Resources to improve my switch technique (for switch kicks/knees)?

Discussion in 'Thai Boxing' started by Morik, Sep 19, 2017.

  1. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    So I've got this issue with my switch kicks/switch knees.
    My instructor says my switch kick is good on the kick part, but the switch needs some work.

    My main issue is that I hop when I go to switch. I think I feel like I need to move both feet at once, and can only do that by taking the weight off both of them.

    The instructors tell me to just drag, not to hop. I can do it sometimes, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it, and even when thinking about it, I often still hop.

    Is there a good video breakdown of executing the switch, or a good description?
    Is this video reasonable?


    It looks like he drags the front foot backward, then moves the rear leg up front, then kicks.
    Is that the standard way to do it?

    Any other tips to keep from hopping?
     
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  2. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    It's not as if I'm super fluid with these so take my input as it is, but... I use a little skip where I initiate the lead foot first, then just as it's landing I step into the direction of the kick with my rear transferring weight and turning the hips over on the left leg to kick (orthodox stance). It's like one and a half beat... Da-dum on the feet then kick.

    I get decent power and they land in sparring reasonably often [shrug]
     
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  3. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    @Unreal Combat is the one to go to.

    With me, when I'm demo-ing the move, I literally switch my feet positions, and then throw the kick like I would a round kick.

    (turning the hip, leaning back, arm swing)



    However due to my dodgy (rear leg) knee, I had to change my traditional way of throwing the switch kick, into more of a rear foot step forward and kick. And having to hide it amongst a combo. Basically, my sparring partners know I won't start with a random switch kick. It's been an interesting evolution.
     
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  4. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Huh, so at 1 second or so in the video Mushroom posted, the guy seems to be hopping. (That is similar to what I've been doing, though mine is more pronounced I think.)
    I'll keep fiddling with it.
     
  5. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    Everyone does it differently. But switch kicks are one of the moves where it's difficult to do slowly as theres quite a bit going on.
     
  6. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    So remembering more of what the instructor said, the level of my hips is changing (they are rising) when I switch.
    He wants my hips to not jump up several inches when I'm switching--when he demonstrates it his hips stay pretty level during the switch.

    I should be in class tonight, if we do any switch kicks/knees during drills I'll try to work on this.
     
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  7. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    Not a Muay Thai guy here, but I'll chime in wrt general body mechanics. There's a subtle difference between lifting your feet off the ground to reposition them, and hopping. When you hop or jump, your body will rise, which is undesirable, but when you switch or slide, you're actually falling, only that you've lifted your feet fast and high enough that they can move to somewhere else and catch you in the new position. Sometimes you'll want to rise just a little bit in order to have more time to move your feet around, and that can look like you're jumping or hopping, but there's still a visible difference: if you've actually hopped, you'll be going up as your feet move (and since you can't do a lot of things until you've landed, you'll effectively take more time), whereas without an overt hop you'll be going down instead as soon as your feet leave the ground.
     
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  8. axelb

    axelb Master of Office Chair Fu

    I find when students are having trouble with the switch, often their hips aren't setup so more hop and leg movement is required to make the change.

    At the point of switch make sure the hips are square or even over slightly into the new lead position.
     
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  9. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Thanks this helped a lot.

    Yeah I was definitely rising before; now I wasn't, though I didn't have both feet in the air at once either. (I was going pretty slow.)
     
  10. neems

    neems Valued Member

    There are 3 ways I know of,the easiest is just to step through with your rear leg so you're in an unorthodox stance and throw it from there,the second is to skip into it,skip into an unorthodox stance and use the momentum of your heel touching the floor (or going to towards the floor) to fire the kick or knee (much easier demo's than explained).
    ETA,the vid mushroom put up demonstrates it really well.

    The third is to half step or shuffle forward with the rear leg which gives the momentum to the front leg.

    Only the last one isn't massively telegraphed.
     

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