty of us have seen a bad catch go wrong.

Blocking into Sweeps: Muay Thai makes excellent use of leg sweeps, either with a block or a catch. One shouldn’t seek to catch a leg, but when it shows up, you’ve got to act quick. Sweeping your opponent can be a useful reaction, either to control your opponent on the ground or to give yourself the time and space to escape. Muay Thai sweeps emphasize weight distribution and timing more than other kickboxing arts. Muay Thai’s sweeps are on par with Sanda’s. These two arts probably have the best sweeps in striking.

Scooping a Leg: I’m not a huge fan of this one. It certainly can be effective, but scooping a knee or kick puts your hand low and opens your head. It can be married with an attack from the other hand, but you have to be certain and well timed. The move is a bit high risk for my tastes, but I can’t deny it is a useful technique.

Scooting the Hips: Scooting your hips back from a kick can be done and done well. A benefit of this is staying in range to counter and gain momentum. Yet it requires a distinct understanding of your ranges and the length of your opponent’s legs. The other issue with scooting your hips is that it keeps you in that same striking range. Not two sentences ago I said that was a good thing, but sometimes things are good and bad. If you can strike them, they can strike you. When considering self defense, it’s all the way out or all the way in. 

So how does this look as an overall defensive plan? Pretty darn good actually. Muay Thai has a mastery of foundational techniques and fighters generally keep strong defenses. The art makes good use of offensive defense, in terms of destruction blocks and marrying defenses with striking. It’s very hard to find fault with Muay Thai, it’s quite an effective art. Does it have holes? Certainly. It’s a pure striking art, so it has no groundwork defense. It’s sport background often means that the nuances of fighting against a larger opponent get lost in the mix. I’d even dare to say that it over extends itself with its kicks and that is a defensive issue by itself. But for any gripes I have, I’ve got to give Muay Thai an A- for its defensive tools.

Attacking the Defense: Wing Chun

June 29, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Wing Chun is an old system of kung fu from Southern China. Based in the arts of Shaolin snake and crane, Wing Chun evolved over generations on the Red Junk Opera boats and the rooftops of Hong Kong. Now it looks vaguely like kung fu boxing. It’s got kicks, chops, knees, and elbows, but most often it looks like a small man’s boxing. What makes it different from other arts is constant pressure and trapping skills. Its blocking system reflects that. Is that good, bad, or somewhere in between?

The structure of the Wing Chun resembles an old boxing guard, but more plaintive, with open hands. Even though the head is more open than I prefer, I must recognize it still holds the hands about as high as most fighters. The front hand sits above the collar bone pointing towards the opponent. The back hand hovers around the lead elbow, rarely lower than the chest. The benefit of this position is that it encourages your opponent to take wider shots. Your core is also protected and keeps your hands ready to cover the four gates. Wing Chun uses the four gates theory for attack and defense. Essentially, you have the left and right sides of your head, and the left and right sides of your torso. You can’t defend one without opening another. With both your hands starting in the center of your body, they can easily move to defend any gate.

The weight distribution is fairly contested in Wing Chun. Some schools put 70% of their weight on the back leg and 30% on the front, while others sit 50/50. Some schools even sit 90% of their weight on their back leg. I come from a 50/50 school and honestly I can’t see the advantages of a 90% back foot distribution. The 70/30 split has its advantages, the front leg is more ready to kick for offense or defense, much like the long guard of Muay Thai. Although it can lead one to not respond as well against someone barreling down your center.

Let’s discuss the primary deflections of Wing Chun. In Wing Chun, there are four primary blocks: tan sau, pak sau, gum sau, kan sau. These four are chosen as the primary blocks for two reasons. Firstly, the lead hand can defend while keeping the elbow on centerline. Secondly, these can deflect an attack and allow for a simultaneous counterattack with the back hand.

The secondary blocks are more focused on control of the opponent and sticking hands movement, even leading into clinch fighting. These blocks are bong sau, lop sau, huen sau, fuk sau, jum sau, and jut sau.

But what do all these movements with Cantonese names even do? Are they even effective? Let’s go back to those primary blocks.

Tan Sau: The tan sau (dispersing hand) is a deflection performed by placing your elbow in front of your solar plexus and holding the hand outwards, like awkwardly asking for money. This turns your forearm into a wedge against oncoming strikes, which are deflected or “dispersed” past your body. The tan sau is used in a variety of ways, but works best deflecting on the outside of the opponent’s arm. 

