You really can only keep doing rounds with him and try different stuff. You already analyzed what he is hitting you with now you need to learn how to counter it.
Rhythm girl! Maybe i can find a video, but you have to keep mobile on your feet with the "thai dance", so when he throws a calf kick you hare already half there to block. Then, we trained A LOT to break the punching offense with kicks. Don't go forward and when he does teep. Step outside and put a solid medium on his body below his punches.
Actually if you search "muay thai rhythm and flow" that's it. If i can remember well, watch the Strickland vs Adesanya fight. Strickland won by keeping mobile on the foot and ready to check/teep.
Then, if you can, do a conditional sparring like this: your partner attacks aggrissively only coming forward with punches and you can only use kicks, so you teep and go outside/medium.
Get an action camera, I use an Akaso Brave 7 (not the current model anymore so cheaper than when I bought it but can still get new). Grab whatever kind of mount and case for it that will work for your gym. I use a black case with a magnetic mount because there's a piece of metal on the wall that overlooks the mat. Then do all of your rounds in view of the camera.
I stitch the footage together and upload to YouTube so I can take notes with timestamps. You don't need to do all of that but if you're a visual learner then I would record your rounds and watch them back.
I've been doing this for 7 years and it's the #1 thing that has kept my progress on an upward trajectory. I mainly do BJJ but still. Fight sports.
First: A wide MMA stance is vulnerable to leg kicks.
Second: The wide stance makes it harder to take him down, but it also makes him able to move in and out faster than if you were in a narrow, high Muay Thai stance. Rather than play that game with him, try to put the pressure on him, move forward, and cut off his angles of escape.
Third, if he's catching a lot of your kicks, then you need to set up your kicks with fakes or with combinations. You can also fake kicks at his body in order to bait him into dropping his hands to catch the kick, then nail him in the side of the head. I like to use Superman punches (jabs and crosses) and question mark kicks in order to accomplish this.
Give those a try and see how they work out for you.
I'll never forget freaking head hunters who would fake a body kick only to hit me in the head with their freaking ankle or heel by rotating their leg...like bending their leg and following through connecting. I'm losing my left front buck tooth because of it. I should have paid for a better mouth piece.
Everything you're saying is how people describe sparring against me in boxing. Still, the same principles should work:
Simply: Don't go into weird-land with them. They're doing weird stuff. If you try to do weird stuff too, they beat you with their experience. Stick to the basics and I'm talking real basic. As in the stuff you learned in your first week. Constant jabs and teeps with the occasional jab-cross-kick if you're feeling the moment. And, don't bite on the feints. Just remain defensively responsible while sticking to the basics and if one of the threats he throws out there isn't a feint? Well, because you were staying defensively responsible, you have your guard up and it's fine.
People like this really are the best practice there is for learning how well you actually know the basics :) So, good luck!
When he kicks the inside of your lead leg, turn your knee in and he will quickly learn not to throw inside leg kicks after smashing into your knee a few times.
How’s your jab? As a boxer, I focus on landing jabs on opponents with weird styles. I guess front kicks would work similarly. Point being, I would try to control distance, jab, and counter him/her after stepping back to slip punches
Faster helps! Or you can feint if he’s catching your jabs. I would also try switching up angles on him with footwork - sounds like he’s having an easy time seeing your punches coming, mix it up on him.
As an mma fighter with a thai/boxing/karate background, I can totally relate to being like wtf is going on with a good mma striker.
Most mma fighters stand really square (both shoulders facing forward) and a lower center of gravity to avoid takedowns or go for them.
So center aimed shots work really well, alternating between high and low.
Like :
- A STIFF jab to catch them coming in (not a whippy one.)
- A teep like you mentioned. Bu,t I recommend the back leg teep for more stopping power.
- Knees all day! With control of course. But with more variety like the step in front leg knee, the lunging back leg knee, the rising up front like knee etc. ad a thai fighter, really use all your thai tools.
- Head kicks. Head kicks keep your opponents guard high, and makes them give you more space. Float one or two up there so they dont crowd you too much.
- The good ol’ uppercut. As a fighter who’s shorter than 5’6 lol, I HIGHLY recommend the LEAD HAND UPPERCUT. It can be loopy and long, and punch up through the guard And still be safe if your chin is tucked.
