GDay and complex stance question

[Tubsy]

Hi All,

Have just joined the board, what a great resource!

After 20 years of sitting on my **** Ive gotten back into martial arts given my son has just moved into his adult Kyokushin class and I got bored of watching. Aprox 10 weeks later Ive dropped alot of weight and getting much fitter.

The issue I have is that I was born with a structural club foot/leg (right), which means it only has half the muscle mass, and isnt very strong or flexible - I cant squat without lifting my right ankle. My right leg isnt good for much other than a snap kick/teep.

As a southpaw it feels most natural to have my left foot back, but one of my friends told me recently that I should change to orthodox so my power hands/feet are leading and therefore I can leverage the strength and flexibility in them.

Is anyone here a Southpaw who fights orthodox? How have you managed the transition?

Thanks in advance,

Tubs

 

[skribs]

What experience does this friend have to make him more qualified to suggest this than your Kyokushin Sensei?

Your lead side tends to do a lot less of the work than your strong side. There's a lot more pivoting and bending on your strong side than your lead side. If your left side is more flexible and able to handle more dynamic movement, then you probably want to fight southpaw.

 

[Tubsy]

My mate knows his ****, and recommended I research Bill Wallace as someone who is left handed with a right leg injury. I have and think it makes alot of sense.

 

[skribs]

Ah, yes. The "knows his ****" qualification. Maybe I should just delete the rest of my resume and put that on there.

 

[Tubsy]

My friend, qualified or not relative to you, has given me some inspiration/food for thought. Do you have any suggestions for a lefty with a right leg issue?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

So as a southpaw, forced to it due to a left shoulder injury, here's my take:
First: If you've got an injury to either your right arm or your right leg/foot you don't want that in front. The idea of having those in front is that they're your main power, so you can twist on them and push power to them. My shoulder injury, and your foot injury prevent that, so it's not beneficial having them up there.
Second: If you're identifying yourself as a southpaw, I assume that means you're a lefty. If that's so, your natural position is southpaw. And that actually gives you a competitive advantage against most fighters, who default to orthodox by being right-handed.
Third: Knows his **** doesn't mean much here. What's his qualifications-how long has he trained, how many fights has he been in, how many people has he trained? Those are relevant.
Fourth: Your purpose matters. Southpaw vs. Orthodox is an argument that effects the top 1% of the top 1%. If you don't plan to compete, it doens't matter if you'll fight southpaw or orthodox, it's whatever you feel comfortable with in an SD situation. If you plan to compete on an amateur level, focusing on Southpaw will undoubtedly give you an advantage since most people aren't used to that. If you want to be professional, then you can tlak with your coach about it.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

In wrestling art, to put your strong side forward is a must. It's your body control arm and your 1st line defense.

In striking art, if your opponent likes to circular around you, you will find strong side forward can solve that problem. When your opponent moves toward your side door, your back arm will be jammed by your own leading arm, and you can't punch out your back arm. But you can still throw jab, hook, back fist with your leading arm when that happen.

In the following picture, when the red moves counter-clockwise, blue's strong back right hand cannot reach red. But blue's leading left hand can still punch red with left jab, left hook, left back fist, left uppercut, and ...

 

[Tubsy]

So as a southpaw, forced to it due to a left shoulder injury, here's my take:
First: If you've got an injury to either your right arm or your right leg/foot you don't want that in front. The idea of having those in front is that they're your main power, so you can twist on them and push power to them. My shoulder injury, and your foot injury prevent that, so it's not beneficial having them up there.
Second: If you're identifying yourself as a southpaw, I assume that means you're a lefty. If that's so, your natural position is southpaw. And that actually gives you a competitive advantage against most fighters, who default to orthodox by being right-handed.
Third: Knows his **** doesn't mean much here. What's his qualifications-how long has he trained, how many fights has he been in, how many people has he trained? Those are relevant.
Fourth: Your purpose matters. Southpaw vs. Orthodox is an argument that effects the top 1% of the top 1%. If you don't plan to compete, it doens't matter if you'll fight southpaw or orthodox, it's whatever you feel comfortable with in an SD situation. If you plan to compete on an amateur level, focusing on Southpaw will undoubtedly give you an advantage since most people aren't used to that. If you want to be professional, then you can tlak with your coach about it.

Thanks for that, first and second points concur with what Im thinking. Yes, I am a lefty and yes my right foot has an injury. I get way more power kicking and punching with my left-lead hands/feet in orthodox as per point 2.

Im only at the beginnning of my training after a long hiatus. No doubt experimenting on the heavy bag left foot forward will give me part of the answer there. My purpose is to train Kyokushin and do Kumite for gradings.

Cheers

 

[Tubsy]

In wrestling art, to put your strong side forward is a must. It's your body control arm and your 1st line defense.

In striking art, if your opponent likes to circular around you, you will find strong side forward can solve that problem. When your opponent moves toward your side door, your back arm will be jammed by your own leading arm, and you can't punch out your back arm. But you can still throw jab, hook, back fist with your leading arm when that happen.

