If you are ready to take your Muay Thai game to the next level, then it’s time to start stringing your punches and kicks together into slick combinations that will give you the upper hand on your opponent.
Once you have mastery of all the basic strikes, combining them will help you to catch your opponent off guard, leverage your opponent’s movement in your favor, and open doors for more striking opportunities. If you are looking for some solid combinations to mix into your game, try out these four must-know Muay Thai combinations the next time you step onto the mats.
1) Low Leg Kick, High Head Kick
This combination provides an excellent opportunity to draw your opponent’s hands away from their face, and then capitalize on their dropped hands by kicking toward their head.
Here’s How To Use/Set Up This Combination:
- Throw your first kick low to the leg.
- Immediately follow up with a kick to the head utilizing the same leg.
- Alternatively, you can throw a low kick, high kick combination without ever placing your foot on the ground between the kicks (think of a question mark kick). This will mean the first kick will typically not land, but the head kick is usually a solid strike.
This Combination Is Great Because:
- It will draw your opponent’s hands (and attention) low as you land the leg kick.
- Your opponent’s dropped hands will mean that their head is less guarded, giving you an opportunity to land the head kick.
- It gives you an opportunity to land two solid kicks on your opponent in rapid succession.
This kick combination is excellent if you like to play at kicking range but are struggling to get your opponent’s hands to pull away from protecting their face. Try it the next time you are finding it difficult to land higher kicks.
2) Jab, Cross, Uppercut, Body Kick
This combination is an excellent example of how to string upper and lower body strikes together in rapid succession. It forces your opponent to draw their hands upwards towards their face, opening up their body for a clean body kick.
Here’s How To Use/Set Up This Combination:
- Throw a jab, cross, and hook towards your opponent’s head. While not all of these strikes may cleanly land, they will certainly draw up the hands to a tighter, higher guard.
- Once you finish these strikes and your opponent’s hands are successfully held higher to protect their head, finish with a solid body kick.
This Combination Is Great Because:
- It is quick and easy to put together, yet provides an excellent opportunity to land a heavy and effective body shot.
- This is a great combination to utilize if you are struggling to land shots to the body due to excellent defense of the body.
- The quickness of these strikes strung together can often put your opponent on their heels.
3) Inside Leg Kick, Overhand Right
The inside leg kick, overhand right combo is a simple and effective combination that every Muay Thai athlete needs in their arsenal. It opens up the opportunity for an incredibly heavy overhand right strike while disrupting your opponent’s balance, making this a fun combination to experiment with.
Here’s How To Use/Set Up This Combination:
- Throw the leg kick to the inside of your opponent’s lead leg.
- As you plant your foot back down from your kick, immediately throw the overhand right towards your opponent’s head.
This Combination Is Great Because:
- It leaves your opponent’s lead leg more exposed as it pulls out from under them.
- Your opponent will be forced to focus on regaining their balance.
- Your opponent’s head will be exposed as their hands will tend to draw away from the face when they feel their leg pulled out from under them due to your kick.
- Their displaced weight through their wide legs will also lower their head, giving your overhand right an even clearer line to land.
This combination is great to utilize when your opponent leaves their leg out for a clean shot, especially if they tend to be quite heavy on their lead leg. Further, if you are a bit shorter, this combination lends well towards bringing their head closer to your range so you can more easily land your overhand right. While both shots are nice to land, the kick in the combination is ideally used as a setup to the overhand right.
4) Cross, Body Hook, Cross, Clinch
This combination ends with a bunch of possibilities and open doors within the clinch. It is a great combination to work in towards your opponent to make the clinch (along with knees, elbows, and sweeps) a possibility.
Here’s How To Use/Set Up This Combination:
- Throw the cross to your opponent’s head or body.
- Use head movement and footwork to work straight into the body hook.
- Go straight back to the cross.
- Utilize the movement from the cross and your extended arm to snatch up the clinch.
This Combination Is Great Because:
- The initial cross and body hook help you to work into a closer range on your opponent while keeping their hands busy defending against your strikes.
- The final cross gives you a clean set up to grab the clinch.
- The clinch allows you to end this combination in a dominant position with many doors open for knees, elbows, or even sweeps.
This combination is a fun one to utilize as it helps you to find a way to keep your opponent’s hands busy as you move towards the clinch so you can continue to play and dominate in the ring. Try it the next time you are finding it difficult to cut the distance on your opponent.
Try These Must-Know Muay Thai Combinations
The next time you step on the mats or into the ring, be sure to try some of these combinations. These four combos are ones that all Muay Thai athletes should know and add to their arsenals as they continue to practice the sport.
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