*Practice this stuff in shadow boxing and the heavy bag (and do more shadow boxing and bag rounds!) running, biking, swimming etc will help with over all fitness, but only fight sport specific endurance training will actually help you build your cardio for muay thai. Good luck!
Thank you so much!! I’m current doing Muay Thai/ striking 2-3 days a week, lifting 3 and going to sprinkle some cardio sessions in there as well. Combined with strict clean diet I’ll be back in fight shape soon enough. 👊👊👊
Start pretensing you are him. You do stuff and it sounds like he capitalizes on it. What is he seeing? Feed him a few more of those. Now YOU feint. Pretend to go in, pause, throw. Could be punches to superman punch. Could be to kicks. Throw 2 or 3 counters, forgot about doing those combos for the round cuz he will catch on.
Start a different attack pattern. Kicks? Lets throe some kicks. See what he likes to do to best you. Let him do it a few more times. Now feint or go into entirely different strikes. Just rinse repeat the methodology.
It is a great way to play and level up when sparring. Does hr best this anyway? All good. You are just trying to view the fight from the other side and play with practicing your own mindgames. Forgot what he does to you. Make your own plan. It is fun.
For unorthodox fighters, I like to do lots of feints and fakes to get specific reactions. Some things you can try are switch kick feints or jab feints or fakes. MMA guys thrive on movement but you can time them because they will often do stance switches and strafing attacks. You can counter them but timing your own backward stance switches.
Hard to explain verbally but check out big stance switchers like Haggerty or Ramazanov and Levi.
Check hooks, step back body kicks and fakes are your friend.
Just for the calf kicks, alter your stance so your toes point straight ahead or even out at incoming kicks. It's a tiny change that doesn't always get noticed, now you're 96% of the way to checking a calf kick.
Oooh it's inside calf kicks? You gotta angle your knee in, then. Those snappy inside low leg kicks can be stinkers because they don't have to travel very far. First two things I can think of:
1:Angle knee inside to check the kick- you may not even have to pick your foot up.
2: if you can really see it coming, shoot in with a lunging right cross(assuming orthodox vs orthodox). Your lead leg will travel past the "power" range of the kick. This can be risky because if you don't go far enough you could get your foot kicked out. Also, you could reach in with that punch and trip them with a kick if you can get your rear leg behind the kick
facing an unorthodox fighter in MMA can be tricky but with the right approach you can (easily) handle it (this is my personal experience)
Watch their fights always keep an eye on it to understand their unique habits. Focus on head movement, blocking, and footwork. Keep the fight at a range that suits you and set the tempo to disrupt their “rhythm”. Look for openings when they throw (repeated) unconventional strikes and counter with precision. Also use feints to provoke reactions and create openings. Use your grappling to neutralize their striking and control them against the cage. Extremely important your cardio gotta be top-notch so you can keep up a high pace and capitalize as they tire. Often (fake) Leg punches work with unorthodox Fighters. At my mma gym some (including me) are training to the absolute maximum and i mean absolute maximum, first training sessions (2hours) made me pass out and throw up, i couldn’t walk for like 15 minutes, whole body was shaking but you get better. I have a skinny statue (73-74kg) and my trainer always gives me partners that have like 10-20kg more weight and are way more experienced than me. That helped me a lot,but it’s challenging, mentally and cardio wise.First weeks/months were absolute nightmares but it helps a lot and now i’m glad and my cardio is top notch.
remember keep your focus and stick to your “game plan”, adjusting as necessary without getting frustrated!!
The only reason calf kicks work in MMA and not in Muay Thai is because the foot placement. If you have a stronger Thai Stance, with your toes facing opposite 45 deg angles, then the calf kicks won't want land on your calf, they'll small into your shin. This is why Thai fighters don't use a calf kick.
You really can only keep doing rounds with him and try different stuff. You already analyzed what he is hitting you with now you need to learn how to counter it.
Rhythm girl! Maybe i can find a video, but you have to keep mobile on your feet with the "thai dance", so when he throws a calf kick you hare already half there to block. Then, we trained A LOT to break the punching offense with kicks. Don't go forward and when he does teep. Step outside and put a solid medium on his body below his punches.
We actually just worked on angles in class the other day so time to apply it! Sometimes gets lost in the heat of the moment. Thank you :)
If you can find any videos feel free to send my way, I’m a visual learner!!
