When you see a nice house you’re often drawn to the architecture, materials and colours but rarely do you think about the foundation - the most essential component preventing the house from falling apart, it’s also the first step in the building process. This is what we’re focusing on first… the Muay Thai foundation i.e. the stance. The stance determines your ability to move, attack and defend, if it’s compromised then so are all those techniques. Then you learn how to move in your stance.

The jab (1), cross (2). The most used punches in Muay Thai and Boxing which all serve a purpose in their own way. This includes: keeping you at safe space from your opponent, a distraction, a setup for another attack, a follow-up from an attack and to cause some serious head trauma.

Batter Up! A common parallel for the roundhouse kick is swinging a bat. When batting, the goal isn’t just to hit the ball, it’s to continue the swing right through. This differentiates the Muay Thai roundhouse kick from Taekwondo or Karate style roundhouse kicks. Considering the complexities of this technique, the rear and lead kicks will have two modules to develop the skills.

In here, you will complete all basic punching techniques aimed at the head. Starting with the lead hook, which is arguably the most common punch to achieve knockouts. But, the lead hook carries a high risk of injury if performed incorrectly. Finally, you will learn the uppercuts which seems easy to do but can be challenging to do it properly as you need to engage your legs by dipping and exploding up.

Batter Up! A common parallel for the roundhouse kick is swinging a bat. When batting, the goal isn’t just to hit the ball, it’s to continue the swing right through. This differentiates the Muay Thai roundhouse kick from Taekwondo or Karate style roundhouse kicks. Considering the complexities of this technique, the rear and lead kicks will have two modules to develop the skills.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, the same thing goes for your striking. This week is for practising any training sessions that you found difficult. It’s also an opportunity for you to freestyle 8 rounds on the heavy bag and flow with what you know.

The knee is a spear aimed diagonally upwards through the abdomen. Similar to hook to the body, it's designed to take your soul and take the wind out of you. The wild thing about this technique, it's beautifully simple with minimal effort to perform.

My least favourite technique to cop. The teep achieves two objectives, a) to push you away (which is why it's known as a 'push-kick') and b) like the knee, take the wind/soul from you. This technique when timed correctly is very difficult to defend, making it more deadly.

Elbows are akin to knives (hence the nickname). It's there to cut/slice your opponent and it does so effortlessly when it hits the forehead. Because its bone smashing into a thin layer of skin. The other bonus is that can lead to knockouts. Thankfully, many amateur organisations make it mandatory to wear elbow pads (along with headgear and shin pads). In my time, that care-factor was non-existent.

The other half of the Muay Thai experience at a gym is holding pads. In this course, you will run through on how to holds pads effectively and in a way to prevent injury for yourself and your training partner. To test your reactions, there are POV recordings that you can simulate.

Muay Thai equipment comes in different styles and sizes which can be confusing for a newbie. In this course, I'll provide my recommendations, no affiliations here. Just based on my 16 years experience interacting with these items.