Countering Low Kicks
Ever since the UFC burst onto the stage in 1993 low kicks have become common-place in sport martial arts training. Of course many martial arts have been using them for practically forever but they remained reserved for hard-core niche sport martial arts schools like full contact Karate and Muay Thai.
Today the only schools not doing low kicks are BJJ, boxing, or Tae Kwon Do. Nearly every other martial arts school will on some level be teaching low kicks to the thigh and lower leg. Mostly done in the classic Thai boxing style.
I cut my teeth training with pro MMA / UFC fighters, Muay Thai boxers, full-contact Karate fighters, and more who use leg kicks for their sport. I had the opportunity to experiment with all kinds of ways of defending low kicks.
Today I will outline the following:
Knee Destruction / Shin Check
The classic knee destruction is probably the most ubiquitous method of defending low kicks whether the kick comes to the thigh, lower leg, knee, or groin. It is favored because it is quick.
Unfortunately it does hurt and takes a while to build up a tolerance to absorbing someone’s shin with your upper shin. That repeated blunt force trauma also does often come with a long-term price for your health. There will be nerve damage since you are desensitizing your body to the feeling of impact. If you are young you won’t care but as you get older and your body gets stiff and less athletic (or painful to move) you will care.
This works best at close ranges where you could land punches.
After the knee destruction I would counter the low kick with a rear straight punch.
Jeet Tek or Foot Check
The jeet tek is essentially the same thing as the knee destruction just generally performed at further range. When you get into closer ranges you may not have enough time to get your foot on the kicker’s shin, knee, or thigh so that is when you would do the knee destruction or shin check version.
Rush in and Jam Them
Just like when swinging a tennis racket, a golf club, a baseball bat, etc. there is a sweet spot on the foot or shin when kicking. The sweet spot is where maximum velocity, accuracy, and power are distributed into the target. If you rush in or jam in on a kick you will move too close for that sweet spot to land plus the kicker will likely be thrown off-balance.
You should probably only rush in from a closer distance. Rushing from far away might have you meet the kick in the sweet spot. So if you are close enough to punch there is no reason to not rush in.
My 2 favorite methods to rush in are either the classic straight blast from Rapid Assault Tactics, or you can point your elbows towards your opponent’s face, while covering your own face with your hands and blast into them.
Move Back Then In & Counter
By far the simplest and safest thing that you can do to counter a low kick is to simply move back. Then you can come back forward with a counter strike.
Moving back is safest because you might not be sure which kick your opponent is throwing. And if you block a low kick to the outer leg but it is a high kick to the head (happens a lot in Thai boxing) then you might just eat that head kick… and that is not a good thing. Better to eat the low kick.
When I trained MMA I would get my opponent used to me throwing some leg kicks until they started shin checking them. Then I would sell another leg kick but change it into a side kick to the ribs. It worked like magic… if you train in a school that does a lot of leg kicks, you are welcome.
Moving back is typically done at further ranges. If you are in close enough to clench or box then you are a little too close for kicks anyway, except maybe a groin kick. And besides, if you are that close you should be attacking with a straight blast to a Thai clench rather than waiting around to see what your opponent is going to do. The best defense is a good offense after all.
Depending on your skills and quickness you could move back then come back in with a rear straight punch or a lead leg shuffling (or pendulum) side kick. My 2 personal favorites.
Absorb It & Counter Kick the Groin
Yeah, just eat the leg kick and then take your opposite foot right up into their groin. Seems like a fair trade to me.
A leg kick isn’t even close to a fight ender. After 20 or so you might start slowing down in the latter rounds of a sport fight. But a kick to the testicles can drop someone!
What Really Matters in the Street
But let’s be honest… if you are on my website reading this blog post you are probably interested in martial arts for the street not for sport. And NO ONE throws Muay Thai leg kicks in a street fight. Street thugs and untrained out of control “tough guys” are just going to be swinging wild punches at your head.
Don’t get me wrong if you are training to compete in sport then you must absolutely train to counter low kicks. But for the street I wouldn’t waste your time. Or at least I wouldn’t put too much time and I would focus on defending groin kicks.
First – even if a street thug did a leg kick they aren’t going to be skilled enough for it to do any damage
Second – they won’t throw one
Third – how many hours per week do you train martial arts? 1, 2, 3? That precious time must be spent preparing you for what most likely will happen if you God-forbid, have to defend yourself.
That means punches, possibly tackles, possibly groin kicks, and possibly having a knife, pistol, or blunt object used against you. Oh, and multiple attackers.
So time spent doing sport stuff is time not doing street stuff.
It would be like a competitive basketball player wasting time practicing volleyball. Sure there is a ball and jumping involved but the techniques and tactics of the games are completely different. Bad habits will be built and more importantly if you want to be as amazing as you can be you are losing precious reps that you could be getting.
Brian’s Recommendations
Ok so here are my recommendation for how to counter low kicks for the street.
If you are in closer range then jam them with a straight blast or elbow rush.
Frankly if you are in close range you should be doing those things anyway. There is no excuse for being in punching or clenching range and not attacking.
If you are in kicking or lunging range then just use footwork and barely move back so the kick just barely misses.
This keeps you close enough that as the opponent is landing from their kick, before they regain their balance, you can rush in to counter their low kick.
Frankly this is a great strategy period. If your opponent is coming in with an attack and you can’t tell easily what it is then just move back. They will miss. If they, as untrained fighters, try to throw follow up attacks they are certainly going to get off-balance making it easy for you to move in and counter them.
Keep fighting simple!
Be too far away to hit or too close to hit.
Until next time, go get your reps and become a warrior!
Brian