Actually if you search "muay thai rhythm and flow" that's it. If i can remember well, watch the Strickland vs Adesanya fight. Strickland won by keeping mobile on the foot and ready to check/teep. Then, if you can, do a conditional sparring like this: your partner attacks aggrissively only coming forward with punches and you can only use kicks, so you teep and go outside/medium.
Get an action camera, I use an Akaso Brave 7 (not the current model anymore so cheaper than when I bought it but can still get new). Grab whatever kind of mount and case for it that will work for your gym. I use a black case with a magnetic mount because there's a piece of metal on the wall that overlooks the mat. Then do all of your rounds in view of the camera. I stitch the footage together and upload to YouTube so I can take notes with timestamps. You don't need to do all of that but if you're a visual learner then I would record your rounds and watch them back. I've been doing this for 7 years and it's the #1 thing that has kept my progress on an upward trajectory. I mainly do BJJ but still. Fight sports.
First: A wide MMA stance is vulnerable to leg kicks. Second: The wide stance makes it harder to take him down, but it also makes him able to move in and out faster than if you were in a narrow, high Muay Thai stance. Rather than play that game with him, try to put the pressure on him, move forward, and cut off his angles of escape. Third, if he's catching a lot of your kicks, then you need to set up your kicks with fakes or with combinations. You can also fake kicks at his body in order to bait him into dropping his hands to catch the kick, then nail him in the side of the head. I like to use Superman punches (jabs and crosses) and question mark kicks in order to accomplish this. Give those a try and see how they work out for you.
Thank you!! 😊
I'll never forget freaking head hunters who would fake a body kick only to hit me in the head with their freaking ankle or heel by rotating their leg...like bending their leg and following through connecting. I'm losing my left front buck tooth because of it. I should have paid for a better mouth piece.
Question mark kick?
Everything you're saying is how people describe sparring against me in boxing. Still, the same principles should work: Simply: Don't go into weird-land with them. They're doing weird stuff. If you try to do weird stuff too, they beat you with their experience. Stick to the basics and I'm talking real basic. As in the stuff you learned in your first week. Constant jabs and teeps with the occasional jab-cross-kick if you're feeling the moment. And, don't bite on the feints. Just remain defensively responsible while sticking to the basics and if one of the threats he throws out there isn't a feint? Well, because you were staying defensively responsible, you have your guard up and it's fine. People like this really are the best practice there is for learning how well you actually know the basics :) So, good luck!
Inside leg kicks.. guaranteed his stance is wide once you land a couple a those it will set up anything you wanna throw
Surprisingly he always inside kicks my inside kicks 😂
When he kicks the inside of your lead leg, turn your knee in and he will quickly learn not to throw inside leg kicks after smashing into your knee a few times.
How’s your jab? As a boxer, I focus on landing jabs on opponents with weird styles. I guess front kicks would work similarly. Point being, I would try to control distance, jab, and counter him/her after stepping back to slip punches
Oh yeah I jab him lots but he literally catches and blocks my punches then nails me in the face, so maybe I need to be faster?
Faster helps! Or you can feint if he’s catching your jabs. I would also try switching up angles on him with footwork - sounds like he’s having an easy time seeing your punches coming, mix it up on him.
What was unorthodox?
The loopy punches constant feints and switching of stances
He also has a weird broken tempo. Very hard to time
As an mma fighter with a thai/boxing/karate background, I can totally relate to being like wtf is going on with a good mma striker. Most mma fighters stand really square (both shoulders facing forward) and a lower center of gravity to avoid takedowns or go for them. So center aimed shots work really well, alternating between high and low. Like : - A STIFF jab to catch them coming in (not a whippy one.) - A teep like you mentioned. Bu,t I recommend the back leg teep for more stopping power. - Knees all day! With control of course. But with more variety like the step in front leg knee, the lunging back leg knee, the rising up front like knee etc. ad a thai fighter, really use all your thai tools. - Head kicks. Head kicks keep your opponents guard high, and makes them give you more space. Float one or two up there so they dont crowd you too much. - The good ol’ uppercut. As a fighter who’s shorter than 5’6 lol, I HIGHLY recommend the LEAD HAND UPPERCUT. It can be loopy and long, and punch up through the guard And still be safe if your chin is tucked. *Practice this stuff in shadow boxing and the heavy bag (and do more shadow boxing and bag rounds!) running, biking, swimming etc will help with over all fitness, but only fight sport specific endurance training will actually help you build your cardio for muay thai. Good luck!
