Two of the most powerful strikes you can throw in a streetfight at close range come from the Muay Thai clinch.
The first big weapon from the clinch is the knee. The knee strike the one of the most powerful shots you can throw and uses a relatively tough part of your own body.
(Unlike a punch, you’re not usually going to break your own bones throwing a knee strike in a streetfight!)
And regardless of where your knee strike lands it’s going to hurt your opponent… and possibly even do catastrophic, fight-ending damage if it lands on the head, liver, solar plex, groin or other vulnerable areas of his body.
The elbow is another deadly weapon at close range, using the bone of your upper forearm to cut, smash and spear your opponent (click here for the 7 main kinds of elbow strikes).
Yes, there are flying knees and spinning elbows that are delivered from punching and kicking range, but most of the time these are close range strikes from the clinch.
And there are few delivery systems in the striking arts more sophisticated than the Muay Thai clinch.
The Muay Thai clinch is much more than just the Plumm position (two hands around the back of the neck).
Yes, the Plumm is part of it but there’s an system of grips, positions, pummelling and off-balancing that needs to happen before you can land the big knee to the gut or elbow to the face.
To get you familiar with some of the nuances of the Muay Thai clinch I’d like to share a video that I shot with Shane Fazen from FightTips.
Shane is a very experienced striker, having fought in both boxing and Muay Thai.
In the video below he shows how to use the Muay Thai Clinch in a streetfight, including closing the distance into clinch range vs punching, controlling the position, and off balancing your opponent to set up the strikes.
This is important information and I hope you find it useful!
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Take care
Stephan Kesting
