Does Muay Thai use grappling?

Although Muay Thai is primarily based around throwing strikes, it does also have a grappling element that at times is severely underrated. So, even though most of the time it would be correct to call Muay Thai a striking-based martial art, there are certainly grappling components that are used.

If you’ve ever seen a Muay Thai fight then you will see grappling used and sometimes it’s actually quite common. Like all aspects of fighting, the grappling used in Muay Thai is highly technical and takes years to master. It’s also true to say that the grappling used in Muay Thai is pretty unique and its style isn’t replicated in too many other martial arts. Here, we shall discuss the key parts of grappling in Muay Thai and why it’s important to learn.

The Clinch

The clinch is famous and is one of the most distinguishable parts of Muay Thai. This is when two fighters engage in a clinch position, where their heads are in close proximity and they’re often engaging in a collar tie. A collar tie is a wrestling term to describe when two fighters entangle their arms and have a hand on the back of the opponent’s head. The reason to do this is for control and depending on the dynamics of the collar tie, you could be in a neutral, dominant, or weak position.

This position often leads to strikes and trips, depending on what the fighter chooses to use. For instance, some fighters will happily engage in a clinch purely to throw elbows – whilst others will use it to off-balance their opponent and score a sweep.

What is the Thai Clinch?

So far, we’ve looked at general clinch positions used in Muay Thai, however – there is a more specific, dominant clinch to be had which is called the Thai clinch. This is also referred to as the Plum and is seen as the best clinch position you can get in Muay Thai.

The Plum is when you’re able to get both of your hands on the back of the opponent’s head whilst standing opposite them. This is also known as a double collar tie in wrestling and is a very powerful form of control. To do this, you’ll need to get an inside position for your arms whilst clinching, then you can get both hands on the back of the head.

The reason the Thai clinch is so effective as both hands break the posture of the opponent which makes it easier to control their head. As you can imagine, this leads to easier sweeps, as well as the possibility to bring their head down and hit them with a knee to the face. Because of this, lots of Nak Muay will actively avoid being put in the Plum position due to understanding the danger that it brings.

Strikes from the clinch

The clinch can be used to sweep or strike. As mentioned earlier, this really depends on your intentions at the moment, as well as any reactions that your opponent gives. Famously, one of the most distinct parts of the Thai clinch is the use of elbows. Although clinching is used in boxing, it’s used mostly as a stalling position and has little action. This differs significantly from Muay Thai where it can be quite aggressive.

This often means that fighters will throw elbows from the clinch which can be very effective. For example, if you’re engaged in a collar tie with your opponent and you win the inside position of the arms, then it’s possible to slip an elbow to their face. It’s possible to knock people out with elbows, as well as break bones. Due to the pointy nature of the elbow, it’s also easier to cut your opponent when compared to throwing punches.

Other upper-body strikes from the clinch include punches. If you’re up and very close to your opponent, then throwing punches of any significance or power is very difficult to do. So, you’ll instead see most punches thrown when exiting the clinch. This makes sense, as it’s a time when there’s space to be able to generate punches with real power. In MMA, this type of fighting is often referred to as dirty boxing.

Lower body clinch strikes

The last way of striking your opponent from the clinch is by using your legs. You can choose to calf kick if necessary and this again depends on the space available. For example, if the clinch has enough distance then calf kicks can be effective. However, like punches if the clinch is too close and tight, then your kicks will probably lack the space to generate adequate power.

Lastly, there are also knees. We often see knees to the body or the face which is done when someone achieves a dominant Thai clinch. If you’re able to get a Plum position then it makes pulling the opponent’s head down to the floor relatively easy. With this achieved, you can then strike with knees to the head. Obviously, this is very painful and can result in a TKO if done with enough force.

Trips and sweeps

Aside from clinching, there are also a number of trips and sweeps that are used in Muay Thai. These are used to score points and in other scenarios such as MMA, can lead to a dominant position on the floor. However, in Muay Thai – the action is stopped when someone is tripped, much like you will see in Karate.

