Tag: kickboxing

Styles are not Plug and Play

January 26, 2026 / WWStevens / 0 Comments

Too often when people begin mixing their martial arts, they just mash styles together and see what works. While that is an okay starting point, you can’t keep that method for long. Many styles of kickboxing start from similar stances and use basically the same tools, but that doesn’t mean their goals or specialties are the same. When you are looking to modify and mix your martial arts, it can be good to look at a couple concepts, namely: shape, footwork, and priority/goal.

Shape is the physical contour and outline of the fighter’s body and techniques when applying an art. Do they typically stand taller or shorter? Are the arms high or low? How outstretched are the limbs? These are all questions of shape.

Footwork is exactly what you think it is. What ways do the fighter use to move around the opponent? How do their strikes and clinches link off of their footwork?

Priorities and goals can refer to the art and fighter in different ways. For one thing, an art can consider certain kinds of strikes, defenses, etc. better than others. An art can also have a goal in mind for fighting as a whole. Judo is looking for an efficient, quick, and powerful throw. Wing Chun seeks to circumvent any guards and crowd the opponent with quick strikes, offbalancing, and handfighting. Tae Kwon Do uses kicks and lead hand strikes to overwhelm the opponent and focuses mostly on straight line footwork. Western boxing uses purely punches with the front of the knuckles (in theory) to beat or knock out an opponent, with straight and circular footwork, but honestly there are many styles of boxing.

Priorities are also what you, as a fighter, prefer in your own personal method. Do you prefer straight kicks or round ones? How do you feel about spinning techniques? Do you prefer to stick and move or hang and bang? Even though the art or sport you practice has an overall goal or idea, you’ll often find your own way of achieving that.

When two out of three concepts are similar between different styles, you can find ways to integrate techniques and concepts from each. Sometimes, you can find methods that click together pretty well.

One example is Soviet style boxing with Tae Kwon Do. Someone with a TKD background will have a more bladed stance and prefer a bouncier style of footwork. The same is true for most Soviet boxers. The lead leg and lead hand emphasis will gel really well too.

Another would be Peek-a-Boo boxing and Kenpo. Even though their initial ‘shapes’ are kind of different, their footwork and goals are very similar. Both use explosive footwork to bridge the gap and slip attacks. Both are big fans of hinging into strikes and make extensive use of hooking shots, splitting time between the head and body. As well, both Kenpo and Peek-a-Boo like to curl their shoulders and focus their gaze through their brow, more than other methods. So someone with a Kenpo background who wants more sparring safe training, or clean up their hands, would do well to train Peek-a-Boo. And on the other side, a boxer who wants to expand their arsenal for self defense or MMA would benefit greatly from Kenpo.

So what about when there isn’t as clear cut an answer. Sometimes we have some really good training in one art, but have picked something else up that works great… until it doesn’t.

Let’s talk about Muay Thai and Western Boxing. Both are beautiful and complex arts that use a sparing number of tools when compared to some other striking traditions. Despite this seemingly small arsenal, these arts, when done skillfully, hold their own against other systems and regularly produce champions that dominate our biggest stages. So understand I have nothing but love for them.

That being said, I often see some mistakes when they get mixed. Boxing and Muay Thai have kind of opposite focuses in regard to striking, Where boxers only punch, nak muay typically put a larger emphasis on kicks, knees, and elbows. So theoretically, the two plug each other’s holes. But because boxing doesn’t have to think about kicks, it’s footwork doesn’t always account for it.

So, a great way to handle a boxer with a nearly impenetrable guard is to kick their legs. Because of this, someone using boxing structures in a Muay Thai setting needs to find stances and footwork that can help bridge the gap between these two arts. To do this, let’s first discuss the context of Muay Thai. Does Muay Thai have punches? Heck yeah. Are punches it’s primary tool? Absolutely not. Muay Thai will punch, but traditionally, its much more focused on clinch fighting. But the constant threat of kicks means they usually take a higher posture than boxers.

