The Clinch Techniques of Yodwicha - 35 Minutes (Patreon)

It took me a long time to first understand the style of fighter that I am and then a while longer (and truthfully it’s still a work in progress) to embrace it. I was a clinch fighter before I even knew how to clinch and really before I even knew that was a thing. In the West we’re exposed to an impossibly small fraction of fighters throughout the history of Muay Thai, most of them very contemporary due to availability of footage through YouTube. So, discovering the different types of fighters and the blossoming group of Muay Khao (Knee Fighter) fighters was very exciting for me. Of all possible superstars to be able to meet, Yodwicha is very high on my list. To be able to actually work with him is beyond that; I’d be thrilled to just watch him training.

I’m not really a celebrity tracker. I fought on the same card as Saenchai and Nong Toom, “the Beautiful Boxer,” once and I was amazed by how friendly they both are, but I don’t geek out over the meeting of stars. Being taught clinch moves by Yodwicha is something else because there’s a kind of generosity to it on his part, Similar to nearly every Muay Thai legend (with very few exceptions), I was touched by Yodwicha’s kindness, interest in working with me and the time he offered. Unlike any of those other legends, however, Yodwicha is still an active fighter and so his style is still evolving. Working with Dieselnoi, Karuhat, Namkabuan, Sagat or Burklerk, they’ve each refined their signature styles over the years that they’ve been retired from fighting, making every move more beautiful and kind of concentrated. Like preserves out of a jar that are the absolute essence of fruit at its peak. But Yodwicha demonstrates his years and years of practice in youth and experience with a kind of potency that isn’t distilled yet; it’s fruit that hasn’t yet been plucked from the tree. And while these older, retired legends all know exactly how incredible they are (that self-recognition is part of their charm and badassery, rather than being a Narcissism - albeit not universally), Yodwicha looked baffled every time I referred to my fandom and cheering for him when I watch on TV, or referencing someone else as a huge fan of his. It’s like he’s surprised anybody knows who he is, which is crazy. He was Yod Muay “Fighter of the Year” four years ago. He’s been a star for a while.

The full video of our session together is at the top this this article, with audio commentary.

As a small bodied person, my trainers for years insisted I should be an evasive, tricky fighter. For me, as a developing clinch fighter, it was maybe like when the Ugly Duckling finally gets to see/meet a swan and he realizes, “that’s what I am, not this other thing I’m not.” I’m still in that awkward teenager phase of not a duck but not quite a graceful swan, Yodwicha is the graceful example.

What We Worked On

You can read the public version of this post which covers the first 5 minutes, there are additional detail notes there, along with some GIFs. As a supporter you get the whole session.

A lot of what Yodwicha worked with me on is immediately accessible, even if not immediately perfected . The fakes he showed me are all from a consistent line, so you don’t have to develop a whole style of trickery, you just hide a handful of attacks in the same brown paper package of a feinted teep. And his system was pretty evident. As a tall figher he prefers to use his shoulders to just snuff out any strength his opponents might have in a clinch lock, then he brings himself to the side to be able to land knee attacks while his opponents are still trying to sort out their own arm pretzels. It wasn’t until our second time working together (I returned a few months later, that is a second session I'll be giving to my supporters in a future post) that I really appreciated how much he uses his shoulders in clinch. I’m short so discovering how to implement my head as another limb has been a huge development, but the way Yodwich uses his shoulders is a whole other thing. I will obsessively study it.

• Fake a teep to knee
• Fake a teep to grab the neck and turn
• Long guard with diagonal forearm to block elbows (forearm not touching face)
• Step behind trip - how to avoid, how to execute
• Elvis hip inside leg throw - avoid and execute
• Long clinch, head under
• Elbows on entry
• Fake teep to elbow
• Lock from the side - pinning shoulder
• Forearm lock with gloves
• Blocking the low clinch waist grab
• Low clinch lock escape - using the opponent’s knee joint
• “Can opener” to rib grab turn
• Arm lock turn behind elbow
• Shoulder pinch and spin behind
• Double plum versus figure 8
• Overturning and punching on entry
• Adjusting an overturn into a super-overturn headlock
• Chatting about how a clinch fighter adjusts to Euro/Western fights

Above are just bullet points on what’s covered, the voiceover audio will give details as you’re watching on each move. I advise you to really watch his body positions, his feet and hips, then how he creates these hyper- “C” shapes with the curve of his back and hollowing out his belly/chest. All of that is vital to his technical execution and it makes huge differences between a good idea and a great technique. He’s also very tall but his clinching isn’t reliant upon him being so much taller than his opponents. A lot of his body positions are super crouched and putting his head and shoulders at the neck, shoulders, chin, and chest of his opponent, which effectively cuts off their leverage and power.

So enjoy this great session with Yodwicha. This is the kind of special supporter only content I'm going to be bringing to my Patreon members. In the next few weeks you probably are going to see quite a few video post like this so I can establish a bit of a library here. Once that gets going it will all settle down to something more regular, once or twice a month.

And remember, as a Patreon supporter of mine you have access to the Closed Facebook Group of my supporters: ask to join and once cleared you can follow these same Patreon Only long form training videos with commentary there (they will be uploaded), and also additional technical videos, and insight into my path and process as a fighter. 

Thank you to everyone here who is contributing to the preservation of 8limbs.us and my work as a student and fighter. Thank you to those patrons who recently have edited their pledges to help advance this new phase I'm going through as a Muay Thai journalist and documentarian. 

If you prefer to watch at regular audio volume without my commentary, here is the session same footage.

If you love clinch technique you can read all my articles on Thai Clinch here.