Knees from the clinch

[MuayThai Fighter]

I like to get in close, but I avoid tieing up my weapons in a clinch. In close weapons are awesome; knees, elbows, ridge hnads, forearms, insteps, head... everything is a weapon in close, including your stance.

 

Knee strikes are effective, and the groin and abdomen are obvious targets. But don't forget about attacking his base. A god hard knee strike to his quadricep can seriously compromise his foundation. If you have a good leg check in place, it is sometimes possible to roll up your stance and buckle his knee.

 

Do you meant traditional martial arts stance like that of karate?

 

If that's what you mean,I would never go into a stance in a real fight,good way of losing a fight.

 

I agree with the rest of what you said though.

[delta1]

The primary stance in American Kenpo is the neutral bow. It is very similar to the 'fighting stances' I've seen a lot of different styles take, but not a traditional MA/karate stance. Basically, your feet are at 45'. Distance apart is about the same as the length of your lower leg. A line running from your opponent to you should touch the toe of your forward foot and the heel of the rear foot. Knees bent and over feet, but not forced or too low. This stance is stabil, but very mobile. It transitions well into other stances or to foot maneuvers. In close, we train leg checks as being almost automatic. And if you pass a point of articulation (joint) it is automatic to check. There are several ways to roll a stance that is checking a leg/knee up to apply pressure to that leg/joint. Most common involves steping to a twist to gain proper position or angle and lower the stance while moving into the opponent. You have to be careful with this in practice as it can dammage your partners knee if applied properly. In addition to hurting the opponent, they provide excellent dimensional control. Depending on where you are in relation to your opponent you can apply pressure straight back to create distance, inside or outside to turn, and even to the back to buckle.

 

This is one of the things I'm trying to work on useing better right now. But it is difficult to do in sparing. Timeing and position are criticali, and if you do get into good position you have to back off for fear of accidental injury. That means you often take a hit for your efforts. I guess it's like one of the TKD instructors I work out with said; "You're going to loose in the dojang. It's designed so you loose, because in here you can't do what you actually need to do to win."

 

There are also other ways to use stances, or stance changes and foot maneuvers, as weapons. Trips and sweeps are good examples. A step through forward can be an instep kick. Steping back into an opponent (if you are unfortunate enough to have one of those behind you) can buckle his knee outward if done properly. I like my bridge, or entry maneuver, to double as a weapon whenever possible.