Punch/Kick Combinations

[Slihn]

Whats up guys.I have a problem when I spar and I am wondering if you all could offer some advice.When I spar/fight,I tend to throw kicks alot(especially when I am fighting someone taller than myself)! I saw my punch/kick ratio is about 80/20! I do not do it purposly though,it just when I spar they just start flying! In class other students always tell me that I need to punch more,but when I do,I often find my self open for an attack and I usually get stuck.Dont get me wrong I do know how to punch hard,I know the technique ,but when I actallu get into live sparring they are only used to distract my opponet.

I am thinkingabout doing more boxing drills to help my hands become second nature.I do not know if this will help or not though.Do any you have this same problem?If so ,how do you cope with it?Any advice?

 

[terryl965]

Boxing is not a bad ideal, I would also do combination drills like lead hand reverse followed up with a roundhouse or lead handd overhand followed up with a push kick and then do kick followed up with the punching combo's that you like.

 

[Tez3]

What type of sparring are you doing? Does it matter that you do more kicks if they are effective ie has your instructor pointed it out rather than the other students?

 

[Kacey]

Think about the hand/foot combinations you know, and also what techniques you could easily combine. Practice them as sets in shadow boxing, and also on a bag (if there's one available). Your responses in sparring are often governed by what you are most comfortable with - and if you are kicking more, then you are more comfortable with kicks.

Since you mention that you are more likely to do this with taller opponents, it's possible that you prefer to keep people - especially taller people - at a distance, which is pretty common. The only way to get around this is to practice going inside your opponent's reach. One good way to do this is in conjunction with the shadow boxing - once you're comfortable with some new combinations, find a partner you're comfortable with, and practice sparring, using the new combinations, but at 1/4-1/2 speed. As you get more comfortable using these combinations against a slow-moving opponent, gradually increase the speed. As you get more comfortable moving inside your opponent's reach, you will have more success using hand techniques, which require a shorter range than kicks.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

[Iron Leopard]

I used to have the same problem. What I did to change it was...when sparring i forced myself to not throw any kicks. This forced me to develop my hands.

There are many drills you can do with a partner in this vien such as step sparring, step sparring with only kicks or with only hands, or one defense other offence and so on. Hope that helps.

 

[Tez3]

I'm curious that it's the other students who have told you to punch more when you say that when you do you open yourself up and get caught? perhaps your sparring is actually very effective and the students would like it to be less so lol! If it were MMA I'd say just do what's best for you!

 

[FearlessFreep]

Agreed.

If your instructor is telling you to kick less, do it. If it's fellow students, don't worry about it. If it's working for you, do it. If it's not, change.

I came from a Taekwondo background so I kick a lot in MMA sparring. My instructor points this out to the other students ("He's a long range kicker, get in close!") so I've been working more on my close techniques, not because I thinkI need to use them more per-se but simply because my partners/opponents try to work against my kicking. But my kicking works well for me so I don't change my gameplan until they make me

 

[zDom]

My TKD instructor's instructor, Master Jeff Forby of Illinois, once told us during a clinic,

that if you like to kick, work on your hands: it will open them up for your kicking.

(and vice versa — if you like to use your hands, work on kicking because it will open them up for your hand techniques)

It has proved to be great advice that has really paid off for me.

I DO have some great kicking+punching combos that I could show you in person, not really sure I could describe them well enough in text for you to get the gist of them...

One drill I worked a lot that helped is working the heavy bag with the following drills (I used to do 10 reps of each, each side, following every class).

On all of these, the punch has to be hard enough to MOVE the bag away from you far enough for the kick to be in range.

• Reverse punch + back leg front kick

• Reverse punch + back leg round kick

• Jab + jump back side kick

• Jab + spinning heel kick *

* be careful on the spinning heel kick. You need to keep a slight bend in the leg so you don't hyper-extend your knee upon striking the bag.

I've found these combinations translate well to free sparring as they train you to create with the punch the distance you need to connect with the kicks that follow.

With enough repetition, the techniques become very well "linked" in your neuromuscular system.

The reverse punch + front kick is so ingrained in me, for example, that almost EVERY reverse punch I throw is immediately followed by a front kick.

Good luck on working your combos!

 

[MJS]

Whats up guys.I have a problem when I spar and I am wondering if you all could offer some advice.When I spar/fight,I tend to throw kicks alot(especially when I am fighting someone taller than myself)! I saw my punch/kick ratio is about 80/20! I do not do it purposly though,it just when I spar they just start flying! In class other students always tell me that I need to punch more,but when I do,I often find my self open for an attack and I usually get stuck.Dont get me wrong I do know how to punch hard,I know the technique ,but when I actallu get into live sparring they are only used to distract my opponet.

I am thinkingabout doing more boxing drills to help my hands become second nature.I do not know if this will help or not though.Do any you have this same problem?If so ,how do you cope with it?Any advice?

I tend to throw more kicks than punches when I spar. I've found for myself, that working focus mitt drills and doing matches with hands only, has been a big help. When doing those hands only matches, I'd go slow, this way you can work on the fine points of the technique. Of course, its always helpful to have a partner that is going to have your best interest in mind.

