Sylvie's Tips - How to Drill Caught Kick Response Without a Partner

Sylvie's Tips - How to Drill Caught Kick Response-001

I’ve never really had opponents catching my kicks in fights, but that’s partially because I don’t really mid-kick. So, the reason I know that I suck at responding when my kick is caught is almost entirely through padwork, where I topple over like a kicked-over bicycle. Which is to say that I don’t really practice against this and only get reminded of how unpracticed I am when my trainer occasionally wants to mess with me. I do know how to handle the caught kick – I’ve been shown techniques from various sources – but I never drill them.

When I visited Dejrat Gym in Bangkok and did a private session with Ajarn Surat, one of the first things he noted – with a disapproving head shake – was this falling over business. So he showed me how to keep my hand in his face for balance and then how to kind of lean into the kick to transfer weight and then hop on the standing leg, in the same rhythm of someone trying to push me or sweep me, so that I don’t get knocked over. Mai lom, in Thai… don’t fall.

Arjan Surat’s technique wasn’t so different from what I’ve learned before. What was different was his explanation and his particular insistence on the importance of balance in Muay Thai (everyone says balance is important in Muay Thai, but for Arjan Surat it is serious); he followed by showing me how to just thread my leg into the ropes to build my flexibility and one leg balance. “Every day, every day,” he said to me. I don’t stretch and flexibility isn’t really my problem so much as panic and tension when my leg is caught, but what Ajarn managed to do was inspire me to work on this shortcoming in a way that I could manage without a partner. Part of my failure to ever really drill this deficiency was that I don’t have access to drilling partners, or I lack the courage to force the kids to work this stuff with me on a regular basis. So I devised this strategy to work on the exact technique Ajarn Surat taught, without needing a partner. So, I can drill the balance and get the strength in my legs and figure out where to put my weight to build a base and then get someone to work with me by catching my kick more to get rid of the “oh shit!” response. I will say, since working on this for myself over the past month or so, Pi Nu has started catching my kick in padwork a lot more. That might partially be because he’s seen me working on it, but it might also be that he knows I won’t just crumple onto the floor anymore – so there’s actually something to work on now.

The practice of this on the bag may require a little balance work. This Sylvie’s Tips on the Floating Block may help in that. Also, my full private with Ajarn Surat (about 45 minutes) will be put together as a blog post and video and will be up later.

An Introduction to Sylvie’s Tips

You can read about the Sylvie’s Tips feature here in my first post:

Sylvie’s Tips – Muay Thai Tips, Techniques & Helps from Thailand

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The Author Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

A 103 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100 fights in 3 years here, my new goal is to fight an impossible 200 times in Thailand, as much as I possibly can, and to continue to write my experience.

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Why Women Champion Themselves in the Fighting Sports

I was having a conversation with an accomplished and very thoughtful female fighter, Mae-Lin Loew of the incredibly well written Loew Factor blog. She was at once applauding me for being so honest and open in my writing, and at the same time kind of wishing she could move more in that direction herself. The subject of social limitations to what might be perceived as self-aggrandizement in blogging came up, and this little portion of my response seemed to stand on its own and say important things, so I duplicate it here: …There’s a lot of sniping and criticism no

Emma Thomas Female Muay Thai Fighter - Interview-w1400

My Interview With Female Muay Thai Fighter Emma Thomas

Surfing the Chaos I’ve known Emma for a few years now. We actually met through online communication and I forget that we didn’t actually meet each other in person until a little over a year ago. I really like Emma and recently I was scrolling through a feed of our private messages on Facebook in order to show something she’d sent me to my Thai friend and my friend remarked, “wow, you write so much! It’s like a book!” Yeah, we talk a lot. Which made me realize with surprise that I’ve not yet interviewed Emma. I’ve certainly thought to

Sakmongkol Muay Thai – Days 25 and 26 – Rage and Energy – WKO Pattaya

*** A quick note on how these days are numbered: I go by only counting actual days of training with Sakmongkol, so I’ve been in Pattaya longer than 26 days and these two days actually have a day of rest between them. Day 25 – Back to Training with Mong On Saturday I finally got Sakmongkol to agree to hold pads for me after nearly a week of not training our extra hour and a few days of him not holding pads for me at all. We both got sick and I took Wednesday off to recover, when I came

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Sylvie’s Tips – How to Drill Caught Kick Response Without a Partner

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The Author Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

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