Bloody Elbow

Nice write-up.

I don’t think the push kick is used much in MMA cause it can be caught easier than other kicks. But just like any effective kick, proper timing and distance can make the difference between rocking your opponent or ending up on your back.

I_Mad - February 7, 2012 via mobile reply

For Thai or MMA?

Obviously there’s a lot more opportunity to use them in pure Muay Thai. The speed at which the Thais throw them is exceptional and if you’re able to chain them together (akin to Buakaw) they can be much more than a ‘foot jab’. I was rarely able to do it, but a great use of the technique is to catch your opponent just as he throws a roundhouse kick – if you time it correctly this will usually send him reeling or even remove his balance completely.

Worth - February 7, 2012 reply

I'm a big fan of the push kick

And use them all the time with both my front and rear legs. I think their usefulness depends on your game, though; I want to maintain kicking range, so obviously the push kick is an essential tool for that.

My coach taught us a nifty setup for a potentially devastating push kick that I thought I’d share: pivot on the front foot and rotate your hips like you’re going to throw a rear leg round kick, and instead throw a snapping front kick to the liver. I’ve found it to be pretty effective.

Patrick Wyman - February 7, 2012 reply

The push kick is very under-utilized in MMA but like someone said above they are easier to catch. I would also like to see the lead leg side kick ala Cung Le and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson used alot more. Lead leg side kick (or a lead leg push kick) to the stomach followed by a rear leg round house is a great combo

420mike - February 7, 2012 via mobile reply

Front leg kicks in Muay Thai, kickboxing, and MMA

There’s a lot of different styles of front kicks; below I’m going to focus on the Thai style front leg teep, with no switch-step or slide-in. While this is a critically important technique for Muay Thai, I do not believe it should be a bread-and-butter technique for MMA fighters. There are other front kicks that are more useful for MMA, addressed at the end.

In pure Muay Thai, the front-leg teep is a critical part of the fighter’s arsenal. Like the jab, it is used to maintain distance, control the opponent’s position, or elicit a reaction. It can even be used to check a leg kick or push the guard open (more advanced uses). It’s a fast, non-telegraphed technique that doesn’t leave you over-extended if you miss. Many Thai instructors will teach their fighters to rely on the jab and teep if they are at a loss of what to do; once they see the opponent’s reactions they can find an opening for more aggressive offense.

Under Japanese or Dutch kickboxing rules, the technique still has its uses, but the scoring system and faster pace of the fight makes the Thai style front kick riskier. There are many causes behind this. For example, if a Thai fighter notices that his opponent charges very quickly through the teep’s effective range in order to land mid-range punches, a common counter is to land a knee on the incoming aggressor. In a Thai stadium, if both fighters landed, the knee-strike would probably beat the punch on judge’s scorecards. However, outside of Thailand, where knees and clinchwork are less emphasized, the puncher would probably win. Another is that Japanese and Dutch kickboxers (who mostly fight 3 minutes 3 rounds) generally use faster, more explosive footwork to move in and out of range, while Thais (who mostly fight 3 minutes 5 rounds) like to conserve energy and use more subtle footwork. Landing a teep on a fast target that may be rotating at the same time is much more difficult than landing it on a stationary target. In other words, outside of Thailand the front leg teep (while still very useful) is not quite as safe and conservative as it is in Thailand.

In MMA, the traditional Thai-style front-leg teep is no longer a low risk technique. The reasons why it’s riskier in non-Thai kickboxing are true to an even greater degree in MMA. Small gloves and high KO potential make pinpoint accuracy on the teep that much important to keep an incoming puncher from landing, and MMA fighters can be even more explosive in their footwork than kickboxers when moving in. Additionally, there is a new risk — the takedown. While catching teeps is a common strategy in the kickboxing world (often followed by a takedown, punch, or knee strike; Buakaw KO’d Sato Yoshihiro in 2006 and knocked down Black Mamba in 2008 by catching their teeps and following it up with a left hook), most of the time a caught kick won’t result in a large difference on scorecards. However, in MMA if a teep is caught and followed with a takedown, that can lose the entire round for the kicker. Since the kick has very little potential for damage without a switch-step or step-in, it becomes a moderate risk / low return technique (instead of the low risk / low return technique that it is under Muay Thai rules).

While there are other types of front kicks that cause more damage and may be more viable in MMA, I think the threat of a takedown alone makes the Thai front-leg teep a technique that should only be used when you know the opponent has no intention of taking you down. Without the teep to help manage distance, control the opponent, and elicit reactions, I believe fighters should rely on other low-risk techniques to accomplish the same goals; examples include the step-in jab, feints, lowering elevation, and footwork.

In the above paragraphs, I only addressed the traditional Thai style front-leg teep thrown to the abdomen or chest. Outside of this kick, there are many other types of front kicks that are useful in MMA. Three out of four are substantially riskier than the front-leg teep, and therefore cannot be used as a low-risk / low-reward technique to control the opponent, but they also do more damage to balance this higher risk.
- Gracie “Pisao”: This kick has been used by the Gracies since UFC1 (Royce, Rickson, Ralek, etc) to close the distance. It’s essentially a slide-in front kick to the knee; while it’s telegraphed and doesn’t usually do much damage, because it targets the legs the risk of having the leg caught is also much lower. Personally, I prefer Jon Jones’ side kick to the knee because I find it a little bit faster, but the techniques are very similar.
- Back leg front kick: This is a telegraphed technique that requires the shoulders and hips to turn, but also has the ability to cause serious damage or even KO the opponent. Kohiruimaki KO’d Nitta Akeomi in 2005 with a back leg front kick to the face (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPhij5x2Llg), and Masato used a back leg front kick to the ribs to set up his TKO of Remigijus Morkevicius in 2006 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfYTV5yXxak). Within the MMA universe, everyone already knows Anderson Silva used a back leg front kick to KO Vitor Belfort. Also, I believe that Machida used a back leg front kick to hurt Rashad around the 4 minute mark of their first round (Rashad took the kick and a light punch and fell as a result, but he was able to get up immediately).
- Switch-step or slide-in front kick: The switch-step and slide-in front kicks with the lead leg can be very damaging techniques even if they don’t often cause KO’s. A well-timed kick can knock an opponent all the way to the other side of the ring. The only KO I can think of off the top of my head is Machida vs Couture, where the Karate Kid basically used a slide-in front kick (plus some some serious elevation!).
- Crescent kick: This is a traditional karate kick which uses the toe to strike the liver. Unlike the Thai push kick, it uses hip rotation (like a roundhouse) to generate momentum instead of hip thrust, and the striking surface is the big toe instead of the ball of the foot. Hinata used it to KO Artur Kyshenko in 2010 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4hrBT3TEVA) under kickboxing rules, and in MMA Katsunori Kikuno has used it to KO many opponents.

kyo20 - February 12, 2012 reply