Mike

 

[searcher]

I had this problem long ago which was really odd since I was studying EPAK at the time. Well anyway, the way I corrected this problem was by settign restrictions on myself for sparring. I chose one kick that I would allow myself to use for one month and the rest of my techniques had to be with the hands. The next month I changed the kick I was using, but still only allowed myself to use one kick. I also tried to restrict the number of times I would use it per class. After a few months I let myself use two kicks and I switched them up after one month of use and again I tried to limit myself. This worked out well for me.

I fell that the key to success for you will be repetition. Set out some combinations on paper and practice them over and over until they become second nature. It may sound simple, but it is effective. You may also try fighting inside more. This will seriously limit the effectiveness of your kicks and make you rely on your hands more.

I am with everyone else when it comes to your reasoning behind wanting to use your hands more. If it is your instructor or if it is something you are wanting then you should go for it. If it is the other students in the class you should ask yourself, "Why are they telling me to not use my kicks?" You may find that they are not liking you kicking because they can't deal with it.

 

[Slihn]

Most of the the time I am very sucessful with kicks,but I do not want to rely so much one one range of fighting. I always consider what would happen if I hurt my shin in a fight and I am not able to kick; I would probably be in trouble.Also,I know that it is more effective to set up kicks with punches and punches with kicks,I do this sometimes but not instinctively(like with kicks).

Like most of you guys said,when I spar I am going to try and focus on boxing more,maybe even soley on it and then see what happends from there.The only thing is ,is that I do not want to lose out on the speed of my kicks though.

 

[CuongNhuka]

Good idea, sorta. If you relay on your legs in sparring then it's probably because your leg strikes are stonger then your hand strikes. In which case, it may be a bad idea to try to use hand strikes in sparring. If you want to even this out, try the following:
Boxing drills to the air (and lots of them)
Boxing drills to the heavy bag (also, a lot of them)
Boxing drills to a focus mit (once more, and lots of them)
Be in an ordanary sparring match, but you only throw hand strikes.

By doing this you develop familiarity with your hands, devolop more skill, speed, strength, and so on with your hands. By doing that last one you'll get a bit more experience with when is it a good idea to use your hands. Remember, this is just like all training, it's gonna take time. So be pateint.
Doing the same thing is good if you want to devolop anything. It's how I can use kicks (I had the same problem as you, just back wards).

Good luck, and Good training!

 

[wade]

There are many excellent ideas from some very knowledgeable people here on how to improve your punching, find out what works for you and use it. I tell my students that "if you punch you have to follow with a kick, if you kick you have to follow with a punch". This is not gonna work every time with every one but it will get you used to punching more.

 

[Stryder]

Whats up guys.I have a problem when I spar and I am wondering if you all could offer some advice.When I spar/fight,I tend to throw kicks alot(especially when I am fighting someone taller than myself)! I saw my punch/kick ratio is about 80/20! I do not do it purposly though,it just when I spar they just start flying!

A good way to stop kicking so much is to fight someone that has good takedown skills. The first time they take you down, you'll want to stop kicking so much. If I'm fighting a superior kicker, I'll use a properly timed iron broom to level the playing field, so to speak.

There isn't a rule as to how much this or how much that you should be doing. You should do what works for you and as long as it is working, it's good. If you want to improve your hand speed, well that's a different thing.

 

[exile]

Here's something else to consider: if you want your sparring skills to have self-defense carryover, then—regardless of what your fellow students are or aren't telling you—it's probably a good idea to develop your hand skills more, because for SD/CQ apps you are going to find hand/arm techniques more doable than kicks, particularly mid/high kicks. Everyone wants to keep the other guy from closing the distance, but there's plenty of at least anecdotal evidence that most fights get into close range pretty quickly, regardless of what you want. And a lot of fights can start in environments where there just isn't enough room for anything but low kicks, if those.

To give yourself a real-time incentive to work on hand techs—and you probably don't want to confine those to punching; knife-hand attacks, hammer fists, elbow strikes and palm-heel strikes are often more effective for delivering force to some particular target—it might make sense to adopt the strategy of closing the distance with your oppo from the get-go—either inside or outside, depending—and trying to come up with the shortest sequence of hand/arm strikes in any given match that would, if applied full power, leave an assailant motionless on the ground. Obviously you don't want to apply those techs full power in your sparring sessions (unless you're wearing protective gear). Aim to keep yourself within a three-foot radius of your opponent at all times, as an ideal, and work with what you can at that distance. You'll find yourself leaving most legwork out of it (except for finishing techs) pretty quickly , I suspect! :wink1:

 

[tradrockrat]

Here's something surprisingly absent from the majority of these posts - sparring is supposed to work on your weaknesses! It's training - not real fighting. Systematic sparring is very important. you should work rounds of sparring where you only use your hands against an opponent, you should also train just kicks. Hell, I had to train just avoidance - no attacks or counters at all sometimes! These types of training rounds do wonders for your fighting skills and ring awareness.

Bottom line? If YOU are concerned about your hands, you need to work them more - I don't care what ANYBODY else says - you know you better than anybody. If you are uncomfortable about something you need to fix it so you can focus on the fight, not the techniques.

Use your sparring sessions as intended - to get better.