Pak Sau: The pak sau (slapping hand) is really just a parry. That’s all it is and that’s why it’s so effective. Parries are an essential defensive tool for striking. Pak saus are the most obvious example of blocking with a counterattack. Instead of parrying and then striking, Wing Chun uses the pak sau with a simultaneous strike, often called a pak da. 

Gum Sau: The gum sau (pinning hand) is used to deflect low attacks including fists, feet, and knees. It is also used, as the name suggests, to pin an opponent’s arm in trapping range.This is not a long term pin, but is instead pinning the arm for a second to allow you to attack. I’m not a fan of dropping your hands this low to block a kick, especially when Wing Chun has knee and elbow blocks. However, the gum sau as a trap is incredibly useful. When you use it this way, it opens a gate and collapses the opponent’s arm into their core. This affects their structure and often opens their chin even more.

Kan Sau: I hate it. The kan sau is a downward sweep of the arm, essentially a low block like karate’s gedan barai or gedan-uke.The kan sau is used to block low strikes, much like gum sau, but has no pinning capabilities. It’s not really a hard block, but that doesn’t mean it’s that effective. The only reason I, a Wing Chun practitioner, practice kan sau is because it’s a part of the system, I don’t use it when I spar or fight. The one thing I will give it, is that you don’t sacrifice structure to use the kan sau.

Bong Sau: The bong sau (winging hand) is a deflection that uses a corkscrewing motion to knock strikes off target. The rotational force of the bong sau is what makes it effective. It’s not a lifting motion, which is why it works. If it lifted, your shoulder would get beaten up and tired. Because it rotates it activates more muscles, including the pectoralis minor and the traps, and uses less energy overall. I have found a lot of use in the bong sau. I will note that unlike the primary blocks, it doesn’t really allow for a simultaneous attack and defense. Bong sau is a great set up for trapping and acts as an emergency block when your hand is low. 

Lop Sau: The lop sau (pulling hand) yanks an opponent’s limb to the outside of your body. This can be used to pull them into a punch, yank them out of your way, or even set up trips. Lop sau is quite useful, the problem being that it is often trained as a straight grab, but it holds more complexity than that. The lop sau works best if the elbow sinks into the ribs and the movement links the arm to the core to the hips and feet. Kinesthetic linking shows up a lot in Wing Chun; the lop sau is probably it’s most obvious example.

Huen Sau: The huen sau (circling hand) deflects an opponent’s punch away from centerline, thus causing them to respond behind the beat. Huen sau is great for counter attacks and also has an added use as a recovery tool. If you parry on the inside of a punch, make it a huen sau to get your opponent’s centerline back off of you.

Fuk Sau: Not really an initial defensive tool for most people, the fuk sau (hooking hand), is a great tool for sticking hands energy. Later, this tool can be developed for sensitivity and self defense fairly well. Fuk sau can be used to keep yourself safe in the pocket. However, that level of sensitivity takes a lot of time to develop. But uppercuts take a lot of time to get down as well.

Jum Sau: The jum sau (dropping/heavy hand) is a great tool. It’s really more about the elbow and forearm than the hand. The jum sau can be used as an elbow block to defend the ribs or as a trap. It’s also a great tool because after blocking, that hand is set up for a great counter shot to the head.

Jut Sau: The jut sau (jerking/shocking hand) is a quick jerking motion with your arms to pull an opponent’s limb down towards your body. This doesn’t mean the jut sau pulls it into your body, just more towards your centerline than away from it. This is most often seen as a defense against a grab or grapple, yanking the attacker’s arm in as you counter. It can also be a trap on a good guard, as consistent pressure is easier to fight than a shocking pressure.

Cut Blocks: This tool is an extension of the vertical punch, but with the obstructive energy of a tan sau. Essentially, you punch from the outside line as your opponent strikes. By keeping your punch on centerline, you cut across theirs, knocking it off course. This defends and attacks at the same time.

So what are some good examples of these tools in defense?