Western boxing often, not always, takes a wider stance. This helps create explosive punches and footwork. The goal is hit hard with your hands. So when you add long crosses, heavy hooks, and Western guards to your Muay Thai, I would recommend looking at arts that mix these goals more easily. For our first example, let’s look at using a cross guard in Muay Thai. Because a cross guard often sets your lead leg more forward, this leaves it open to leg kicks and closing knees.

For our first solution, we’ll learn from Tong Bei (a northwestern Chinese style) specifically, the choujiao curriculum. In road one, we have a high cross guard with a raised knee to check a kick. The angle of our supporting leg is going to be a bit different than is common in Muay Thai, more forward in a 60-70 degree angle. This will solve the issue of too much weight up top. See, part of the reason why it’s hard to check a kick from a cross guard or a shell is because the weight is more forward than is typical for a proper Muay Thai stance. And the arm crossed over the body, close to the core means that more of your weight is concentrated in a single area. This makes it difficult to pull back into the taller Thai posture required for their checking. So, how do we get our weight in the proper position? The simple answer is to do roads and get used to springing up from a heavy stance such as a horse stance. The slightly more complicated answer is to understand our back leg as a post and learn how to post with a forward energy. If we are going to check a kick, we should either be checking and setting up our kicks, or checking in a way that lets us drop our weight into punching or clinch ranges. This brings us back to the forward angle, with the posting leg around 60 degrees in relation to the floor. This does mean you have to be prepared to strike immediately off of the check or clear the hands and then strike.

Another opportunity against the kick is a low stance shelf into a sweep. If you step wide into a horse stance, you can block the kicks with your elbow shield and scoop your arm under the leg as you stand up. Then you can go for your favorite sweep. This horse stance and step up scoop can be found in most Southern Chinese kung fu styles, but I’ve learned it in Wing Chun, Kenpo, and Hung Kuen. Each art’s version is slightly different, but the broad application is the same.

The Muay Thai method can also work for a boxer, using Dutch blocks to help shelf the leg or stepping at an angle for the kick catch. However, depending on the method of boxing, you may find that the footwork doesn’t mesh.

A different question is how to attach striking to grappling. When you have this problem you should look for answers in striking arts with grappling involved. Let’s say you are an American kickboxer or nak muay who wants to better integrate your striking and grappling, with and without a gi. What arts can we learn from here? The first is traditional karate. Old school karate systems often have an impressive array of standing grappling and throws. They rarely have groundfighting, but that’s not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for the adaptive piece. This spot of striking, clinching, and throwing is what is missing between many kickboxing sports and BJJ. And Muay Thai has certainly got sweeps, but it’s a limited arsenal, so stealing some throws that come off of strikes AND grab the gi, that can supercharge your self defense. There’s also more standing submissions in Okinawan styles.

Southern Chinese styles Wing Chun, Hung Kuen, and even later American curricula like Jun Fan/JKD also have a large amount of trapping and grappling into strikes. For someone with more of a Muay Thai background, I would actually recommend Wing Chun, because even though their striking patterns feel so different, their stance and body positioning closely align. Muay Thai’s stance is just much lighter, whereas Wing Chun’s is flatfooted. So if you learn to attach some sticking hands into the clinch, you’ll have a lot more opportunities for fight-ending elbows, as well as keeping your opponent off balance.

Hung Kuen’s stances are so comparatively low and wide that it would probably benefit a wrestler trying to find something to adapt boxing to their game. As well, traditional Okinawan karate and boxing.

Go look at Catch Wrestling and tell me some tiger style wouldn’t be good to mix with it. In terms of boxing, close range styles (i.e. Tyson and Roberto Durán) can work well with wrestling, but you probably don’t want a taller, long range style style like Philly Shell (i.e. Mayweather).

But how does this work? Do we learn a whole other art just to blend what we already have? No, not really. You can, especially if you are more of a hobbyist. But in reality, it’s more about studying tools and techniques from these arts and stealing one or two little things. The more practiced you are, the easier it usually is. Sometimes, it’s not even techniques, it’s just an idea or a strategy that you can apply to the tools you already have. That is how martial arts get mixed on the high levels. We’re not switching styles, we’re using our brains, and adapting to the issue in front of us by expanding our view of what is possible.

