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How to Land Fast and Effective Low Kicks for MMA

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A low kick can be a very effective weapon for a fighter. In this video striking Coach Vince Salvador breaks down how you can use the low kick in Kickboxing or Muay Thai.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Coach Vince Salvador:
How’s it going, I’m Coach Vince and this is Enrique Marte. Today’s tip of the week is a kickboxing and Muay Thai tip of the week. A lot of times when we’re throwing the low kick, you see a lot of people in MMA or even in kickboxing, they’ll throw a big wide kick jumping into the kick for power and it’s not wrong, some guys prefer that. José Aldo is really good at that, by getting you to go backwards, as you go backwards, he jumps into the kick. Good, it’s a real powerful kick, but in MMA it can go both ways. I can take him down if he misses that kick or if he times it wrong. Right, so we’re going to work on a shorter kick. It’s more of a cut kick. The kick is to score and to damage a leg. I’m not really picking up my lead leg too much.

I’m not jumping into the kick. If he jumps into the kick and I punched at the same time, he’s going to be off balance. We want to score with the kick. A lot of times we can use this for the low-low as well. We’re chopping really low. But when we’re chopping that kick our whole body is not turning much. Then we’re scoring with the same power as a regular low kick without having to jump. So when we throw the hook, in boxing when you’re taught to throw the other hook, you’ll pivot that front foot to get more of the angle for the hook. But in kickboxing, if I turn the hook and miss, my leg’s exposed, get my leg chopped off. So I want to make sure when I throw the hook, I don’t really turn my foot just the hip so I can still chop the kick.

Right, so it’s a little faster too. So he throws a hook a lot faster. If he throws the hook, pivots his foot as he throws the hook, it makes it perfect, there’s no way he’s going to turn back for the kick. So, again. A lot faster it scores, harder for me to do anything if this is MMA. I come forward, he’s out of the way. If he does a big, big jumping kick, I can take him down if I really pressed the issue. And that’s your tip of the week.

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