Phil Baroni seminar at Tiger Muay Thai!

The Fighting Photographer is currently enjoying an extended training holiday here in the Far East, partaking in BJJ at the Bangkok BJJ Academy, headed by black belt Adam Kayoom and at the time of writing, is residing on the island of Phuket, staying at the Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Academy.

Immersing himself in the arts of Muay Thai, Western Boxing, MMA and Krabi Krabong, the FP is ever ready on reporting duties and brings to you a round up of the seminar hosted by the New York Bad Ass himself, Mr Phil Baroni.

Phil is at the camp for six to eight weeks, preparing himself for his upcoming fight in the UFC, opponent unknown at the time of writing; Phil is concentrating on Muay Thai, specifically low kicks and clinch work with trainer Yod, adding to his fearsome wrestling skills, as well as getting away from everything in the US and refocusing himself for his next fight.

During his stay at the camp, Phil hosted what was to be his second seminar in his career and with the upcoming Never Tap 2 no gi event being hosted the day after the seminar, Phil gave a master class in wrestling for grappling. The seminar was held in the cage area on the camp and for once, it was a pleasure not to train with metres of tape on the fingers and wrists, as per normal in the cold and dreary UK. Niggling injuries disappear in the humid tropical heat of Phuket and the warm up consisted of pummeling with various partners and then it was onto business, Baroni style. Watching on mat side were Throwdown team member Jon Vargas and Shooto legend Boku

Phil showed the students how to move as a wrestler and with good posture, all the while protecting the lead leg and moving the rear hand, moving backward and forward and side to side; Phil went on to show the way he manages to get the single under hook and head control, which was the main thrust of the seminar and went on to explain that this tie up can be achieved by anyone, whether they’ve wrestled or not before.

From the tie up, Phil showed one move to get your opponent to the ground quickly and two neat little turns one that many where familiar with, but with an extra twist from the Bad Ass, all of which guaranteed an easy time on the ground and a quick way to get the upper hand in a fight.

The second move shown was when the opponent defends the move described above, which moved into a neat little single leg pick up and Phil broke the move down into minute detail, ensuring everyone had the sequence of moves in the bag and again Phil stressed that is the move was done in sequence, he should be seeing many attacks in the no gi event the next day.

Questions and answer with Phil, together with photo opportunities ended the afternoon seminar and of course, the FP will be at the Never Tap event cheering on friends and competing himself and who knows, may even surprise himself and pull off a single leg or two – until next time, train hard and train safe!

Pix courtesy of the Fighting Photographer and Robin Merrill of Tiger Muay Thai Camp

www.tigermuaythai.com
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