Using The Teep Effectively With Firas Zahabi
The teep is one of the foundational strikes in Muay Thai; the teep can use it to initiate attacks, defend from strikes, dictate the pace, keep the distance, feint, and deceive.
As you can see, the teep covers so many areas in such a simple manner that many compare it to the jab in boxing. And as you hear coaches shout “establish the jab” in boxing, it is “establish the teep” in Muay Thai, as everything will be more accessible after.
The main problem with the teep is its tricky mechanics, it is not a complicated strike to use in a fight once mastered, but practitioners don’t throw it as much because they feel it is a risky and unstable strike.
Once you understand the simple mechanics the teep has, you will feel much more stable and free to throw it or feint it at any moment.
The teep starts with our feet; when we transition our weight to the back foot, we must keep a flat heel on the ground and straighten our knee; this will help us maintain balance and good posture as we lift our knee to the height of the target and throw the kick.
The moment you can throw the teep freely in a controlled manner without falling forward or backward, you can start using feints by simply lifting your knee in your teep stance and making your opponent react so you can capitalize or analyze him.
Mechanics Run-Down
- move weight to the back foot
- keep your rear heel flat on the mat
- lock your knee and have a straight leg
- lift the knee and throw the kick
Who Is Firas Zahabi
Firas Zahabi is one of the best coaches out there today as he worked with great fighters like GSP, who he coached for his entire career in the UFC; Firas himself is a philosophy student. He is very open about sharing his knowledge with everyone around him, especially on his youtube channel, where he uploads every week and helps many practitioners around the world; nowadays, Firas runs the best gym in Canada - Tristar Gym.
Countering The Jab With A Teep
Firas starts the video by reminding us that we want to parry the jab without reaching our hand away from our face, we want to keep our hands up, and as the jab comes near our face we want to parry it without moving the hand forward (this can be changed when we use the long guard - also shown by Firas)
As the opponent throws a jab at us, we immediately lift our knee and throw the teep to stop him with a beautiful teep counter; notice that the teep can be used on any of the straight punches and not just on the jab.
Notice that when you are teeping, it is tempting to throw the hands down and away from the face, but this can be very dangerous as the tee can slide and miss him, or even by him parrying the teep sideways and following with a strike to the head.
So we want to keep our hands high, but instead of holding them tight, we can use the long guard like shown in previous videos; this will not be the same as extending our hands away from the face to parry. The long guard is used to block and frame anything coming at us, especially when we don’t know if it is a left or right hand coming while using the teep to stop anyone in range.
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