Set Up A Devastating Elbow From The Clinch With Bas Rutten
The clinch is the bread and butter of Muay Thai, and there’s a good reason for that; as we control our opponent in the clinch, we can deliver strikes with tremendous force behind them, those strikes can break even the most formidable opponents.
Muay Thai fighters spend a lot of time in the clinch as they know the importance of it. The clinch is so powerful because we control the end of the lever (the head), which helps us pull a strong opponent into our shots or off-balance him when he is tight.
If you have ever been to a clinch training, you know how much technique and skill goes into there; it is a form of grappling with strikes with a lot of knowledge behind it. A clinch fighter will wear you down as you will constantly carry his weight and try to catch your balance until he finds the opening he needs to finish the fight and hurt you.
But the clinch is a very vast subject; in fact, some consider it a martial art for itself, as it has many forms and techniques for every position gained. As we enter the clinch world, let’s look at the types of clinch’s we have:
- Full plum
- Half plum
- Body lock
- Over/Under position
- Head and Arm clinch
In all the clinch types available, we have similar strikes we can use, and the weapons of use we got are - The knees and elbows. When we are in the clinch, we mix the knees and elbows to complement each other, and as the opponent defends one, he is open to the other.
Most beginners in Muay Thai make the mistake of defending the knees by lowering their hands, and this is terrible as they are open to elbows. A good Muay Thai fighter will cut an opponent that lowers his hands in the clinch, and as he comes back to defend the face, the Muay Thai fighter will continue to knee the body.
As we can see, both strikes work well together and are hard to deal with when combined. When we learn the correct way to defend against knees in the clinch, we learn to posture up and get into a hip to hip position, where there is no space for a knee to penetrate and damage us while we keep our hands up against elbows.
In this video, Bas Rutten will show us he sets up a powerful elbow inside the clinch by controlling the opponent’s face and denying vision.
Who Is Bas Rutten?
Bus Rutten is one of the best fighters the world has ever seen. Bas used to compete in all forms of unarmed combat; as long as he could test his fighting skills, he would accept any fight. Bas was known for always finding devastating blows to land, hurting his opponents badly no matter if they used protection or not. As Bas got older, he got into the UFC, where he won the heavyweight title and became a well-known Hall Of Famer.
Check Out Rutten's Instructionals HERE! Click Learn More!
Landing An Elbow From HELL
The video starts with Bas explaining that the subject we will learn today will be landing a powerful elbow from the clinch. To land elbows effectively in the clinch, we must distract our opponent first, so he opens himself up, and we’re going to do it by blindsiding him.
So when we clinch, we want to put the opponent’s head outside my shoulder, now he cannot see what happens inside the clinch. But I don’t leave his head out without giving him anything to focus on, so we throw our outside knee that he can see and force him to look at it while we prepare our elbow or forearm strike, which he can’t see coming.
Now to land the elbow, we throw the knee to the midsection, and as we come back, we release him and throw a powerful elbow on his blind side. This elbow is so devastating because we can have a lot of power in it with the entire rotation and torque of the body.
We must always make sure the opponent can’t see us preparing the strike to guarantee that the elbow will land. Another strike we can use from there is the forearm strike which lands right on the back of the opponent’s head and ensures a knockout.
The forearm strike is not an ethical strike to throw as it goes to the back of the head, but it is surely an effective strike. Bas expands on forearm strikes outside the clinch; we can successfully use the forearm strike even against the tightest of high guards, especially with the small gloves the forearm strikes will find a way to penetrate around the hands, and you cannot defend it.
Learn More From Bas Rutten
If you like this content from Bas Rutten, make sure you check out his complete instructional and learn everything Bas has to offer- “Destroying Opponents With Strikes From Every Range” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.