KHAN 5 ELBOWING
As the joint between the upper arm and lower arm the elbow is an extremely powerful weapon. It is solid and very pointed. It can be your secret weapon and cause your opponent serious injury to pass out, given an appropriate move that is precise, strong, fast and on target. The art of elbow work consists of a variety of forms, such as hitting, cutting, wiping and slanting. Before applying your elbow work in practice with your sparring partner, you need to understand it theoretically in order to prevent possible injury and accident. Each item of elbow work is precisely described step-by-step, with animated illustrations and useful tips to ensure clear understanding and visualization.
1. Sok Tee
Sok Tee/Elbow Strike
Elbow strike is considered a short reaching hit that is used only during close quarters fights. The target of the elbow strike is to the face of the opponent, which you could injure, bruise or break. There are two types of elbow striking, with the front elbow or the back elbow. The direction of elbow strike is from top to bottom or upright or below. To train for the elbow strike, you start by bending your knees,
straightened the upper body, put the weight of the body to the back of the hind leg’s foot
and push the elbow in the opposite direction and then twist your hip and shoulders and transfer your weight to the front foot.
As for the back elbow strike, the procedure is the same as mentioned before. The key to an effective elbow strike, is to shift the force from back foot to the front foot and by twisting the hip, waist, shoulders, swinging of the arms and transferring weight from the back to the front
2. Sok Tat
Sok Tat /Horizontal Elbow
Is a type of elbow strike that strikes using the elbows to the face in the direction that parallels to the ground, which could be done either from the left to the right or the right to the left. Horizontal elbow striking is divided into 2 types, front horizontal elbow strike and back horizontal elbow strike. Front horizontal elbow striking uses force and weight transfer from the back foot to the front foot. Keeping the back foot stretched, twist the body and shoulders while throwing the elbow by pulling your other shoulder to the back, stomach and arms twisting clockwise.
The weight of the body is transferred to the front elbow and front foot. Target of this strike is at the face or chin of your opponent. Back horizontal elbow striking will be a stronger attack than the front elbow strike because of the shift in weight from the back to the front foot combined with throwing the back elbow to the target that could potentially damage the opponent more.
3. Sok Ngat
Sok Ngat /Elbow Uppercut
Striking with the front elbow or the back elbow uppercut is in the direction from bottom to the top. Target of this strike is to the chin, chest, pit of the stomach or to the face. To create strong impact elbow uppercut, you must bend the knees and stretch the body upwards while shifting the weight from the back foot to the front foot. Then launch a quick sharp elbow uppercut strike by twisting the hips in the same direction as the elbow.
For example, if you use the left elbow to strike, twist your hip to the back right or if your using the right elbow, twist your hip to the back left. This will help to send more power to the elbow uppercut. Usually the back uppercut elbow has a higher impact ratio than the front uppercut elbow because the stretched hind leg’s weight is shifted to front leg and helps to put more weight into the elbow uppercut.
4. Sok Pung
Sok Pung /Forward Elbow Thrust
Elbow is pointed straight in the direction of the opponent, fold the elbow and put the sharp corner pointed forward towards your opponent then walk towards the opponent. Hardening the elbow and keep it close to your chin, shoulders and head to create higher attack impact. The target of the forward elbow thrust is to the forehead, eyebrow, eyes, nose, mouth, face, chest, neck, shoulders and the stomach.
Right-handed boxers usually do the forward elbow thrust with left elbow and left-handed boxers usually do the forward elbow thrust with their right elbow.
Forward Elbow Thrust is also a good form of counter attack if your opponent attacks and misses. In the past, back in the old days, forward elbow thrust was used with two elbows to prevent an attack but it is no longer used in the present because it is difficult to find an opening to use this move on your opponent.
5. Sok Gratung
Sok Gratung/Poking Elbow
Occurs when you attack using your elbows and miss, so you must retrieve back your elbow in a diagonal manner and to the side of your body. It is used when your elbow
strikes misses the target when the opponent approaches either from the back or tries to do a clinch. For best results, the power of the strike should come from the feet as well.
6. Sok Klap
Spinning Elbow
The spinning elbow is an attack where you spin the body to the back and strike with your elbows instead of a front attack that passes in front of your face like the elbow slash or the horizontal elbow strike. The back of the elbows is usually used for spinning elbow attacks because of higher impact it causes and can be done in an upward, downward or paralleled to the ground motion. To start this technique, you can start using the front foot as a spinning base and shift the weight from the back foot to the front foot. After that, step forward with the back foot
and turn yourself in reverse while setting the elbow to a striking position and strike in the same direction of the turn. Twist the waist, body, and shoulders to put the weight to the elbow. The target of this spinning elbow move is the chin, face, head, eyebrow, cheek and the eye sockets. This move and turn creates a powerful impact and is used when the opponent is approaching without any awareness or in the case where the opponent loses balance, only then you can take advantage of the situation with this strike.
