The Power of Close-Quarter Combat
Mastering the Muay Thai Clinch and Why It Matters.
Picture yourself in a Muay Thai fight. Your opponent closes the distance. In many other fighting styles, the instinct would be to back away. But in Muay Thai, we do the opposite—we engage. We clinch.
The clinch is the art of close-range control. It’s not just holding your opponent; it’s a powerful position where you can land devastating knee strikes, off-balance your opponent, sweep their legs, or even throw them to the ground.
Coach Mario Vega, who trains fighters in Spain, explains: “Before we start clinching, we have to know that we have to have a good position.” In other words, your stance, posture, and control matter just as much as the technique itself.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced fighter, building strong clinch skills will elevate your Muay Thai to the next level. Let’s break it down and sharpen your clinch game.
Standing Right: The Building Blocks
Before you try any fancy clinch moves, you need to stand correctly. Coach Mario teaches three main things about the Muay Thai Clinch Stance:
Stand Up Straight
“Your body has to stay straight. Don’t bend your body too much,” Coach Mario says. Think of yourself like a tree with strong roots. If you bend forward too much, you’ll lose your balance and your opponent can push you around easily.
Protect Your Neck with Your Shoulders
“Your shoulder has to close when he comes to grab,” explains Coach Mario. When someone tries to grab you, lift your shoulders up (like when you shrug). This makes it harder for them to grab your head and neck.
Grab Arms First, Then Head
This is super important! Coach Mario warns: “If I hold his head first, it’s easier to get elbow, elbow.” This means if you go straight for your opponent’s head without controlling their arms first, they can easily hit you with elbow strikes.
Learning to Control Arms
It is important in Muay Thai to learn how to control your opponent’s arms. Think of it as step one in any clinch move.
Coach Mario says. “Before coming closer, we have to grab the hands (arms).”
Remember this rule: Always control the arms before you grab the head. As Coach Mario warns, “If I don’t hold the arm properly, sure I can get elbow.”
Two Ways to Control Arms (Double Bicep Tie)
- Inside Control: “When I hold the arms, I have to hold inside or outside. Inside, I have to hold in the bicep.” Coach Mario teaches us to grab the opponent’s bicep (the muscle in the upper arm), not the shoulder. “If I hold in the shoulder, he can elbow me.”
- Outside Control: “If I stay outside, he has to push his hand inside.” This means if you’re controlling from the outside, you can set up counter-attacks. “If he pushes his hand in my shoulder, I can elbow him again.”
Only after you control the arms should you move closer to grab the head or neck. This keeps you safe from getting hit!
Four Basic Ways to Clinch
After you’ve got good position and arm control, Coach Mario teaches four main clinch positions:
1. The Neck Hold (Double Collar Tie)
“Number one and basic for me is neck hold,” says Coach Mario. This is when you put both hands behind your opponent’s neck. Keep your back straight and your shoulders up while doing this.
2. One Arm on Neck, One on Arm (Single Collar Tie with Arm Control)
“Number two, one arm hold the neck and the other hand, his arm.” With this position, one of your hands grabs behind their neck, and your other hand controls their arm. Coach Mario says, “Inside is comfortable. Outside is also good for elbow.” This means….if your hand is inside, controlling the bicep, you gain better control. If your hand hooks outside the forearm, you have less control, but more opportunities for attacks like elbows or sweeps.
3. Hold the Hip (Single Collar Tie with Hip Check)
“Number three, I can stay here and my hand hold his hip.” In this position, one hand controls up top while your other hand grabs their hip. This stops them from kneeing you. “If he knee here, right? He cannot and I can turn easy.”
4. Body Hugging (Front Bodylock)
“Number four is a low form of grappling,” says Coach Mario. This position resembles a wrestling-style body lock, where you wrap your arms around your opponent’s torso.
“There are two types—low and high,” he explains. “High is more effective for me.”
The high lock (around the chest) offers better control and posture-breaking ability. The low lock (around the waist) provides less control and opens you up to counters.
Coach Mario demonstrates that if your opponent goes for the Low Front Bodylock, you can frame against their neck to break the grip and escape.
How to Escape the Double Collar Tie:
Keep Your Head Up (When going against the Double Collar Tie)
“Always keep your head slightly up,” Coach Mario emphasizes. “Never drop it down like this… this way is better.”
By keeping your chin slightly lifted, rather than tucked, you reduce the chance of getting pulled into a tight double collar tie and make it easier to maintain posture and balance during clinch exchanges.
Double Elbow Push to High Thai Front Bodylock (Counter to Double Collar Tie)
Use both palms to push against your opponent’s elbows, breaking their grip from the double collar tie. As their posture opens up, immediately step in and secure a high body lock around their upper back for control.
Push the Face (Counter to Double Collar Tie – Crossface to Bicep Control)
“When someone grabs your neck, push their face with one hand,” Coach Mario explains. “Then bring your other hand in close.”
This crossface disrupts their posture and creates space. As you push their face away, use your other hand to secure a grip on their bicep. This allows you to regain control and open up opportunities to land knees or reposition in the clinch.
Move to the Outside (Pummel and Quarter Turn from the Double Collar Tie)
“When I try to bring my hands in, I push their arm out and move,” explains Coach Mario.
If your opponent has you in a tight double collar tie with their elbows close together, use your left hand to smack or push the back of their head while simultaneously quarter-turning to your right. This creates an angle to escape the clinch without needing much strength.
