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Since I haven’t
been “booed” off the WNG forum yet, (this time), I thought I’d post another question/answer diatribe from
my own forum:
http://pub11.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=871032184&cpv=2
One of my readers,
(who calls himself “Poopoo”), asked what kind of combinations I utilize for kickboxing. Apparently, I’d posted a list of these on some other forum a long time ago, and I answered him with
this.
***
Poopoo,
I remember that
post, but I don’t remember the exact combinations I listed, (they change quite frequently depending on what I’m
working on, and who I’m training with). As such, I’ll list some of
my current favorites.
- Jab, Cross, Thai kick
- Always a sure bet, especially if you’ve got good footwork.
If you take a step forward while you’re throwing the jab, you can close the distance safely because your opponent
is worried about getting popped in the face. It doesn’t matter if the jab
actually lands or not, (nor the cross), because the Thai kick is what you’re going for.
- (For those of you unfamiliar with this terminology, a Thai kick is a round kick thrown off the real leg-
except that you’re pivoting with your ENTIRE BODY, so that if you miss, you might actually spin all the way around).
- You’ll see this combo a lot in Mixed Martial Arts tournaments, because, again, it’s a sure
bet.
- In a street fight, your Thai kick is directed at your opponent’s thigh or knee, (inside or outside,
depending on which leg your opponent has forward).
- Score with it correctly, and the fight is over.
- Thai Kick, Spinning Back Kick, (or, if the distance is great enough, jab, cross, Thai Kick, Spinning
Back Kick)
- This one works for me because my spinning back kick so ridiculously fucking fast. If I miss with the Thai kick, (and said miss is intentional in this particular combo), then my momentum
carries me into a complete circle. Often, my opponent charges in as soon as they
see me turn my back to them, and that’s when I come around and unleash with the spinning back kick.
- This combo relies on deception by presenting your opponent with what they THINK is an opening. In reality, you’re drawing them into a fight-ending kick to the abdomen or chest. Always a crowd pleaser.
- Lead Leg Round Kick, Jab, Cross.
- In this combo, I enter with a low line, lead leg round kick, thus striking my opponent on the inner or
outer thigh/knee. Whether I land or not, the “threat” of a low line
attack causes their guard to instinctively drop, (perhaps to block, unless they’re trained to cover by raising their
knee).
- This “drop” creates an opening upstairs, and I follow through with a jab/cross for
the knockout.
- It’s important to let your momentum from the entering round kick lead you IN towards the target. That way, you’re not only closing the distance, you’re also generating
extra punching power because your body weight is already moving forward. Even
a jab can be a knockout blow if your body weight is behind it.
- Defensive Side Kick, Spinning Back Kick
- Again, this one works for me because my straight line kicks are so fast.
I’ll sit back and feint with my opponent, thus using evasive footwork to move in and out of range. What I’m doing is “bating” the adversary; effectively frustrating him until he commits
to a forward attack.
- As soon as he commits, I unleash with the side kick from what is basically a stationary position. The impact is more of a “stopping” motion, (also called a “stop
hit” in JKD circles), and it creates a moment of confusion and hesitation.
- That moment is all I need to spin and kick with the other leg; this time penetrating enough to do real
damage. If needs must, I can spin again in the opposite direction and back kick
again.
- As before, this is something that works for ME, and only because I can fire off alternating spin back
kicks with the same speed with which I fire off jabs and crosses.
- Backfist, Skip In Side Kick
- If you’ve got good footwork, (i.e. the ability to “skip in” quickly), and your opponent
has crappy footwork, (i.e. he can’t “circle off” fast enough to get out of the way), this is a Cracker Jack
move that will poleaxe street fighters and traditional strikers alike.
- Wait until your opponent is just out of hand range, and then throw a backfist with your lead hand.
- A jab can work too, but the backfist is better because it turns your body sideways.
- Regardless, said backfist is a deception, so it doesn’t matter if you smack the guy in the face
with it or not. The deception part comes in the fact that any attack to the head
draws your opponent’s attention up, so- unless he’s trained to do the right thing- he won’t see what your
feet are doing, (i.e. the simultaneous “skip in” that facilitates your side kick.)
- BAM!!! You’ve just hit the guy with what could be
your most powerful strike.
Those are my top
five, but never forget “old faithful”… Because I’ve studied
Jeet Kune Do, I have in my possession one of the most street practical strikes in existence: The Leading Straight Punch.
It’s kind
of like a power jab off the lead hand, only, it’s a knockout blow because you’re entire body weight is behind
it, (not unlike a boxer’s cross, with respect to formidability).
The leading straight
punch is an interception technique, meaning, when your opponent attacks, you “intercept” his aggression by being
quicker off the mark. The L.S.P. is fairly long range, (as far as punches go),
and even if you “eat” a kick when the guy is coming in, you’re probably gonna knock him retarded.
Circling off while
you’re executing is twice as nasty, but, again, that requires good footwork.
I can’t explain
the L.S.P. in a post, but, if you have the chance to learn it, you should. It
is, without a doubt, the most effective self defense technique in my arsenal. Combining
the speed and closeness of a jab, with the power of a punch off the real leg, it can be fired from long, medium, or even close
range. Bruce Lee’s famous “one inch punch” was nothing more
than a modified version of the L.S.P.
All this being said,
keep in mind that everyone is different, and that I can effectively employ these combinations because I’m ME. I’m sure there are techniques you can execute that I can’t, which is why listing effective
combinations is somewhat frivolous. You have to learn what works FOR YOU to be
a good fighter, both in the street, and in the ring.
The most paramount
tool is having good footwork. Throwing hard kicks and punches from a stationary
position is easy. You’ll find “hard” strikers like that in
just about any dojo in America. Hitting from a moving base, however, is much, much more difficult.