7. Sok Thong
Sok Thong /Elbow Nudge
There are both front and back of elbow nudges that are used when the opponent is behind you or is around your body to the shoulder area. Direction of the elbow will move from the front of you to the target in the back of you. If it’s an elbow nudge towards to the front, then it is common to use front elbow to nudge downwards by lifting the elbow high up and spreading the angle of the armpit as wide as you can and keeping the nudge downwards by using the armpit as the spinning base of the Pla Mor Tack Ngaung.
It is the elbow move that spreads both elbows away from the body and uses the corner of the elbows to hit the target such as the chin, face, head or the ribs. It is used when the opponent is approaching without awareness or it can also be used as a good defensive technique, or you can attack the opponent when they slip or loos balance. However, it is not commonly used today because if you’re not precise in your strikes, it can leave an opening for the opponent to counter attack.
8. Sok Pla Mhor Thag Nghueg
Sok Pla Mhor Thag Nghueg /Around Elbow Strike
This elbow strike is by spreading out both elbows away from the body and with the sharpest end of both elbows, hit the target at the chin, face, head or ribs. It is used when the opponent is approaching without awareness.
You can use it as defensive barrier and you can also use for attacking if the opponent is of gaurd. However it is not commonly used today because if your not very skilled at doing this move, it could lead to an opening gap for the opponent to counter attack.
9. Sok Kuu
Sok Kuu / Paring Elbow
Using both elbows to attack at the same time. This could be done in many directions, such as going upwards to downwards, or going downwards to upward kind of attack. Pairing uppercut elbow is to move both the elbows from downwards towards upwards to hit the target at the same time. It is used when the opponent is approaching you with both arms to clinch you or to wrap around your neck.If your open to an attack from the opponent, you can lift the arms up close to your face
and keeping the elbows close and firm, then do an uppercut in an upwards direction with both elbows.
The target of this strike is the chin, mouth, cheek, eyes, eyebrows, forehead and head. Today, it is not commonly used because it requires a very well trained fighter and is difficult to find an opening to strike the opponent. If the boxer is not very well trained in this, it could leave an opening for the opponent to strike back easily.
10. Sok Cheang
Sawing Elbow
It is the use of the elbow to cause more injury onto the opponent’s existing wound to further widening their cut and bruises. It is used when the boxers are fighting in close quarters, leaves an opportunity to further their injuries to cause more pain and disrupt their concentration.
This will help you gain advantage to the fight due to the severe injury on the surface of the opponents face and to cause the fight to end sooner with surrender.
11. Sok Ched
Sok Ched /Whipping Elbow
It is to do an elbow strike towards the target, with palms up and using the arms to whip or saw the wounds of your opponent to worsen their physical injury. It is used when both boxers are fighting in close quarters and boxer can saw using the elbows to worsen their wounds.
This would help the opponent to surrender sooner, or to decrease their ability to fight back in order to open the gap for boxer to attack with other moves. The Whipping Elbow can be used in any suitable situation.
12. Sok Chiang
Sok Chiang/Diagonal Elbow
It is the Elbow strike that is diagonal in an upward or downwards direction. You can use both the front and the back of the elbows for this attack. All the targeted area of attack is around the head, such as the face, temple, chin, the collarbone or the ribs. Unleashing this attack move is just like doing an elbow slash or an elbow uppercut.
Transferring the weight from the back hind foot to the front facing foot combining with twisting the body, snapping the hands and the elbow strike. By putting the weight towards the elbows, this will add more force and power towards you target.
13. Thoy Sud Ra Ya
Thoy sud Ra Ya (Moving backward)
To step out of the attacking range means to move away from the opponent in such a way that boxers might jump away, move backward or step back but these movements must be out of the opponent’s attacking range.
Therefore, to move back means to step away while the opponent is trying to attack. At the time the boxers are out of the attacking range, they should be in the ready position to strike back at once.
14. Yok Lhop
Yok Lhob (Swaying)
To sway or to move out of the range is sometimes called “Kan Dueng Tua”. It means to sway or to move out of the opponent’s attacking range in order to avoid the direct attacks without jumping back or moving aside.
This kind of dodging or movement should not be too far from the opponent so that the boxers will be able to attack back at once.
15. Pa Ta Duay Thon Khane
Pa ta duay Khane (attacking with arms)
Pa ta duay Khane is to use both arms to cover up all the weak parts to defend the attacking elbow. Literally, to cover the facial part with both forearms by elevating them in front
and folding them back toward the ears in order to protect the chin and the jaw. After blocking, boxers must be in a ready position to fight back at once.
16. Khod Pra Chid Tua
Kod Phra Chid Tua (Clinching)
Clinching is used for both offensive and defensive purposes. Namely, it means to use the stronger body parts to block the targets which opponent intends to attack such as chin, chest, body part, sternums, etc.
In order to block the attack of the opponent, first, boxers must face with an aggressive strike, and then, boxers could use different tactics to strike back like kneeing when both fighters are intertwined.
