Hey guys. Whenever i'm sparring with others at the gym, my lowkicks keep getting blocked by the more advanced fighters, leaving me with bruises on my feet and shins. So... any tips for landing a lowkick on the outer legs? I have no problem hitting the inner leg. Thanks! Henk
You need to set them up... so there's a few thing you can try: 1) You need to make sure you're not telegraphing. Most guys do this with the eyes and with their feet. Often times newer guys will actually subconsciously glance to the point they are trying to kick... an experienced fighter knows how to read this. Make sure you're not glancing down. You'll most likely need an observer or a video cam to see if you're doing this. Film some footage of you sparring and then review. You might surprised what you see. Often times what we do is pretty different from what we think we do. 2) You'll want to set up your low kicks. Which usually involved forcing your opponent to cover up. So a quick jab, followed by a double or triple jab ties your man up and forces him to deal with your jabs. Don't just charge in and throw the kick. Get him comfortable with your jab ---> double jab.... throw that same set up three or four times without the low kick on the end of it and step out or tie him up in the clinch. Let him think he has you figured out. He's got you timed. Once he's now set to what he thinks is your rhythm... you then add the low kick. Your chances of landing it are higher if there is very little lag time between your last jab snapping back into place and your stepping off the line and throwing the low kick. If there is too much time... no matter how good you've set it up... he'll check that incoming low kick, counter you to bits or simple pull his foot back. 3) The last issue is with how you have your feet set up. What is your stance. Sooooo many guys stand like K-1 fighters or boxers... left foot foward, right foot in the bucket. Thats not a great stance for Muay Thai... too easy to get your front leg chopped and your rear leg is too easy to see coming. So assess your stance... watch the Thai's most of them fight very square with the feet and knees anywhere from 10 degrees to as much as 30 degrees out. Very unintuitive for many westerners to stand like that. But the one thing the Thai's have is a very deep system for triangular footwork. This is how many times they don't have to check kicks. They simple step out of the way and usually come back with a very well placed counter kick. It's pretty hard to say for sure what you're doing that's allowing it to happen but those are the three top things I see in most newer guys. And also you really need to be realistic. Landing low kicks on advanced guys isn't going to happen all that often. It's just not. They aren't advanced because they haven't dealt with those types of attacks before. Food for thought.
Thanks alot for the time you've put into that. I take your tips into consideration and see what i can do with them. Your correct about the not setting up thing. I have a TKD background so i often start with the legs. It has some advantages like the high kicks, but i have to unlearn a lot of things aswell. I will try it out and let you (and the others) know how it goes.
Sorry Slip, how do you mean "right foot in the bucket"? I'm guessing you kind of mean side on-ish, rather than a more square on approach?
Yep I see the no set-up move all the time. Literally every day. It's very easy to counter with the straight right cross. So you really want to make sure you tie him up before you launch a low kick. There's lots more things that can factor into it as well... but that's the main ones I see a lot for people with only a short time in.
If you look at the classic boxing stance... they are very side on... they try to present a narrow target. For an orthodox boxer that means left shoulder forward... right shoulder to the rear. Left foot forward... right foot to the rear... as if it were back behind them in a bucket. They never have to worry about a low kick and punches to the back and spine are fouls in boxing. It's ruleset/points influenced stance. For Muay Thai that stance generally is very risky for the primary reason that if you are 50/50 weighted on both feet or as most people are 70/30 weighted in favor of the front foot you really can't get the front leg unweighted and externally rotated to the outside in time to check his incoming right kick to your forward led. It's too slow because you have to unweight the leg, transfer that weight to the back leg and then externally rotate the leg to check. Ain't gonna happen. And that's all before we even get to the issue of telegraphing because that right leg is further back. It's got more distance to travel to get to your opponent thus more time for him to react which usually means a counter. Not good that.
Yeah it's interesting because not all of them do... but for the set ups and sport... it works very well against other Thai's. If you watch K-1 match ups you can see Buakaw sometimes go to town on the forward leg of his opponents. Though not all Thai's stand this way. Some have proper western rules boxing background and that influences their Muay Thai and some just have one hell of a right kick and use it to batter their opponents and don't mind to take incoming to the forward leg or have learned to minimize what they do take in that stance.
It is. But the square stance doesn't necessarily mean you have your ankles together or anything like that. You still want a relatively wide stance. The difference is front to back... not so much side to side. I find that many novice boxers who come in to muay thai have the bad habit of throwing a combo then bouncing back out... but if they haven't been through the proper amateurs they will bring their lead foot back to their other foot. I love this as it's a great position for me to sweep them in with the inside of my foot as I reach across to the side of the head with my right hand. And then in general whatever I manage you can multiply that X10,000 what Thai's can take advantage of. I train with a guy named Teelek Fairtex and pretty much can sweep me at will... he's smaller and lighter... but his set up and his footwork are better. I spar with guys younger and much stronger than he is... and I literally can go Judoka on them and root my weight and I don't so much as move when they sweep.... so it's every bit about solid technique the sweep. Good set ups, good footwork and timing = me flying ass over end across the ring. Ugh.
This vid pretty much sums up everything I was trying to say.... jeebus look at execution of techniques here... it hits really well on both points... the forward leg kick and the sweeps. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqCPn4-eB5A"]Muay Thai Sweeps And Throws Tribute - YouTube[/ame]
That's some SERIOUS balance being shown there! Most of those sweeps are coming from positions I wouldn't even think it possible to move my leg!!
Lots of top fighters in there... Senchai, Buakaw, Danny Bill, Anuwat Kaewsamrith and a ton of others.
ahhahaha... watching a vid on YouTube and being able to counter are chalk and cheese! But here's another vid to show you the set ups and the problem with forward legs. One of the better low kickers in K-1 if not the best... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C_yDdSn0cs&feature=related"]Buakaw - The best low kicker - YouTube[/ame]
