Blocking High Kicks With Jean-Charles Skarbowsky
High kicks (known as Tei Kan Kor in Thai) are probably one of the most highlight reel worthy techniques in all of combat sports. High kicks are one of the techniques with the highest chance to completely knockout an opponent if it lands. A high kick doesn’t even need to land completely flush in order to cause a knock down or even a knockout. Even if a head kick doesn’t knockout your opponent, it will deal a ton of damage which can lead to a finish or at least drastically move the fight in your favor. High kicks are also just a really good and simple technique if you want to get a good reaction from training partners in class or crowds at a competition.
All those reasons and more are why you should be training your high kicks and how to land them but there is something else you need to learn. That something is that ability to defend against high kicks to make sure that you don’t end up on someone else’s highlight reel.
In this video, Jean-Charles Skarbowsky goes over how you should be protecting your head from high kicks. Jean-Charles Skarbowsky is one of the greatest non-Thai Muay Thai fighters in the sport's history. Skarbowsky is a multiple time world Muay Thai champion and multiple time Rajadamnern stadium champion, which is one of the highest championships that one can earn in Muay Thai.
The head kick block technique is pretty simple but if it’s done wrong it can lead to you getting both knocked out and getting a broken arm. When you see that your opponent is going for a high kick, Skarbowsky says that you need to flex and tense the arm on the side that the kick is coming to. This way you will be able to take the high kick better and you won’t get thrown off balance. Doing this will also stop your hand from being pushed into your own face, making you hit yourself.
If you feel like you need to add more support in certain situations, like if you're facing off against a very hard kicker, you can bring the other arm in for extra support. The best way to do this is to bring the other arm to the side getting kicked and kicking out the palm of that hand. This will take even more the edge off of the kicks and have them hurt your arms less.
There is another way that you can help limit the damage to your arm. You can bring the blocking side arm to your head and hold it there tightly, almost as if you are on the phone. Doing this and bringing in the other hand will limit the damage to your arms and will hello you stand your ground when getting kicked.
If you want to learn more fundamental Muay Thai techniques like this from Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, then check out “Beginner Edition: Muay Thai Masterclass by Jean-Charles Skarbowsky” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!