The most obvious example is the pak sau. Pak saus are parries, parries keep your head safe. Ask any boxer. Pak saus are essential, quick, tools. The best example of application is the pak da (slapping hit). As you deflect an opponent’s strike, you come over your pak with a strike of your own. The centerline punch of Wing Chun works really well in this. You can also parry and strike to the body, which works especially well for shorter fighters. These type of sector defenses are typical in Wing Chun. Students are taught not to simply defend. Attacks can be defense.

This pak da concept also works well against a tight guard. Instead of waiting for your opponent to open up, make them open up. When controlling the space, Wing Chun tends to be quite aggressive. This use of pak da exemplifies that.

The gum sau is often taught as a defense against a kick, using two hands to stop a kick near the thigh. I’m not a huge fan of this, but I mention it in the name of honesty. However, gum sau does have it’s uses. My favorite is defending against a tackle. As your opponent comes in, you gum sau to the side of their head and hinge one leg back. This angles you to your opponent and knocks their line of pressure off of you. It also lets you keep the fight standing.

The bong sau also plays a surprisingly useful role, bong sau leads into lop sau or tan sau quite easily and sets you up for kicks.

An important thing to remember is that in Wing Chun, these tools aren’t just prescribed for one thing. They are better seen as movements that can be applied as the user sees fit. For example, we have an horizontal elbow, pai jarn, that is often used as a destruction block as well as for bashing skulls. As students learn more, they are expected to test these out in new ways and deepen their understanding of the art.

Luckily we have maxims that help us weed out potentially dangerous interpretations. Let’s look at the bong sau again. We are consistently taught the bong sau as a transitory movement for defense and offense, but it shouldn’t be a stationary guard. On top of this, we are taught that elbows should return to protect the body. If bong sau were treated as a more stationary technique, the body becomes too exposed. So Wing Chun does have a method here, even though it may not look the way one is accustomed to.

The overall structure of Wing Chun’s defenses are pretty solid, the obsession with centerline protection is very useful. However, I don’t feel like it protects the head as much as it should. The tools that protect the head from circular shots aren’t as protective as I would hope. Tan sau can protect against incoming assaults, but it extends your hand too far for my liking. Biu jee works, but at a certain weight difference it stops mattering. I’m much more partial to the boxer’s shield. And when considering Wing Chun as a whole, culturally the kan sau is used more often than the jum sau for body shots. So Wing Chun is not perfect by any means. On a grading scale, I would give Wing Chun a B. In the right hands, it has excellent potential. But when taught to someone who can’t think for themselves, it’s more of a C.

Attacking the Defense: Krav Maga

April 19, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Recently, while shooting the shit with some friends, the discussion turned to how we evaluate martial arts. I realized that we often look at scripted techniques or how they attack. These are important, but we also need to think: How does an art defend? So I’ve decided to ask this question about some of the more famous and infamous martial arts in a new series Attacking the Defense. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at an art that creates a polarizing response: Krav Maga.

Krav Maga is an Israeli system of fighting initially developed for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). It’s goal is to teach simple techniques dealing with hand to hand and weapons defense. The founder, Imi Lichtenfield, wanted the techniques to be simple so that students could quickly and efficiently learn to defend themselves. To some, Krav Maga is an effective and lethal art. To others, it is an art made up of gimmicks. I think it is somewhere in between.

One thing to understand about Krav Maga is that there are many different Krav Maga organizations and they focus on different goals first. Some have a higher emphasis on fitness, others perform more “stress tests,” thankfully some even spar. If that sounded rude, it was. I am salty that there are schools presenting themselves as self defense schools with students who never get to actually practice their training.

The quality control in Krav Maga is not great. In this way, American Krav Maga is like Tae Kwon Do’s edgy cousin with a knife collection. I can’t speak to other countries in terms of how it is trained. I can only speak from my experience and that of my colleagues. This alone doesn’t mean Krav Maga has a bad curriculum. It covers stand, clinch, ground, and weapons. However many of its answers to these issues are dodgy, in my opinion.

Before I tee off on Krav, let’s discuss some things it does well.

Stance: Krav Maga teaches a very useful initial stance, the neutral stance. With open hands facing outward, it can be used for de-escalation. It also helps protect the head and keeps the legs in a position to move in any manner.

Simultaneous Attack and Defense: Krav teaches the idea of attacking while you defend. Don’t wait for a chance after defending, do it then. I actually applaud that mentality. Counterattacks are really potent and help a defender stop their attacker’s momentum.