Terminology is Important, But Not That Important

November 24, 2023 / WWStevens / 0 Comments

One of the easiest arguments to find yourself having in mixed martial arts circles is not about ring control, or the right way to handle the calf kick, it’s about what you call that one move. And it can be a fun argument to have, but sometimes people take it a little too seriously and you’re left wondering if everything is okay at home. You may think, “It’s just a word, the move is the same.” Or you could be thinking, “You need to say it right, you need to understand what you are communicating.” And yeah, two things can be true. So what is up with martial terminology?

Terminology Gives Us Common Language to Recognize Complexities

By having more standardized words, we can differentiate between similar movements, tools, and concepts. At a beginner level, this is not too important, but as one moves into intermediacy it becomes more necessary. Details make the difference between a jab that connects and a jab that really hurts. So if you have a word to differentiate the two, you are ahead of someone who just understands the jab as one or the other. This extends to all aspects of martial arts. Footwork requires finesse, fight strategies need detail, even workouts need differentiation.

Terminology Allows Us to Communicate How We See a Topic

By exploring terminology, we can understand how different arts and teachers treat certain tools. For instance, we have the armbar. In English speaking arts like Catch, we generally call it an armbar, showing that the lock attacks the arm by straightening or “barring” it. It is a simple and effective way to explain the concept. The details will change from technician to technician, so don’t get bogged down when you first learn it. The same is true in BJJ, even in Brazilian it translates to armbar or armlock. In arts like Judo, it is termed juji-gatame, or ude-hishigi-juji-gatame.

We can learn a lot just from this single term. “Juji” is the same kanji for “jujika” or “cross”, which can denote the right angle one takes to the opponent’s body, but also the manner in which the arm is outstretched. The next part is even more interesting, “gatame” is used for pins and certain locks. Most joint locks in Judo use the term “garame”, but certain joint locks have the term “gatame” instead. So why is that? Well the principle is that locks like armbars (juji-gatame) and head and arm choke (kata-gatame) can be used to effectively pin an opponent as well as submit them. On the flip side, “garame” means to entangle or twist. On top of all of this, “ude-hishigi” (arm break) denotes that this movement is a type of arm submission, that it causes pain. Look at how much information and context is contained in essentially four words. This is just one movement and we can see what the priority is in each art.

Terminology Can Cause Separation Due to Interpretation or Similarity

Unfortunately, sometimes we get so focused on terminologies that we forget to actually focus on the techniques. Terminology can cause conflict among groups that at the end of the day, doesn’t even matter. You may call it a double-wristlock, I call it a figure-4, and someone else calls it a kimura. At the end of the day, we’re all ripping some guy’s arm out of its socket. But how much time is spent arguing over these words? What’s more important is discussing details of the movement or technique. You can call it whatever you want, but if you can’t do it, it doesn’t matter. As helpful as terminology is, it is just a tool for communication. It is not the Gospel truth.

Terminology Can be Used to Create In-Groups and Out-Groups

This phenomenon is particularly frustrating. I have seen it most in kung fu circles. To give an example, in Wing Chun we have a drill called chi sau. It’s a sticking hands game used to teach the trapping range. At the beginning stages you are just trying to learn how to feel your opponent and stick to them to trap or strike. As you advance you start including footwork, head movement and Wing Chun’s full range of tools. Advanced chi sau is not sparring or fighting, but it is closer than beginner chi sau. Where I train we just call that advanced chi sau or sheung (double) chi sao, but in Cantonese it is often called “gor sau.” But we’re already inundating the students with all sorts of terms from a language they don’t know. We don’t need to overcomplicate something that can be said in English.

Some other Wing Chun schools don’t like that and have implied that my Wing Chun is bastardized or inauthentic. And it’s not that I don’t know words like “gor sau,” just that I don’t use them in general parlance. But I can actually fight with my Wing Chun, so they can keep gor sau.