Hope that helps,
-Mike
Reply posted by “Ross” a couple of months ago:
Mike,
Do you really believe those spinning back kicks are effective? It's
just that, you don't see ‘em a lot in UFC/Pride fights. Then again, they
don’t usually fight with shoes, and I think that makes a big difference, especially if you’re wearing shoes with
really hard noses. Still, combos like “sidekick, spinning back kick”
feel a little too flashy to me.
Got a question, though.
What do you think makes big differences between fighting with and without shoes? I guess sidekicks overall can be effective, but, sidekicks to the knee seem better- shin stomps and front
kicks as well. Wouldn’t kicking with shoes on be safer because your risk
of injury becomes less? I train Muay Thai myself, with added stuff for street
effectiveness, but I don’t have any real experience with fighting with shoes on, except for some street brawls.
-Ross
My response to his reply:
Ross,
Good question. Spin back kicks work FOR ME. That’s
all I was saying. You don’t see them very often in MMA because they take
a lot of practice to do correctly/effectively… but you DO see them. Just
the other day, I saw a UFC fight clip where Chuck Liddell did one. A lot of the
good K-1 fighters use them as well.
Still, not an easy
technique to pull off if it’s not a true “part” of your repertoire.
I’ve been doing them for twenty years, so, naturally, throwing a spin back kick is as easy for me as throwing
a front kick. As a matter of fact, I’d say my spin back kick is faster,
more powerful, and more accurate than even my Thai kick, (I only learned what a Thai kick was when I started training with
[Super Ass kicker], and that was a mere eight years ago.
Regardless, the
simple stuff works better for most people, so I’d stay away from spin back kicks unless you’re willing to put
in the THOUSANDS of repetitions it takes to make ‘em work.
As far as the “side
kick, spinning back kick” combo I mentioned, keep in mind that’s a DEFENSIVE side kick, i.e., a STATIONARY side
kick. I don’t skip in, I don’t change my stance all that much- I
just pivot to the side and throw. The impact turns me in the opposite direction,
this “spinning” me to facilitate the subsequent back kick. Actually,
a stationary side kick like this is very similar to a simple back kick, without the spin.
That’s a hard
one to explain in a post.
As far as shoes,
yeah, they make a big difference. I would NEVER fight barefoot if I could avoid
it. In the heat of adrenaline, it’s just too easy to break a toe. This falls under protection, but another benefit is traction. A shoe with a good tread gives you greater speed and mobility because you don’t slide around as much. You can stop, start, or change direction much quicker if you have a solid base. Contrastingly, if you’re barefoot, and on wet concrete, (for example), you might
as well be standing on ice.
The TYPE of shoe
matters too. A “Sunday” shoe, (like a dress up loafer), usually has
a slick bottom, so that can fuck you up even more than being barefoot. On the
flip side, a big heavy timberland boot, (like I wear), while providing good traction, can slow you down because of the added
weight, unless you have thighs like tree trunks.
The
ideal shoe is a light running shoe, because you get the speed of being barefoot with the grip of hard rubber. It also, like you said, provides a surprising degree of protection.
For
example, I have a modified “Slam Man” on my back porch that is hard as shit, (mostly made of solid plastic covered
by MINIMAL padding). I use it to condition my knuckles, but I never Thai kick
it barefoot, because, if I miss and make contact with my instep instead of my shin, I could very well break my fucking foot
off. Still, even with the lightest shoe, I can wail away without fear.
It’s funny
how such a thin covering of cloth and leather can make such a difference.
Then again, the
bones of your foot are held IN
PLACE by a shoe, (kind of “compacted”), so there’s less chance of an impact force
being concentrated on a specific part. Think of a shoe as something that makes
your foot into one big bone, instead of a whole lot of little bones.
As far
as stomps and things, while your bony heel may be harder, it’s far more susceptible to damage, (ever hear of a stone
bruise?).
In reference to
street defense, nothing hurts more than locking up with a guy, (in the clinch, for example), taking the rubber edge of a tennis
shoe, and “raking” it down your opponent’s shin, especially if it’s a hairy shin. Man, you can take off a layer of skin if you do it right. Ouch!
Finally, wearing
shoes is paramount because of terrain. Most fights don’t happen on a padded
dojo floor, and if you end up on a cracked tile pool deck, or a street corner where someone dropped a beer bottle, or a front
yard full of stickers… well… you get the idea.
You’re
a Thai fighter, which means your legs are probably conditioned very well. Still,
have you ever thrown a Thai kick that was just off the mark, and you were just a little too far away? What happened? If you were lucky, nothing. If you weren’t, the impact area was probably too far down on your foot, and you hyper extended your
ankle.
Shoes provide a
degree of ankle support that can prevent this from happening.
The next time you’re
training outside the dojo, (with a friend perhaps), try kicking the Thai pads with Tennis shoes on. You might just see an increase in power.
GREAT questions,
Ross! Keep on thinking!!!
-Mike
P.S. There’s
nothing “flashy” about my spin back kick. It’s fast, brutal,
and more reminiscent of a mule kicking, rather than a man. I do it differently
than guys you see in Tae Kwon Do, but I definitely know where you’re coming from.
Think about the difference between the Thai kick YOU do, and the traditional rear leg round kicks you see karate guys
do. Smell what I’m stepping in?
P.S.S. Next class,
be sure to tell everyone in your dojo about my website… because I’m a whore for attention… and I LOVE replying
to posts like yours… and I’m lonely. I have no friends… Will YOU be my friend, Ross? Wanna come
over tomorrow night for dinner? Please?!?
I’m making cereal…
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