Inside Defense: It’s good, it’s always seemed a little stiff to me, but it still works. Basically a ridgid parry. 

Head Movement: Krav Maga teaches slipping as well as bobbing and weaving. They also teach it relatively early in the art, which I like. This gives the student more time to practice as they move through the art. My only complaint is that it’s not practiced enough from what I’ve seen.

Covering Defense Against a Hook Punch: This is a really useful tool, I honestly think this should be their major defense against a hook punch. Covering your head with your arm gives you extra cushion to protect your head and reduces that chance of a punch slipping through. With forward movement, it keeps you protected from the point of greatest impact.

Defense Against Low Kick with Shin: Hey look, it’s a shin check! Anyone who’s ever had to spar with nak muay knows these work and work well.

Defense Against Spinning Heel Kick: This one is pretty great. Kick the attacking tool before it can fully fire. It’s a little more high level, but a solid defensive concept.

Plucking Defense: This one is okay. Whipping a kick away isn’t a bad idea, but it feels high level for a curriculum with something like 4 takedowns.

Now let’s talk about what Krav Maga doesn’t do so well.

360 Defense: The 360 Defense method is one of those things that might seem effective at first. This is mostly used for circular strikes. The defendant blocks at outward angles, think high blocks and low blocks, but with added mid angle blocks as well. One problem with the 360 Defense is that this is taught to everyone regardless of size, shape, or health. Trying to perform an outward block against someone heavier than you can really hurt.

It might work for someone in the IDF, but not for a soccer mom. It also teaches you to block low punches with your arms instead of crunching with your elbows. It really leaves your head open. Students are taught to bend at their waist when performing these motions, which makes your defense of incoming attacks weaker. Students are also taught this for knife defense. You don’t block a haymaker and a knife the same way. It’s just not great. 

Outside Defense (Green Belt): The Outside Defense series is kind of a followup to the 360 Defense. The idea is to use high defenses to redirect strikes to the head, often straight punches. It feels clunky and unnecessary to me. These defenses open you up, keep you in line for further strikes, and depend on tricky timing. They may look simple, but they don’t seem that simple to me. One exception to this is the “Outside Defense Against a Right Punch” in which you use a corkscrew punch to simultaneously shield and counterattack. That one is a solid defense, I wouldn’t try the others.

Blocking High Kicks: My problem with the way Krav Maga defends against high kicks is where they defend. The high kick always seems to be blocked at the apex of its arc and power. That’s a lot to ask of someone. Instead, why not move in to block where there is less power? 

Blocking Kicks with a Low Block: This is first explored with the 360 Defense, but shows up elsewhere in Krav curriculums, depending on the organization. It’s just not a good idea to open your head up that much, especially when you have a shin check in the curriculum.

The General Defense (Blue Belt): The “General Defense” is a technique used to cover the head and the ribs on one side of the body. It works by performing an inside block with the opposite hand and a stiff arm block with the arm closest to the attacking limb. It works okay, but when it’s performed incorrectly, the defender can get quite hurt. If the close side arm is turned in too much, it exposes a straightened elbow to a lot of force, and it could dislocate under that force.

So how do these positives and negatives look all together? Not great, but not terrible either. Krav has some solid defenses within its arsenal, but we have to remember which ones are taught earliest and most focused on. The 360 Defense is simple in concept, but it’s also very easy to do wrong. It’s also treated as a kind of catch-all defense for punches, kicks, knives, and sticks. There are other defenses for each of these attacks, but the 360 is treated as the core of the system. 

I find that there’s a lot of hard blocking in Krav Maga and students are often taught to block at the point of most impact. This seems counterintuitive to me, if you’re trying to make a simple and effective art that anyone can learn. You can’t eat a kick from someone bigger than you. If you’re in a self defense situation, they could be bigger and stronger than you. I think that for a member of the IDF (who may carry a rifle, sidearm, and knife) this is a fine system. But for civilian self defense, I don’t agree with it.

So Krav has some solid defenses in it. The cover is great and head movement should always be a part of an art. But once again, these are cursory tools in how they are trained. There seems to be a lot more focus on outside defenses that keep you in range for more punches. They do have simultaneous attack and defense. But it seems that in trying to maintain simplicity, they have collected a number of underdeveloped tools. So overall, I’m going to give this a D+ grade, at most a C.

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