Glap Tua

This move always made me chuckle in my years of training in class, especially when Kru Lek had been drilling us hard and we were feeling maxed out. After strings of complex combinations with tricky techniques, sometimes the simplicity of Glap Tua would be too much and I'd be left thinking "Wait, which leg? Which way? Huh?" And it wasn't just me! I still see exhausted students turning the wrong way, hesitating on this simple (and important) movement. Whilst not a hard move to do, it will require a little practice to feel natural and make it into a solid movement. In it's simplest, it's exactly the same as Yang, but you turn your body in the opposite direction. Let's look at that in detail:

• start in left stance
• lift the rear leg (right leg), and at the same time
  • turn to face the opposite direction (behind you)
  • Phan Mut one time
• Now you should be facing the other way in the opposite (right) Yok Khao guard
• Phan Mut twice more
• Bring the right foot down into right stance

So, if you've got the Yang Sam Khum down correctly, then this should be straight forward enough. Remember, try and keep it sharp and crisp - but relaxed (does that make sense?) imagine someone is throwing a kick from behind, and you're turning to block it. (this always helps me)