How to Teep in Muay Thai (Step by Step Guide)

What is a Teep?

The teep, often called a push kick is one of the most important long-range weapons in Muay Thai. Similar to the jab in boxing it is the perfect range finder and the longest tool available to you in a fight.

Technical fighters use the teep both offensively and defensively – to control distance, stop forward pressure, and intercept attacks. One of its strongest uses is timing it against round kicks or using it to shut down opponents who rush in with heavy punches.

This article will teach you exactly how to teep and make it your most dangerous weapon.

Steps to Learn How to Teep

I’ll explain the basic teep, which side depends on you!

So your first step is to be in a relaxed stance – if you’re uncertain about your stance check out my guide on the Muay Thai Stance for Beginners – you want to be completely balanced and momentarily still to perform it without falling over.

You then want to chamber your leg, as if bringing your knee to your chest, at the same time your same side hand can begin to drop for balance however make sure that opposite side hand is practically glued to your head and doesn’t drop.

You then shoot your hips forward whilst extending your leg, you want to drive with your whole body and land with the ball of your foot and then bring your foot back the same way it came, don’t just let it drop otherwise you could be moving into a counter attack from them.

Let your foot return and trace the same path it took and return it back into your stance, for now you want to be able to teep and end up back in your stance, it will be hard at first though so keep trying! But for future reference if you do a rear teep you can then drop that foot and land in southpaw and follow up with a combination.

When to Use the Teep

As it is such a long range weapon the best time to use it would either be out of punching range, or just as your opponent does a round kick to be able to knock them down.

You could use it when attacking, to push the opponent to set up a superman punch or as a stabbing front kick motion popularised by fighters doing japanese kickboxing.

But you will probably use it more defensively to keep a pressure fighter away and be able to keep it at distance especially if you’re the longer fighter.

Common Teep Mistakes

To start, I’m of the belief if you can’t do a technique slow you can’t do it fast, so slow it down when you’re practicing and learning otherwise you’ll just have a fast bad teep that can easily be caught or you’ll injure yourself, it impacts balance and you never want to fall down in a fight.

I think a crucial part of the teep is picking your knee up enough and not just dropping it on its way back, you want to make sure your knee is high as your leg is coming up, and then on it’s way back you want to make sure your knee follows the same path back and doesn’t just lazily fall down.

Another point is you only need to hit with the ball of your foot, you don’t want to hit with your whole flat foot, yes you get more surface with it but the heel is the part your opponent will grab and it also takes more time, you want a nice clean impact with the ball of your foot.

Sometimes in the gym i’ve also seen beginners get too focused on dropping hands for power and accidentally drop both hands, we aren’t in sparta PLEASE defend yourself.

A common beginner mistake is also trying to push too much, i know it sounds counterproductive, but when you focus pushing as much as possible you over extend and also forget to snap. It’s the same with your punches you want to have a snap to them, not push with them so focus on bringing that foot back quickly.

Teep Drills for Beginners

A teep drill I would often do when i was learning is to only do teeps in sparring. You don’t literally have to only teep but prioritising it in sparring helps you learn fast. Find out what works but also do a few punches and when someone steps in, teep or try to read when people do round kicks and make a note that you could teep then.

An actual drill I would do is during shadowboxing working my distance tools, do combinations that vary between:

Jab – Teep

Jab – Cross – Teep

Check a kick – Teep

Jab – Step back – Teep

Double Jab – Feint – Teep

So mix these combinations in your shadowboxing, focusing on moving backwards and sideways to make sure you can use your teep defensively well, you can also practice your long guard with these rounds as the teep works extremely well with it as you’re always controlling the distance.

Teep Variations

Obviously you’re learning how to teep and the basic steps however variations are crucial for being adaptable when you fight, if someone is amazing at defending the basic teep they may not have had much experience defending a more complicated teep.

So to begin with you have your lead and rear teeps, for me main one is actually the lead teep, its quicker because it’s closer and you usually stay lighter on your front foot in Muay Thai so it is easier to use to off balance opponents. The rear teep however is your powerhouse, you can off balance someone at any point with this especially if you step into it.

Another nice version is the hop teep or scissor teep, these are quite complicated however do an amazing job at closing large amounts of distance and to be honest a lot of fighters when someone jumps at them they cover up, so you can land your jumping kicks extremely easy, just be confident and once you’ve learned the basic versions try these out with control in sparring

Teep to the thigh are amazing at stopping forward movement and getting jabbed in the thigh can actually hurt quite a bit, always have to be careful you aren’t oblique kicking them especially to your innocent sparring partners. Teeps to the hip are nice because they can spin your opponents just be careful because if their hips are very pronounced you don’t want to break your foot.

Summary

This has been my personal breakdown on how to teep, how to not make basic mistakes, and different versions to do it well. It’s a key strike in Muay Thai and you can find a lot of success just like fighters like Saenchai and Tawanchai have found with it.

An amazing range finder and a surprisingly disruptive weapon when used right. If you can control distance, you can control the fight – so start practicing your teep today.