The muay thai clinch is probably the most distinct and unique aspect of the ‘Art of 8 limbs’.
In fact there probably no other striking dominant combat sport that places so much emphasis on the clinch.
“Sister” arts to muay thai such as Lethwei and Khun Khmer from Myanmar and Cambodia respectively also actively use the clinch in fighting.
And without the clinch game muay thai would look a lot like kickboxing.
If you want to improve your clinch game or want to learn how to train the basics (and eventually master and dominate) the clinch then it all comes down to practice, drilling and sparring – a lot!
So read on to find out how to improve your clinch game and dominate the your opponents and sparring partners.
What is a clinch in muay thai?
The clinch in muay thai is the grappling part of muay thai that utilises close distance ‘upper body wrestling’ to gain a dominant position.
The clinch is a highly developed aspect of muay thai and most gyms dedicate a lot of time in training to clinch work and clinch sparring.
Upper body grappling, knees, elbows and sweeps and throws all are aspects of the clinch in the ‘Art of 8 limbs’..
The clinch is also one of the hardest and toughest aspects of muay thai to learn and master.
What is the objective of the clinch in muay thai?
The primary objective of the clinch is dominate an opponent physically by putting them in a position where they cannot throw or land effective strikes and to off balance them to throw, trip or sweep them to the ground.
Putting an opponent on the ground scores very highly under traditional muay thai rules and the clinch is very useful for achieving this.
The clinch primarily is used by muay khao fighters who want get hold of their opponents, exert their strength in the clinch and deliver devastating knees and elbows to wear down their opponent or KO them.
The clinch can also be used as it is used in Western boxing where it can be used to negate an opponents striking and allow a fighter to catch their breath or regain their composure and balance especially if they have been rocked.
Tying an opponent up in the clinch can allow for a fighter to recover and catch a breather until the referee separates the fighters.
In this way the objective of the clinch is similar to Western boxing and is very useful against a high volume heavy, wild puncher.
Training the Muay Thai Clinch
Typical gyms in Thailand will dedicate a lot of time to clinch training and sparring.
This is especially so if the style of the gym utilizes a lot of clinching as well as knees and elbows.
Training typically consists of sparring and drilling with no gloves.
Sparring sessions of the “Winner stays in the middle” or “Shark tank” type sparring is employed for up to an hour several sessions per week.
In this clinch sparring the “winner” is the one who can a sparring partner to the ground and a fresh opponent will immediately replace the downed fighter and spar the “winner”.
This can go on for many rounds and is gruelling physical training.
This type of training develops mental fortitude as well as physcial strenght and of course practice for clinch techniques.
Clinch sparring is usually done without gloves and usually the only strikes used are knees (with a lot of the sting taken out of them so as not to injure your partner).
Solo Training to Improve Clinch
Lots of sparring and partner work is the best way to improve your clinch.
But without a partner or gym to train at you can still work to improve your clinch game with solo drills.
Training clinch also includes neck strengthening exercises such as gripping weighted buckets by rope with your teeth and lifting with your jaw and neck muscles and this can be done solo.
Some of the more useful drills include clinching with the heavy bag.
Manipulating the motion and position of the bag to mimic clinch sparring is also very useful to do.
For example you can from neutral stance, step back with the right foot and pull with your right hand (also push with the left) to land a knee mimicking off balancing your opponent.
Clinch knees are a common part of all muay thai sessions and can also be done solo at home with the heavy bag.
Check out the very useful solo heavy bag clinch drills one can do with a resistance band.
Is the muay thai clinch effective?
100% yes!
The muay thai clinch is very effective as a fighting technique.
One of the most dominant muay thai fighers in the history of the sport, Dieselnoi, utilised the clinch to great effectiveness to dominate his opponents.
Widely considered one of the Top 5 greatest ever muay thai fighters in history, Dieselnoi was a renowned muay khao fighter and used the clinch to dominate his opponents, rag-doll them and land crushing knees to wear his opponents down and grind them into the dust.
