Footwork is one of the foundations of being a good Thai Boxer. All offense and defense comes from being able to move quickly, while staying on-balance. Attacking someone requires proper footwork fundamentals.
And a solid defensive strategy, is to be a moving target rather than a still target. We’ll go over how to move forward to pressure your opponent, move back to evade, and left and right to either defend or set-up an attack.
Proper footwork for boxing and Muay Thai is not like walking, where you’re probably used to putting one foot in front of the other. Whichever direction you want to move, the foot closest to that direction will move first.
Furthermore, for the most part, there will never been an instance where you cross your legs, switch your stance, or have your feet parallel or touching each other.
Let’s have a look:
We start in our fight stance: feet shoulders-width apart, hands up, chin down.
Moving forward means your lead foot moves forward and your back foot moves behind it.
Keeping your feet should width apart. Take small steps. And stay light on the balls of your feet.
• Repeat for moving backwards: Rear Leg, then Lead Leg
• Repeat for moving right: Right Leg, then Left Leg
• Repeat for moving left: Left Leg, then Right Leg
I want you to pay attention to my shoulder line as I move and change directions.
You should move smoothly with a certain lightness, as though you’re riding a wave up and down in the ocean.
To incorporate this into your training, practice moving 3-paces in each of these 4 directions, making a square, switching the direction of your square every 30 seconds, for one full 3-minute round.
If you find yourself getting stuck moving in any of the directions, spend a little time practicing moving that direction. You’ll often find moving in one direction is more difficult than the others.