Skip knee strikes and footwork are being used to cripple foes in the clinch, but for athletes like few others doing Muay Thai for conditioning, they are a fantastic conditioning tool.

Skip knees take time, pace and finesse to become good at. Strong versatility to the hip is a bonus. They’re a fun drill if you have them down, to incorporate into your preparation.

Although you might not witness 100 skip knees launched in a fight, it’s normal to see multiple knee attacks from the clinch of the same footwork or even two or four in a row thrown out. Not only is practicing the footwork in higher reps perfect for locking the strike into the rhythm, but they are great for preparation.

The best thing to get people right away is making space by spreading the hips before the attack lands. Strong flexibility to the hip is a bonus. If you get the groove down, you can start “jumping” the knees up to altitude, as often as you need to do so when attacking when you can’t bring an opponent’s head down, but you also need to position your knees to the ribs and stomach.

Check out this video where coach Kurt demonstrates a skip knee tutorial.