The Muay Thai Clinch in MMA
Outside of muay thai, the clinch is very effective in MMA as demonstrated by one of the legends of MMA, Anderson Silva.
Silva utilised the “plum” position to great effectiveness to control opponents in MMA to land elbows and knees or to off balance them and land a strike as the opponent was sent flying out of the clinch.
The “plum” actually refers to one grip or position in the muay thai clinch games and is very dominant as both of a fighters hands have inside position with both hands pressing down on the back of the opponents head continuously breaking their posture.
And Silva used the muay thai ‘plum’ to great effectiveness in his MMA game.
How to Learn the Muay Thai Clinch
The best way to learn the clinch would be to get live instruction from an experienced trainer to teach you the clinch and spar a lot!
Once you have the basic techniques of entering the clinch and pummelling for a dominant position the trainer will teach you a few of their favorite techniques from the clinch.
Whether throwing knees, elbows, off balancing and throwing an opponent down, you will then get thrown into clinch sparring.
This is the best way to learn the clinch game and see which techniques work best for you and your game.
Learning and Training the Muay Thai Clinch Outside of the Gym
If you cant access a gym or trainer you can start to learn the clinch with online instruction or books and DVDs about the clinch.
If you are reading this post then its likely you have internet access and learning online may be easier than searching for ordering and waiting to receiving physical books or DVDS.
Even as a complete beginner these resources can be useful to get an inside look at the muay thai clinch.
#1 Clinch Resource – “Clinch King”
Clinch King is a video instructional resource produced by pro fighter Sean Fagan.
It is the #1 recommended resource for learning and training the clinch outside of the gym and live instruction.
Fagan is also known as the Muay Thai Guy and has an extremely popular YouTube channel.
Sean who is a pro fighter currently living in Thailand enlisted the help of Thai trainers from his gym to provide clinch demonstrations and partner drills.
This online video series is valuable for all levels but especially for those who want to learn the clinch from the basics up.
Get access to the “Clinch King” online video series.
DVD Instructional
DVD instructional for the clinch can be useful learning guides or supplementary guides for your live training as well.
The Muay Thai Clinch by Maliapet
Some of the best DVDs available include those available at Budo Videos at their website budovideos.com
I particularly like the DVD instruction from Maliapet. This DVD series is also available on demand online at a cheaper price at Budo Videos website.
The instructor is Malaipet “The Diamond” Sasiprapa.
- Technique and strategy covered includes:
- Closing the Distance
- Clinch Entry
- Overhook/Underhook
- Pummelling
- Clinch Against Taller Opponents
The DVD set also covers escaping common clinch positions.
Books
In addition to online access, digital video and DVDs there are also some useful books available to order online to help your clinch.
5. MMA Instruction Manual: The Muay Thai Clinch, Takedowns, Takedown Defense, and Ground Fighting
In this book by Anderson Silva, he demonstrates how to devastate opponents from the Muay Thai clinch with off-balancing techniques and brutal knee and elbow strikes.
You can read real reader reviews and ratings of Anderson Silva’s book from goodreads.com
Benjamin Miller a reviewer of the book says,
The book is set up as step by step instructions with pictures, and captions for each of the pictures. The strength behind this way of displaying the content is the person reading gets to see the action as they are reading the caption. But this might not work for people who need more details in the captions rather than the pictures showing most of the detail, which is a weakness.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10587920-mma-instruction-manual
Summary
The clinch game in muay thai is highly developed and a major part of any gym’s training sessions.
The best way to learn and develop your clinch game would be to actually spar – a lot!
And spar with partners who ar better at the clinch than you so you can learn what works for you, and utilise your strengths.
But if you cannot get to regular live training and sparring or you want to learn on your own you can also learn the basics and supplement your live training with solo training.
Using the ‘out of the gym’ resources described in this post and setting aside time to actually practice the techniques through i) solo drilling with the heavy bag ii) shadow clinching iii) partner drills outside the gym you will improve over time.
