Wasa-B - How do Thais and KBers practise checking all types of leg kicks? Seems like the calf kick check involves the correct angle to ensure its being checked properly. Can this still be done lightly with pads?
We do what we call leg check drills which is basically sparring with kicks only and our pad holders fire kicks at the fighters and they practice defense whilst working the pads.
Whatever happened to the old Conor who said he would tear his leg off and beat the guy with it?
FWIW, I know it’s a technique in “Hong gia”, which is a Vietnamese martial art.
They also throw an interesting Round Kick to the inside of the ankle, using the ball of the foot, which I have never seen before.
I just fought a war on my thread about shin conditioning. OUTCOLD has been more succinct. Elite MMA fighters are simply not as versatile as they think and few set out to turn their shins hard enough to be able to check kicks on any part of the leg or body.
The argument that it's not an MMA stance is retarded. If you look at the Dutch more so the Thais, you'll see that you can easily bust out a sprawl. You don't have to have the traditional Muay Thai stance that keeps so light on the front leg to act as a winshield wiper to any leg or body attacks.
There is a huge disconnect in this community to striking. Always has been mainly because knockouts come often from ugly punches becaus of the small gloves pretty easy and lack of qualified instructors.
Good insight from Justin here: JUSTIN GAETHJE SHOWS HOW TO COUNTER A CALF KICK - *FULL ELEVATION FIGHT TEAM MOVIE COMING SOON* - YouTube
In MMA it was first used in the Jamie Varner vs Ben Henderson WEC fight! (where do you think Ben get it from?) The Lally’s are the ones who brought it over to MMA from kickboxing!
This is the Facts!
wiggum - Good insight from Justin here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM2Z9es-9ak
Saw that, thanks Wiggs. Again about angling into it. So it appears however that this is not a big or prevalent thing in MT or KB but seems to work more for MMA due to distance, not commit of hips compared to leg kicks on the thigh which also are very vulnerable to TD counters. Things go in cycles tho in every sport so I am assuming the defense will catch up eventually .
I guess we can add that the retraction is also faster than a committed leg kick? Leg kicks have longer retractions so even if not caught for a TD counter the retraction and reset can still be vulnerable to tds ala Khabib/Justin. The final TD Khabib got there, was that a calf or leg kick from Justin? Leg right?
sarcotraps -The first one I remember using the calf kick was Ben Henderson.
This
Chael has a story about training with Ben henderson and after the training session chael told him he was missing with his kicks and was hitting too low. Ben told him that he wasn't missing and meant to kick him in the calf.