Step To Knees With John Wayne Parr
Knees are a solid technique to land for pretty much every situation. They deal a ton of damage and can score a ton of points, especially in Muay Thai. The thing that a lot of people, even more seasoned strikers, don’t notice is that knees are not one simple strike. There are the knees that most people commonly see and associate with the name, that being the spear knee that we will cover in this video. There are also clinch knees, which don’t deal as much damage but can score points and hit targets that more traditional knees can’t, like the side of your opponent's body and even their legs.
Knees from the clinch are the most common techniques that are thrown and seen. This is because knees are very short range techniques and because you need to be so close to land them, most of the time you’re in the clinch or will end up in the clinch. Being in the clinch also gives you a level of control over your opponent, making it possible to pull them into knees to increase the damage, or even pull down their head for a KO knee.
Being in the clinch and having that control also provides you a way to defend yourself from any counters that your opponent might throw, as you’ll be too close for most punches and kicks, and can control your opponent's arms and legs to defend against their knees and elbows.
That being said with knees being so commonly thrown from the clinch, most people won’t expect a knee from the outside. This is where step in knees come in and we have one of the best in the world to demonstrate how to perform this technique.
In this video, multiple time Muay Thai world champion John Wayne Parr goes over a simple step up to a step up knee. This is a common way to set up the outside knee in Muay Thai that can trick your opponent and help you remain outside of the clinch if you choose to.
The setup is a rear hand straight that you are going to step through with your rear leg, land forward into the opposite stance and knee with what used to be your lead leg. Parr points out the importance of not stepping in between your opponent’s legs and stepping on the outside of their lead leg if both of you are in the same stance. This way you won’t jam your own knee, you’ll lessen the risk of getting into the clinch and you will be able to prevent counters from your opponent, such as a trip.
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For this set up, the rear hand doesn’t need to be a rear cross, you could just frame with your arm. The point is to get them to flinch and cover up, not necessarily to land a strong right. You could even just fake a right hand if that's what they are thinking about.
This knee is usually used when both fighters are using the same stance, such as orthodox vs orthodox. This is because when you step in knee, your knee will land straight on your opponent's body easily and you don’t need to change anything about the angle.
Off this knee you could enter the clinch and throw more knees but if your opponent does cover up, it might be hard to get a solid level of control, especially if you prefer a more traditional Muay Thai clinch. If you want to avoid that you can simply pivot out of your new stance or step out and return to your stance preferred stance if that's what you want.
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