Bonus Session 7: Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Forward Check | 39 min (Patreon)

Karuhat Sor. Supawan

3x Lumpinee champion

Note: 1've written a companion piece on my public blog which goes into depth on the Forward Check and make a very good study guide to get the most out of what Karuhat is teaching in this session. The Brilliance of Karuhat's Forward Check 

This is a Bonus Session with Karuhat, and one that I’m really excited about. The progression of techniques and tactics that Karuhat has been teaching me is this gradual unfolding, so I can just see a little more each time we work together, and hopefully you can too (the links to past sessions are below). He’s very patient, just giving little bits of his incredible fighting style at a time. What’s interesting about this session in particular is that I stole this forward check that he does off of a highlight reel on Youtube. Kevin noticed this forward check with Karuhat’s back leg (whichever leg is back, as he’s a switching fighter), which he’d only begun to correct with me in our time together. So, we watched this highlight reel and only focused on Karuhat’s back leg - it’s astonishing how much he uses this technique. Not only are his blocks crazy fast, but because it comes forward instead of out, he can effectively change stance on his block. So, for about 2 weeks I worked on this in the gym by myself, practicing in shadow and on the bag, just barely starting to toy with it in sparring and clinching (you can use it in clinch because, unlike any other block/check I’ve ever seen, Karuhat uses it as a fake as well). I even filmed this technique vlog on the forward check, as I was working on it. This would be good to watch to get the most of out this bonus session.

So, when I got to work with Karuhat on my way up to Chiang Mai this last week, I showed him what I’d been working on and he just picked it up and started shaping it. Like, “look what I stole from you,” and then he’s like, “yeah, let me show you how to use it correctly.” Incredible. It’s part of a whole system of using that block as a fake, a trigger, a timing mechanism, and because it comes forward instead of to the side - as many (also correct) checks do - it can very quickly and easily become a teep, a kick, or a sweep. It’s a defense that becomes offensive in the blink of an eye.

In the time prior to when this video starts, Karuhat was working with me on staying in. He told me that this forward check allows you to stay in, as well as being a check more quickly accessible when you’re in. He couples it with this kind of crouching block of the head, with his elbows coming forward and to the center to fully encase his head. So, that part isn’t in this video, I made this session an edit which focuses on the block itself, but it’s relevent to mention it because the idea of this check and how it comes forward is to not break your frame. The knee comes forward the way the elbows come forward on that upper block, so you’re protected inside your frame. But the knee doesn’t cross your body’s center line, as that would cause you to be off-balance upon impact of the kick you’re checking. With this forward check, stay in. For those following along, this same in-frame principle is also at work in The Golden Kick. They compliment each other, and can hide within each other.

What to look for: 

1. Bringing the forward check up as a fake. Because it looks the same to teep, block, or do a Golden Kick, faking with that back leg gives you lots of options when your opponent responds to whichever thing they think you’re doing. 
2. If they fake a kick and don’t kick, you kick them first. 
3. If they kick, you block. 
4. If they block, you teep. If they come forward, you sweep the front leg. I kept punting his leg on this sweep because I wasn’t going wide enough. You really don’t need power at all. You just make contact with the standing leg and as you keep moving to the side there’s this breaking point where it trips them. It’s not power at all, it’s persistence. Don’t hook the leg, just kind of pull sideways with the top/side of your foot.
5. After using the block as a fake, you can either stand your ground and kick or take a step backwards and as your opponent follows you, then throw that kick. You can also sweep directly off of the kick, by bringing the foot back down to either square or slightly forward.
6. As we got to just moving around and kind of sparring, I forgot all about the forward check. By losing focus on it, I lost the button for the kick, teep and sweep with it. The forward check is almost like a jab, it starts everything, so use it often and consistently and allow the attacks off of it to be the variety or unpredictable part. I train it as a timing mechanism and part of my rhythm, then when I forget about it I’m off the beat, so to speak. So, I needed to focus on that part and all the other bits would come off of it naturally, rather than trying to get to the “tricks” without using the rhythm of the forward check as the start button. 
7. As with everything Karuhat does, relaxation is the key to everything. He tells me that I’m too slow when trying to do a kick and then sweep, consecutively. That’s because my foot was coming back behind me after the kick (thinking I would kick again) rather than square for the sweep. Too tense. Then, when I make that correction I start rushing - again, tension - rather than letting the smoothness of the transition between those moves be what makes them invisible. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Read my public article on Karuhat's Forward Check, with fight film study and GIFs here.

Other Karuhat sessions in the Library:

#27 Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Tension & Kicking Dynamics (104 min) watch it here

#20 Karuhat Sor Supawan - Switching Attack (144 min) watch it here

#11 Karuhat Sor. Supawan Session 2 - Float and Shock (82 min) watch it here

#7 Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Be Like Sand (62 min) watch it here

Bonus Session 1:  Karuhat Sor. Supawan | Advanced Switching Footwork | 60 min  - watch it here