Muay Thai techniques

Key facts:

• Fists, elbows, knees, shins. The clinch ties the close weapons together.
• Teep: ถีบ. Elbow: ศอก. Knee: เข่า. Kick: เตะ.
• No neck cranks on this site's technique pages.
• IFMA's break command is YAEK. A gym may say "break" in English.
• 670 UK gyms are listed if you want a person to correct the hip, not a video.

Pad work for the eight limbs

The map

Weapon	Romanised name we will use	Page	First job
Push kick	Teep	Teep	Make space
Round kick	Tae	Roundhouse	Shin, hip turn
Knee	Khao	This hub	Up the middle, in the clinch
Elbow	Sok	This hub	Short range, only with a coach
Clinch	Clinch	Clinch	Inside position, knees
Punch	Mat, in gym English	This hub	Jab and cross before anything else
Sweep	Not given a Thai spelling here	Not a drill page	Balance, not a dump onto the head
Defence	Cover, teep, step off	Beginners guide	Hands at home

Elbows are last, not first. A missed elbow in a crowded class hits the wrong person. Sweeps are a balance drill with a partner who knows how to fall. We are not writing the throw.

An order that survives contact

1. Stance, jab, cross, and a cover.
2. Teep, so you can keep range.
3. Roundhouse to the thigh, on a bag, with the heel turning.
4. Knees in the clinch, light, with a stop tap.
5. Elbows only when the coach puts a pad there.
6. Sparring when the coach says the month has arrived, in 16oz if that is the gym's rule.

The home sessions cover 1 to 3 without a partner. They do not cover the clinch. Our 12-week heavy-bag programme is not on sale yet.

What a video will not correct

The standing heel on the roundhouse, the ball of the foot on the teep, and the elbows in the clinch are the three errors a coach can see in one round. A clip filmed from in front of you hides the heel. That is why the directory exists beside these pages. 670 UK gyms, 131 of them in London, 26 in Manchester, 18 in Birmingham, 17 in Glasgow. Beginner classes are stated on 293 UK listings. A blank is not a no. Ask.

Gloves for the bag rounds are the starter pair if you do not own any: £39.99 and £18.99 for wraps, catalogue price recorded 8 Oct 2026. You do not need a new glove for each limb.

Sources

• Limb names. gym teaching gloss ถีบ, ศอก, เข่า, เตะ.
• YAEK. IFMA rules v3.057, fetched 10 Oct 2026 break command.
• Directory count. UK country page, re-read 10 Oct 2026 671 gyms.

FAQs

What are the eight limbs of Muay Thai?

Two fists, two elbows, two knees and two shins. The clinch is where the knees and the off-balancing live. The teep uses the foot, which is why some coaches argue about the phrase, and we still teach the teep early because it keeps you at range. Elbows come last in a beginner order. Sweeps are balance drills, not a dump onto the head. We do not teach neck cranks.

What should a beginner learn first?

Stance, jab, cross and a cover. Then the teep. Then a thigh roundhouse on a bag, with the heel turning. Then light knees in a clinch with a stop tap. Elbows when a coach puts a pad there. Sparring when the coach says so, in the ounce the gym asks for, often 16oz in the UK. Home sessions can cover the first three. They cannot cover the clinch.

What do teep, sok, khao and tae mean?

ถีบ is the teep, the push kick. ศอก is the elbow. เข่า is the knee. เตะ is the kick. Those are the spellings we are willing to print. The glossary has the longer entries, and it refuses a Thai spelling for clinch, sarama and yodmuay rather than guess. Romanisation in gyms varies. The coach's pronunciation in the room wins.

Where do I practise this with a person?

In a gym. The UK directory lists 671. A video will not see your standing heel. The near-me page is the city list. No drop-in median is published while the price-sample method is checked by hand; the class fee is the gym's own figure. Log what you did on the free training log so the next class starts from a note, not from memory.