In the following picture, when the red moves counter-clockwise, blue's strong back right hand cannot reach red. But blue's leading left hand can still punch red with left jab, left hook, left back fist, left uppercut, and ...

This is great. Assuming I am red, my left jab will be much stronger and faster than his left jab as it is my dominant hand. Same for kicking off the front foot as my left leg is 40% stronger.

 

[Tez3]

In Wado Ryu, we are taught to do everything off both sides, so you can switch very easily when needed. We've followed this through to our MMA, you aren't dependant on having just one fighting stance then. It means you can switch easily to confuse your opponent or if you are injured. Being reliant as boxers are on one fighting stance is limiting.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

This is great. Assuming I am red, my left jab will be much stronger and faster than his left jab as it is my dominant hand. Same for kicking off the front foot as my left leg is 40% stronger.

Something to keep in mind. "He who controls the left controls the world". This refers to the jab in an orthodox style. If you can contol the jab by being southpaw, you control the world. You just need to have a coach capable enough to teach you based on that style.

 

[Tubsy]

Something to keep in mind. "He who controls the left controls the world". This refers to the jab in an orthodox style. If you can contol the jab by being southpaw, you control the world. You just need to have a coach capable enough to teach you based on that style.

Sounds good. Only problem is Im doing Kyokushin where there is no head punching. Jabs to the body still possible of course.

 

[drop bear]

Yeah I am a southpaw that fights authodox and one of my coaches is a southpaw that fights authodox.

Just means you have a better jab and lead hook. Jabs are basically the most common punch you will throw and lead hooks knock people out. So having those options on your good arm is an ok choice.

Otherwise at a quick look. Mike Tyson is a left handed orthodox.

 

[drop bear]

My mate knows his ****, and recommended I research Bill Wallace as someone who is left handed with a right leg injury. I have and think it makes alot of sense.

Not so much for kyokashin so much as that sideways stance will get your legs kicked off.

 

[Tubsy]

Not so much for kyokashin so much as that sideways stance will get your legs kicked off.

Sorry, not sure I understand what u mean by getting legs kicked off?

 

[jobo]

Hi All,

Have just joined the board, what a great resource!

After 20 years of sitting on my **** Ive gotten back into martial arts given my son has just moved into his adult Kyokushin class and I got bored of watching. Aprox 10 weeks later Ive dropped alot of weight and getting much fitter.

The issue I have is that I was born with a structural club foot/leg (right), which means it only has half the muscle mass, and isnt very strong or flexible - I cant squat without lifting my right ankle. My right leg isnt good for much other than a snap kick/teep.

As a southpaw it feels most natural to have my left foot back, but one of my friends told me recently that I should change to orthodox so my power hands/feet are leading and therefore I can leverage the strength and flexibility in them.

Is anyone here a Southpaw who fights orthodox? How have you managed the transition?

Thanks in advance,

Tubs

wouldnt a partial solution be to work on developong the strengh/ flexability of your bad leg,the the more you dont use it, the less muscle mass/"strengh and flexability it will have

 

[Tubsy]

Absolutely, goblet squats, deadlifts, hip thrust split stances, reverse lunges for strength...

.Strength isnt main issue though, it is hip flexibility from having 2 different length legs. Strengthening gluts and adductors is working, but my goal is to one day be able to hop on my right foot if that makes sense - it is so weak

 

[jobo]

Absolutely, goblet squats, deadlifts, hip thrust split stances, reverse lunges for strength...

.Strength isnt main issue though, it is hip flexibility from having 2 different length legs. Strengthening gluts and adductors is working, but my goal is to one day be able to hop on my right foot if that makes sense - it is so weak

my left leg is effectivly useless for anything but standing, ive no intent of ever using it to kick someone, coz it wouldnt hurt them, i dont actualy see that as a significant block to ma, not at the level i do it

if you want to hop on your bad side, i strongly recommend practicing hopping on your bad side, even if you use your upper body to hold/ assist you to start of with.

id also think of strenghening it in isolation or your good side will just take over and do the bulk of the work , so pistol or probebly shrimp squats, again using upper body strengh, to lighten ( progressively increase )the load may be the way to go

 

[Tubsy]

Thanks for the info. My ex. physiologist has me doing alot of bounce work initially on balls of feet and skipping as a start. Those squats are awesome.

What stance do u fight in? Orthodox?

 

[jobo]

Thanks for the info. My ex. physiologist has me doing alot of bounce work initially on balls of feet and skipping as a start. Those squats are awesome.

What stance do u fight in? Orthodox?

yes very orthodox, im a very predictable fighter, im always going to jab with my left and always going to kick with my right, if i was ring fighting this might be an issue as they would quickly work out what i was going to do, but im not, so the thing is to be good at what you can do well whilst working on your defects , rather than fight nature and teach yourself to fight wrong way round or wait for your body to ballance its self

teach yourself to hit things hard with what you have, put on points for style later