To circle in Muay Thai, stay in fighting position the entire time. Never cross your legs. Never bring your feet close together. You stay loose on the balls of your feet and move around your opponent, waiting for the engagement — waiting for that first attack, from them or from you.
Here is where beginners blow it. They see circling and they think of walking in a circle. So they step, and then they drag the back foot in to meet the front, and for a split second their feet are touching and their base is gone. That is the moment they get kicked off their feet.
Don't do that.
The stance has to stay intact the whole way around. Lead foot leads, rear foot follows — but the rear foot never catches up. The gap between your feet stays the same. When you are going left, your left foot moves first. When you are going right, your right foot moves first. The other foot follows at the same distance.
You also have to elongate the stance a little to hold balance as you turn. That is normal. Scott makes a point of this in the drill — the feet stretch out slightly to keep you over your base, but they never truly leave that fighter's position. If your stance collapses into a square or your legs ever cross, you are out of structure and out of defense.
The drill itself is dead simple. You and a partner circle each other, mirroring like a slow dance, watching for the opening. No one strikes. You are training the movement pattern so that when it matters in a real round, you are not thinking about your feet.
Watch the drill in the video above and you will see exactly what I mean. Notice the feet. They never come together. They never cross. That is the whole lesson.
For the full progression on advancing, retreating, angling off, and cutting the ring, check out our complete guide to Muay Thai footwork. The full course is in The Ultimate Muay Thai Training System.