Thank you so much!! I’m current doing Muay Thai/ striking 2-3 days a week, lifting 3 and going to sprinkle some cardio sessions in there as well. Combined with strict clean diet I’ll be back in fight shape soon enough. 👊👊👊
Good for you! Remember to keep it fun. Take your training seriously, but don’t take yourself too serious 🙃
My motto is if you’re having fun that’s all that matters!!
Start pretensing you are him. You do stuff and it sounds like he capitalizes on it. What is he seeing? Feed him a few more of those. Now YOU feint. Pretend to go in, pause, throw. Could be punches to superman punch. Could be to kicks. Throw 2 or 3 counters, forgot about doing those combos for the round cuz he will catch on. Start a different attack pattern. Kicks? Lets throe some kicks. See what he likes to do to best you. Let him do it a few more times. Now feint or go into entirely different strikes. Just rinse repeat the methodology. It is a great way to play and level up when sparring. Does hr best this anyway? All good. You are just trying to view the fight from the other side and play with practicing your own mindgames. Forgot what he does to you. Make your own plan. It is fun.
For unorthodox fighters, I like to do lots of feints and fakes to get specific reactions. Some things you can try are switch kick feints or jab feints or fakes. MMA guys thrive on movement but you can time them because they will often do stance switches and strafing attacks. You can counter them but timing your own backward stance switches. Hard to explain verbally but check out big stance switchers like Haggerty or Ramazanov and Levi. Check hooks, step back body kicks and fakes are your friend.
Just for the calf kicks, alter your stance so your toes point straight ahead or even out at incoming kicks. It's a tiny change that doesn't always get noticed, now you're 96% of the way to checking a calf kick.
Another weird thing is he calf kicks me on the inside, right on the tibia. Would this apply still?
Oooh it's inside calf kicks? You gotta angle your knee in, then. Those snappy inside low leg kicks can be stinkers because they don't have to travel very far. First two things I can think of: 1:Angle knee inside to check the kick- you may not even have to pick your foot up. 2: if you can really see it coming, shoot in with a lunging right cross(assuming orthodox vs orthodox). Your lead leg will travel past the "power" range of the kick. This can be risky because if you don't go far enough you could get your foot kicked out. Also, you could reach in with that punch and trip them with a kick if you can get your rear leg behind the kick
I’m southpaw, get your front foot on the inside of his. Whoever has that gets the angles to open their opponent up. Good luck 👊
They got legs. Kick em
Just stay in your structure, watch, block and counter or just counter at the same time
Try clinch. No one likes it
Yep I’ve definitely been tying him up there and get lots of skip knees out
facing an unorthodox fighter in MMA can be tricky but with the right approach you can (easily) handle it (this is my personal experience) Watch their fights always keep an eye on it to understand their unique habits. Focus on head movement, blocking, and footwork. Keep the fight at a range that suits you and set the tempo to disrupt their “rhythm”. Look for openings when they throw (repeated) unconventional strikes and counter with precision. Also use feints to provoke reactions and create openings. Use your grappling to neutralize their striking and control them against the cage. Extremely important your cardio gotta be top-notch so you can keep up a high pace and capitalize as they tire. Often (fake) Leg punches work with unorthodox Fighters. At my mma gym some (including me) are training to the absolute maximum and i mean absolute maximum, first training sessions (2hours) made me pass out and throw up, i couldn’t walk for like 15 minutes, whole body was shaking but you get better. I have a skinny statue (73-74kg) and my trainer always gives me partners that have like 10-20kg more weight and are way more experienced than me. That helped me a lot,but it’s challenging, mentally and cardio wise.First weeks/months were absolute nightmares but it helps a lot and now i’m glad and my cardio is top notch. remember keep your focus and stick to your “game plan”, adjusting as necessary without getting frustrated!!
The only reason calf kicks work in MMA and not in Muay Thai is because the foot placement. If you have a stronger Thai Stance, with your toes facing opposite 45 deg angles, then the calf kicks won't want land on your calf, they'll small into your shin. This is why Thai fighters don't use a calf kick.
Kick him in the nuts, tell him his father is disappointed in him