Hi! Nice to catch up with you again, despite clocking in just before the end of Sunday at least I’m here. I guess , fashionably late is ok some days.  I’ve currently reached the bouncing off the walls stage of lockdown and do my best to stay healthy with running and of course home training.

I realized yesterday that my fitness is improving but  I think it could be better if I have a little booze break, so I’ve decided to live dangerously and have a couple of weeks of clean living or possibly longer from Monday onwards. It’ll come as a welcome change and hopefully add a little ray of sunshine into the monotony of lockdown life.

I’ve not trained at my gym for over 2 months now and despite keeping training as varied as it can be at home it’s really not the same. I miss having something to hit. I need something to hit. In fact, I need something to hit so much I even stacked the cushions of my sofa on top of one another just to try out my new gloves. It’ll be me vs the sofa if this sorry state of affairs carries on for much longer.

Even when I’m not specifically training for 45 minutes or so after a run I more often than not spend time working on basic combinations and my front leg and rear leg teep at varying points in the day. In fact, my front leg teep has become a thing of beauty. I’ve even been practicing faking my rear leg and jumping into my lead,  jabbing and then teeping straight away from one side of the room to another, jabbing, rear leg blocking and teeping, and teeping and left body kicking.. the list goes on, and despite everything, it’s keeping me sharp.

“At least you got your bastard heel off the ground.” said my coach. 

When used properly and with good timing the teep can be a pretty destructive kick either on the defensive or the offensive. I’ve gone through stages of throwing the kick at the wrong time and throwing the kick for the sake of it but have gradually learned to use it at the right moment.

Sometimes in clinch sparring I’ll suddenly teep my partner to wear them down if I can see they are gassing. When you don’t see it coming it can be a truly horrible kick that knocks the wind out of you. I’m missing drilling it with another person but I’m doing my best to keep it functional. It’s also great for self-defense. I once read about a female fighter who had been jumped in a car park and stopped her would-be mugger with that one kick.  If someone comes charging into you then you can stop them in their tracks.

I’ve spent a lot of time of late visualizing an opponent in the ring or even out the ring trying to rush me and I’ve just planted my rear leg and kicked through. Putting the jab in front is a nice distraction and sets the kick up well. It can also lead to a variety of attacks to follow up with such as a rear knee or body kick or even low kick. I’ve always been someone who’s very forward in my mentality when it comes to Muay Thai so if I’m pushed I like to push back.

I thought I’d leave you this week with a great video from Muay Thai Scholar  Masters of the Teep  from 2017. I hope it helps with home training and most importantly keeps you motivated. Here’s to gyms reopening, to many more fights, and to never ever giving up. Have a great week, train hard, and just like the last time… I’ll see you on that road.