How to do Knees in Thai Boxing

How to throw Knees in Thai Boxing & MMA

Knees are very powerful and were made famous in MMA by the ‘Axe Murderer’ Vanderlai Silva.

The most powerful knee will be from your rear leg
For more power slam your heel down with your lead leg & pivot up onto your toes on that foot
Drive off from your back foot to initiate the actual knee
Lean back and drive your knee forwards &/or upwards depending on the target

Straight Knees from a Thai Clinch

Secure the clinch, pull with your back muscles, not biceps

Raise striking foot backwards & continue to pull on the head with the clinch:

Make space & generate power by hyper-extending the hip

As fast/powerfully as possible – move the knee from the rear leg towards the opponent/bag

On contact drive the knee in & forwards and lean back slightly to penetrate deeper with the knee

Knees are much more powerful when delivered from a Thai Clinch, as you pull the opponent’s head down into each knee or pull him into a knee to the stomach.

A lot of the power will come from the ‘counter movement’. If your knee is very close, it is difficult to develop power, but if you step back first or lift your leg up, you can develop much more momentum

The ‘load up’ of the knee with a huge swing is possibly overkill – especially if throwing knees at the head – just stepping back can provide more than enough power.