3 Form Tips that Changed my Muay Thai

In the 17 years that I’ve been training Muay Thai, there have been 3 fight tips that changed my form:

0:00 Intro
0:54 (1.) Narrow Stance (Balance)
3:42 (2.) Upper Body Tall (Better Kicks & Defense)
5:42 (3.) Look Through Binoculars (Punches & Defense)

Note that these are merely suggestion based upon my personal evolution, and that your form and style will vary dependent upon your body type, fight strategies, and other factors.

Play around and find the style that best works for you!


Special thanks to the great coaching minds that have helped me grow over the years, including, but not limited to:
Coach Bob Peach & Brad Daddis
Liam Harrison
Bryan Popejoy
Ognjen Topic
Kirian Fitzgibbons
Jo Nattawut
And many, many more 🙏
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[aznprdn]

Tried the "binocular guard" at sparring the other day - it worked well against opponents at your height or taller than you. It threw them off to see the guard more high and threw less straight punches to the forehead. However, I noticed more people aiming for the liver/ribs. Sparred a shorter person and they kept going for the liver with punches and knees - maybe bc they can see the liver as an option more clearly. Lesson learned: If you can help it, don't keep one guard (standard, long, binocular etc.) throughout rounds - always read the distance/opponent/situation and adjust.

[hardhurt]

Dang homie you're giving away some gems there with the tips on your guard

[EJayydontplay]

Your tutorial videos are so underrated please dont stop uploading

[lmkestep]

Noticed that I was getting countered after my kicks in sparring a lot. Mostly felt unbalanced due to 1. Being heavy with a wide stance and 2. Leaning back with my roundhouses which left me unbalanced to defend or do anything. This literally Is what I needed. Thanks a lot Shane! You’re doing a lot for the Muay Thai community

[fl]

Man I'm happy cause I had ONE legit Muay Thai coach who really taught me all these details.. a Jean-Charles Skarbowsky personal friend living in Montreal. The man was obsessed with details and as a student, your only job is to trust your coach 100%, which I did, and now I can see that I'm doing all the things you're showing very well already and that couldn't make me happier. I reckon the stance is not the best in a mixed martial arts situation, but when it's Muay Thai for Muay Thai, you better listen to what the Thai's have mastered for centuries or you WILL pay for your lack of humility.

[darksoul]

Been following you channel for 4 years now...never been disappointed

[Cryttanz]

Three very solid and underutilized tips, took me many years to learn these things from watching endless amounts of fights and youtube videos and you summarized them all in 1 video so that's awesome.

[aaronmarshall]

Great tips Coach Shane, A lot of great tips that I'll def use in my next Muay Thai fight. Been watching your vids for years. Still always learning and growing this amazing channel. Keep up the amazing work. OSS
Love from Australia

[alexteo]

Really relate to all the tips here, had to slowly discover these through training in the past year, but this really sums it up well!

Standing tall, somehow, does help significantly with power. Gabriel Varga did mention a similar point in his analysis of Buakaw's kicks.

[Ash__Adler]

Ah, very nice tip about the switch step spacing! I'll have to keep that one in mind.

Coincidentally enough, I was talking with a friend of mine (a 5th dan black belt in karate) recently about torso position on high kicks, and she said the same thing: stay tall by default, choose to lean back if you have a reason to. I'm generally good about it with my rear kick (I enjoy whipping up a head kick after a close lead hook or lead elbow spear 🙂), but it's something I've been working on improving for my lead leg kicks as well.

Binocular guard also carries over well to small/no-glove fighting, since you'll want to be blocking with forearms and elbows instead of hands for that 🙂

[ultimatesurvivor]

My teacher always says if technique is lacking, "more core". Core strength is vital for making it easier to put your body where your brain wants it to be.

[AK-kcco]

Great stuff! Watching this 30 mins before a hard sparring session, all noted.

Thanks!

[joestripling]

Sir thank you for posting this ..all 3 of these i have been preaching for years training muay thai .. Thai style not American style all day.

[MISTERPERFECT]

What's up, Shane? Long time fan here. This is a great video. These very small tips make a world of difference. I especially like the narrow stance tip to maintain balance. It's subtle, but I've also noticed that Giorgio Petrosyan uses that stance as well. Keep them coming, Shane 👊🏿🥊.

[kb]

Yo Shane help us out with some revisited street defense. Do you still stand by your tips from 2013, or have you learned any different techniques?

[mizutxko]

Samart's and Dutch style Muay Thai fighters have more bladed stances, because they usually punch more, like Muay Mat's

[slayer]

I grew up with your channel, mate! Thank you for the tips and what you do for us, because of you I managed to go to the distance during my 10 years of shotokan karate traning and still keeping my spark for the martial arts.Thank you Shane !

[Murcielagscuro]

Looking forward to this video, Shane.

[alessandrosera]

Thank you Shane. Really, thank you so much🙏🏻🇮🇹

[jleo_.]

Been watching you since junior high school. Your videos were very helpful ever since. Props to you man