Marching Teeps 1, 2, and 3 (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

Now we're going to combine the footwork from the marching stance switch, along with the hip drive from the hip drive series, with the chambering of the knee lift, and extension of the balancing teep.

The teep is a foot jab. Just as the regular jab is the most utilized arm technique, the teep is the most utilized leg technique. Because it is so utilized, there are many details to a teep, just as there are many variations.

For a puncher, the jab is the most important punch. For a kicker, it's the teep. They are your longest, fastest, and straightest strikes. They can be used offensively, defensively, or to gather intel. With just these two moves, you can beat a lot of people. Furthermore, you can do these moves into your elder years. They require the least athleticism. But for it to be effective without athleticism takes a lot of details.

Four joint junctions create the power in the marching teep. It's a quadruple extension, which means maximal reach and power. Strongest and longest. Your hip, knee, ankle, and standing foot will all extend. You'll be pivoting on the ball of your standing foot like in the pinball paddle drill.

From this point forward in the curriculum, you'll be on the balls of your feet often, which is why calf and foot development was part of your foundation.

When you land your teep, you'll land with the ball of your foot. This will stun your opponent, hurt them to the body, and knock them back. You're driving your foot through them.

Imagine you're kicking a door. You're trying to push the door open rather than kicking a hole in the door or kicking the bottom of a desk. The energy is going forward and through, not up. Thrust, not lift. Jab, not uppercut.

Another key point is to stand upright, as you learned in the teep stretch. This maintains your balance and ensures the energy is going forward, not leaking backward. Doing it this way requires more flexibility, however. This is why rather than cheating, we've been doing our homework by developing our flexibility and dexterity with warm-ups, conditioning, and stretches. Naturally, you'll slightly lean back, especially the higher the kick goes, but you don't want to go further than that natural lean.

To get a little more extension, you can swing your kicking arm. Arm swing is something you'll see in nearly every kick. First, it counterbalances you. Second, it pulls your shoulder back so your hip can drive forward. The trade-off is that your hand is away from your chin.

How you swing your arm will change over time based on what feels most natural to you, but for now, I want you to just extend your arm out straight and see what your body wants to do. Like the natural lean, there should also be a natural swing. For instance, no one told you to swing your arms when you run. You do it because it's the natural thing to do to drive your hip forward. Just make sure you don't drop your other hand.

There may be times when leaning back further than your natural lean makes sense. Leaning back creates more reach, but the trade-off is balance. This can make sense if there's sufficient energy going forward, as in you're hopping into a teep. Another reason could be your opponent is too far away, and you need that extra reach. A word of caution, however. This can also make it easier for your opponent to catch your kick and throw you.

As you're practicing leaning back, you'll feel yourself being thrown off balance and taking longer to reset your feet. This is the trade-off. There are many great fighters who used this style of push kick in muay Thai, but you'll also see them fall to the canvas a lot. That's okay if that's when you reset. If the match continues once it hits the mat, then you're in trouble.

We are now at the part of the curriculum where you'll play with techniques and improvise variations. This is how you'll make the curriculum yours.

I mentioned how swinging your arm gives you more extension and balance while sacrificing defense. So let's say a punch or a kick is coming at your face, and your arm is down. What do you do? You can lean back to avoid those strikes.

Adjustments like leaning back will primarily be based on feel, vision, and game-planning. You'll develop feel from working with a bag, a pad holder, or during free play with a partner. It'll be when you make contact, and you can feel them losing balance, and you just need a few extra inches of reach. You know you have that extra reach in your back pocket if you need it by leaning back. Or let's say your opponent has reach and likes to counter kicks. You know you have the lean in your back pocket. And that's how it should be used, as something you keep in your back pocket for times you need it rather than as a default. Leaning back should never be your primary defense.

The marching teep is meant to develop teep mechanics. The reasons why we're learning the teep first before even hand techniques are because you have the most reach with the teep, you want to develop single-leg balance and hip drive early, and it'll develop all your other moves. So practice this a lot.

It's more correct to say the jab is the teep of the hands than the teep is the jab of the legs. The teep is the foundation we'll be building on.

Exhale with every teep, and squeeze your abs and glutes.

– Sam