Comments on: Yok Khao (Rising Knee) guard of Chaiya

By: johnmuay

johnmuay — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:47:24 +0000

The muay chaiya classes and guys I saw in thailand definitely didnt bring the whole self defense, bare knuckle perspective to it also they rarely compete because there are bare knuckle events every year to fight against the burmese in open competition. They talk alot about fighting but i didnt see anything at all functional in the way they were doing it. Alot of talk. It seems it survives in an odd stripped down of fighting way, like the forms are there like a shell and everything else is lost. Plus this postions they used cant be maintained in the fights or sparring i saw some sparring and it just deteriorated into what would be the standard swinging. I also saw some clips of some guys from one muay chaiya teacher vs the guys from another muay chaiya teacher and it was pretty poor, embarassingly so. I think the gesture that its for real fighting etc is good but not in the form that its survived on

By: SE

SE — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:29:39 +0000

also you probably like broken arms/jacked up shoulders if you like to block with your elbows, spyda…

By: SE

SE — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:22:27 +0000

a lot of dumb people here. probably learning euro muay thai or some japanese bullshit. keep using those shins.

By: Eaglos

Eaglos — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:33:48 +0000

@nopstar
I have used that type of “block” during traditional muay thai sessions where we practiced footwork, Wai Kru and “tradiotional” stances in general. Sure, bending your foot upwards tightens the muscles around the shin and you get some kind of extra padding but there are two issues though.

1. You might get a good amount of damage if catch the incoming shin with foot/fingers but most most importantly

2. why would someone want to put shin against shin? In cases like that the stronger shin wins and the weaker one gets damaged, breaks, or cracks and the pain is severe. We only practice shin contact as a conditioning method in order to familiarise with the feeling and to get our shins used to it. We never use it for real blocking.

What I have learned so far is that shin is for kicking and knee is for blocking. I use the lower part of the knee, the part that connects to the shin, and it works great. No nerves, no pain, no damage and the oppenent will think twice before performing a low kick again. Most of the times the opponent gets a damaged shin and limbs, especially if you faint and let him/her score a few “recon” lows. Then when he/she gets confident and throws the “good” one you raise your knee and you watch him scream.

Even if you get caught in the shin you should try to bend you leg as inwards as possible so as to receive a glancing blow. You might also want to tug your foot towards your groin so as to get the blow on the outer side of your leg.

Cheers

By: nopstar

nopstar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:51:06 +0000

nearly shot coffee out of my nose. well put good sir, JUDO CHOP!

By: SE

SE — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:57:15 +0000

yall need to get judo chopped. f’real.

By: jake

jake — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:57:58 +0000

hahaha @ SE. relax chief. as for cheesy martial art actors, i’m a steven seagal man all the way.

By: Masterchop

Masterchop — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:40:15 +0000

I think SE is just a Beginner trained muay thai for a month and thinks he knows everything….

By: Ting Tong

Ting Tong — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:46:29 +0000

i would think to consistently block a kick with your knee your timing would have to be amazing, perhaps thats why in MT we block with our shins – to block with your knee in the ring over 5 rounds would not work. Whereas like nathan said in Muay Chaiya the battle would be over very quickly so you may only have to block one kick.

SE i think you have it the wrong way round, we aim to block with our shins, if they hit our knee and damage themselves then thats just a bonus!!

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:45:58 +0000

Yeah, natb19…. I received a couple of bone chips from getting kicked in the knee by a small girl doing just some light sparring. I think it’s more likely if your supporting leg gets hacked as opposed to a flexed knee, but I’m sure it’s still very feasible.

Back to the block though…. I’d like to see a post on what you guys do for 1 leg balance. My balance is good, but Lumpini good:p

By: Masterchop

Masterchop — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:32:56 +0000

Well Chaiya and Modern MT they both cock up the heel when blocking and its always close gaps for both styles I would say. Pointing your toes down is more for a knee strike , When you’re sparring or in a real fight normally you be blocking with both your knee and shin anyway I just see some people that makes comments here don’t really think and analyze.

By: spydaman

spydaman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:01:20 +0000

natb19, “it’s hard to write an article like this and not seem biased, I’ll be more careful in the future “…maybe I’ll be less critical next time :-P