Terminology is a Tool

When we focus on the terminology, we can learn a lot about the art or curriculum we are studying. As a self-professed word nerd, I really recommend that people dig into the terminology of their arts. You can learn a lot about the art, the history of the art (which most people forget), and it can even improve your form. But I also have to caution against getting focused on what each person calls it. Unless you are the developer of a school’s curriculum, it’s not your job. Don’t argue whether it’s a “head and arm choke” or “arm triangle”. It’s both. It’s neither. No one cares, go train.

Why We Need Specialists

February 22, 2022 / WWStevens / 0 Comments

First let’s define a specialist. A specialist is someone who focuses on one area of study or one art. So someone who only boxes is a specialist, just like someone who only grapples. But being a specialist can also mean someone who is focused on self defense, someone into ancient weapons, or someone who only focuses on sport fighting. A nak muay and a point fighter are both kickboxing specialists, but on different ends of the scale. So why do we need these guys?

Some People Don’t Want to Mix Their Martial Arts

We’ll start with an easy one. Some people just want to learn one aspect of fighting. It may be a preference for sport, such as boxing. Or they might have a concern for defense, but wish to handle it more gently, like Jiu-Jitsu. It could also be from a cultural connection, like folk wrestling styles. Sumo is not only a badass sport, it’s a point of national pride and cultural heritage for many Japanese people. While I for one love to learn all the nooks and crannies of fighting, I know many people who just want to box, wrestle, or do kung fu. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s great. Because this gives them something that I don’t have, which leads me to my next point.

Specialists Have a Greater Understanding of their Field than a Jack-of-all-Trades

A kickboxer will outclass a mixed martial artist on striking. A wrestler will do the same on the ground. They have more reps in that area and they have studied it more intensely, understanding concept and theory on a deeper level. This is why MMA fighters have striking, grappling, and conditioning coaches. They depend on people who focus on portions of the game to give them an edge and ensure they are performing to the best of their abilities. These understandings can go even deeper as well.

A grappler with decades of practicing Greco will have a better understanding of clinch grappling than a BJJ or Freestyle practitioner. So these specialists can look at a fighter and help them develop tools that fit their style. Now the flip side of specialists is also true. Generalists show the weaknesses and strengths of particular strategies. They help specialists understand the nature of their techniques more deeply, even if the generalist may not realize it.

Specialists Maintain Knowledge for Future Generations

This goes back to my point of specialists having a greater understanding of their field. Specialists can keep their arts or fields of study a priority. They don’t forget techniques and concepts just because they’ve gone out of vogue. We’ve all seen it happen, where someone shows off a move that they developed only for others to say, “Yeah we’ve been doing that for like a hundred years.” Human knowledge is not a constant pile that we all access equally. It is a flowing amorphous collection of understandings. Languages can be lost; so can artistic methods and even combative techniques.

This is probably my favorite aspect about specialists. As someone who spent much of their childhood in libraries, I love specialists. They’re like human textbooks. Consider a teacher like Roy Wood. He’s one of the foremost authorities on Catch as Catch Can wrestling in the world and he just wants to share this style and preserve what’s been given to him. Do his students have to only study Catch? No. Is he going to show them everything Catch has to offer? Absolutely. To be a specialist is to preserve knowledge that even you may not realize will be so helpful or revolutionary to someone.

What Does This Mean for You?

It means you get to decide what you want to learn. If you just want to study one art or area of combat, you can do that. If you want to study everything you can, then you can do that. But we have to recognize that there are tradeoffs to each method. For example, as a generalist I will never be as good at boxing or grappling as my specialist contemporaries, but in an MMA or street context, I have the option to take them where they aren’t comfortable. Would I win? I don’t know. But I’d certainly be harder to beat. In their disciplines, I’ll almost assuredly lose and my understanding of technique may never become as refined as theirs. But that’s okay.

We still learn from each other and we each have our roles in our martial communities. What we shouldn’t do is give in to tribalism and naysaying. What’s good will prove itself and what isn’t will fall by the wayside. Don’t worry, just have fun and train hard. And if you find a detail or intricacy that boosts your fight game, be sure to thank a specialist.

Attacking the Defense: Muay Thai

December 8, 2021 / WWStevens / 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.