Before continuing, it’s also important to clarify the difference between trips, sweeps, and takedowns. In Muay Thai, you cannot do a wrestler’s double leg takedown, nor can you do a Judokas Uchi Mata. Put differently, there are certain rules that you must abide by. This means you can’t grab the leg and use it to throw someone to the floor, nor can you reap their leg or get under their hips to initiate a toss either.

Basically, the emphasis is to literally sweep the feet of the opponent using your own feet. These sweeps are sometimes seen in Judo and require a lot of practice, timing, and off-balancing the opponent.

Examples of trips and sweeps in Muay Thai

Generally speaking, there are two main ways to trip people in Muay Thai. The first is from the clinch and the second is when you catch a foot. Firstly, when someone is in the clinch, you can time certain sweeps to put the opponent down. Imagine the opponent is kneeing your torso whilst in the clinch.

Although this is offensive, it also means that whilst using the knee, they will temporarily have one leg on the ground, instead of two. This is a good time to use your foot to sweep the standing leg due to their compromised base. In doing this, you can counter knees with a foot sweep. Sometimes, you can also be more offensive and less reactive when doing trips as well.

For example, you could off-balance the opponent’s head with an aggressive, upper body collar tie, and time knocking their foot when they’re leaning too far in one direction. This type of sweep often looks effortless but is very hard to do. Although it looks good, these sorts of foot sweeps take years to learn the timing and feeling to put into practice.

Grabbing the foot

The second way of doing a foot sweep is by grabbing the foot. By this, we don’t mean performing a single-leg takedown either. In Muay Thai, it’s legal to intercept a kick by holding the opponent’s foot. As long as you grab the foot and not the leg, this is ok. From here, you can then kick their other leg to score a sweep. This is quite common and is one of the few sweeps that can be performed outside of the clinch.

It is a good rule to have as otherwise fighters could aimlessly spam kicks with little recourse. So, it basically punishes fighters who throw sloppy kicks as they can pay for it in the form of a sweep. Like all sweeps, this is based on timing and experience. If you notice that your opponent keeps throwing kicks that you may be able to catch, then there’s a strong possibility you could grab their foot and chop the other leg down like an ax to a tree.

Is it possible to do Muay Thai without grappling?

Honestly speaking, you can’t really train Muay Thai without using its grappling components. Whilst you could train without grappling, the outcome would be that you’d be very limited and would suffer as a result.

This would be the equivalent of training Judo without learning submissions. Although submissions aren’t the main part of Judo (throwing is), they’re still critical and are used at all levels. For example, imagine if someone got you in a Plum and you didn’t know how to escape or counter it. The consequences would be very bad. Similarly, if someone threw kicks but you weren’t able to grab the foot. Once again, you’d be doing yourself a disservice.

Basically, although striking makes up most of the action, grappling is still a key part of Muay Thai and should not be dismissed. It can be used to create attacks, or even to grab a breather and defend if you’re getting hit. One of the best Nak Muay ever, Saenchai was famous for his sweeps from the clinch, where he effortlessly put his opponents to the canvas. So, if grappling is used by the likes of Saenchai and countless others, then there’s no need to neglect it or avoid learning how to grapple.

Conclusion

Grappling in Muay Thai is highly technical and although it may look easy, putting everything together is very difficult. Typically in most martial arts, you’ll either learn striking or grappling. The difference with Muay Thai is that you’ll simultaneously do both at the same time. This means there are often many dilemmas and a lot of stuff happening quickly.

Like all martial arts though, these skills can be mastered with enough patience and hard work. So, if you want to get good at grappling in Muay Thai then head to your local gym, drill the aforementioned moves and then try to put them into practice whilst sparring. It won’t be easy but it will definitely be worth it in terms of improving your grappling as a Nak Muay.

If you’d like to improve your clinch and takedown game then check out this book by Anderson Silva.