This movement shifts you outside their control and allows you to break free or counter with knees or elbow strikes.
If Your Opponent Counters your Double Collar Tie:
Knee Shield
In Muay Thai clinching, a knee shield is when you use your shin or knee to block your opponent’s hips or thighs, creating space and stopping their forward pressure or knee strikes.
The Hand Pass (Counter to Chin Push from Double Collar Tie)
The idea behind this move is to counter when you’ve applied a double collar tie and your opponent tries to create space by pressing both palms into your chin.
Coach Mario explains, “I pass my hand and move this way.”
He threads his right arm between the opponent’s arms, hooking their right wrist and removing it from his chin. At the same time, he performs a quarter turn to his right, while his left hand stays on the opponent’s neck, pushing his neck down to the right.
This smooth motion breaks their posture and restores your clinch control.
If Your Opponent Applies a Front Bodylock:
Step Back, Break the Grip, and Counter with a Knee
Coach Mario explains, “I close my elbows, step back. You see, this way it’s easy to break his grappling hold.”
To perform the technique, he places both palms on the back of his opponent’s lats, clamps his elbows in tight, lowers his center of gravity, and steps his right foot back. As the grip breaks, he pulls his opponent toward his neck with his left hand, executes a quarter turn to his left, and delivers a powerful left knee to the ribs.
This movement not only breaks the clinch but immediately sets up a damaging counterattack.
Smart Defense and Using the Referee to Break Up the Clinch.
Sometimes the best way to deal with the clinch isn’t a technical escape, but a strategic one.
Block Before They Grab
“Every time he come and we can block. Every time he hold, we can move.” This means don’t let them grab you in the first place! Coach Mario advises, “It’s better if the other is stronger in clinching. We have to learn how to stop him from work.” In other words don’t engage with a stronger opponent in the muay thai clinch and use your hands to deflect their clinching.
Make the Referee Stop the Fight
Double Bicep Control + Knee Shield to Stall the Clinch
Coach Mario explains, “When he hold me, I can go my head down and block with the other leg.”
As your opponent attempts to clinch, you control both of their biceps while using your knee and shin to shield and block their advance. This defensive posture, especially when positioned near the ropes, can create a stalemate where neither fighter can effectively strike…forcing the referee to step in and break the clinch, giving you a reset.
Single Collar Tie with Arm Control
From this position you can drive your right arm up and over your opponents arm getting and overhook/underhook position (aka 50/50 position), from here insert your left instep in your opponents right thigh, while your right overhook hand hip checks your opponent to help stall the clinch
The Clinch Mindset: Putting It All Together
The clinch isn’t just about knowing moves. It’s about developing the confidence to stay calm and effective in a range where most fighters feel uncomfortable. This mindset is what makes Muay Thai unique and powerful.
Coach Mario teaches techniques in a specific order for a reason. First, learn to stand right. Then, control the arms. Only after that should you learn specific clinch positions and escapes.
Improving your clinch game takes consistent, focused practice. Train with a variety of partners, some bigger, smaller, stronger, or more experienced than you. This variety will help you adapt your techniques in real time, making you versatile and effective under pressure.
Conclusion: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
What sets Muay Thai apart from other striking styles is our commitment to close-range mastery. We don’t avoid the clinch…we embrace it.
By training these fundamental clinch techniques, you’re adding essential tools to your Muay Thai arsenal. Coach Mario doesn’t just teach how to perform each move….he emphasizes when to use them, because timing and situation matter.
Always remember: in the clinch, position beats power. Master the basics, drill them consistently, and you’ll soon feel confident, controlled, and dangerous in close-quarters fighting.
Muay Thai Clinch: Glossary of Terms
Clinch: Close-range control in Muay Thai, the goal is engage up close rather than retreat. In this range, fighters rely heavily on knees, elbows, and sweeps to dominate the clinch and control the opponent.
Double Bicep Tie: A clinch control technique where you grab the opponent’s biceps to control their arms before attempting other clinch positions.
Double Collar Tie: Also known as the “Neck Hold” or “Plum” (ปล้ำpronounced more like plum or prum depending on dialect), this is a core clinch position in which both hands are secured behind the opponent’s neck to control their posture and movement.
Single Collar Tie with Arm Control: A clinch position where one hand grabs behind the opponent’s neck while the other hand controls their arm.
Single Collar Tie with Hip Check: A clinch position where one hand controls the opponent’s upper body while the other hand pushes on their hip to prevent knee strikes.
Front Bodylock: A wrestling-style clinch position where you wrap your arms around your opponent’s torso. Can be executed in high form (around the chest) or low form (around the waist).
Crossface: A defensive technique where you push against your opponent’s face with one hand to disrupt their posture and create space.
Knee Shield: Using your shin or knee to block your opponent’s hips or thighs, creating space and preventing forward pressure or knee strikes.
Pummel: A technique to improve position in the clinch by working your arms to the inside position.
Quarter Turn: A defensive movement where you rotate approximately 90 degrees to create an angle to Knee or escape the clinch.
50/50 Position: An overhook/underhook position.
Inside Control: Grabbing the opponent’s biceps or neck from the inside position for better control during clinch.
Outside Control: Controlling the opponent’s arm from the outside, which offers opportunities for counter-attacks.
Frame: Using your arms as a barrier to create space or prevent an opponent from closing distance.
