Unique Clinching Concepts With Anderson Silva
The Muay Thai clinch has uniquely affected MMA as it showed the world a concept combining grappling and striking together to create an effective method to work from the close range.
The clinch became popular with the rising success of Muay Thai fighters in MMA and caught the eyes of the fans with all the powerful strikes seen from the clinch; those strikes can break even the most formidable opponents, as we saw in many fights.The mechanics behind the clinch are the reason for its success; the clinch is so effective because we control the end of the lever (the head), which allows us to control our opponent posture and balance without putting a lot of effort into it.
Because the clinch is a form of grappling mixed with strikes, fighters must develop unique skills with rigorous hours of training inside the clinch. A clinch fighter wears you down with his weight until he finds the opening to hurt you with vicious blows.
As you get better inside the clinch, you start to understand how deep and sophisticated this method of fighting is. As we enter the clinch world, let’s look at the types of clinch’s we have - Full plum, Half plum, Body Lock, Over/Under Position, And Head And Arm Clinch.
In the clinch, we will mainly use strikes and sweeps as our primary techniques. Good Muay fighters like to mix the two, so as the opponent defends one, he is open to the other, creating a dynamic way of fighting.
The most noticeable problem practitioners have in the clinch is their inability to break the opponent’s posture and keep it broken. As long as our opponent is postured, he is robust and powerful, so it will be hard to move him around. The simplest way to teach the clinch in a way that helps us learn how to break an opponent’s posture is to teach the student to control the end of the lever to apply force efficiently.
In this video, Anderson Silva will show us how he uses different grips inside the clinch to control his opponent’s posture.
Who Is Anderson Silva?
Anderson Silva is a Brazillian MMA fighter considered by many the greatest MMA fighters ever to live. Silva started his martial arts journey as a Brazilian kid, training in various martial arts like BJJ, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, and Capoeira. As Silva got older and became a professional fighter, he fought for the UFC Middleweight Title and won. Silva reigned over the Middleweight division for the longest time, and he looked unbeatable at the time.
Learn from ALL-Time Great Anderson Silva! Click Learn More!
The Concept Of Controlling The Head
The video starts with Anderson explaining to us that the key to understanding the clinch on a high level is knowing how to protect yourself inside the clinch, which we will learn today.
Now Anderson uses his partner Jason to show us a critical detail we must understand inside the clinch. When Jason is standing straight, and Anderson bend his head sideways, what happens?
When the head bends, the whole body loses alignment causing weakness in posture and off balancement. The same happens when I pull his head down or push it up - the body loses its power, and the posture breaks.
So as we control the head of our adversary, we will control his body also. When we protect ourselves against an opponent trying to grab and clinch, most of us try to go full plum and control the opponent through the arms.
But what Anderson likes to do in this position to deal with the full plum is to go around the opponent’s arms and pull the head sideways, so his ear and shoulder touch together, which will make him lose his balance and the clinch in turn.
Notice that I can pull or push his head sideways on both sides; as long as I’m breaking that posture, he can’t attack or danger me in any way, so I’m the one in control. When I want to attack from this position, I want to use my knees and aim them at the same side the head is bent towards to hit his body where it is soft and weak.
As I bend his head with one hand, I want to sneak in my other hand between his arms so I can reinforce the control of the head with another component and make him extend his body, trying to keep hold of me.
Also, look at how Anderson aims the knees to the extended arm, trying to keep hold of me, hurting it and making it useless. This type of clinch is so simple and effective because it follows the primary concept behind the clinch - when you control the head, you control the whole body.
Learn More From Anderson Silva
If you want to learn more from the great Anderson Silva, then check out his complete instructional - “The Comprehensive Strikers Guide - By Anderson Silva” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.