Why Calf Kicks Aren't Used By All Fighters...

TheMMAnalyst

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Since the calf kick has seemingly become the main "talked about" weapon in MMA right now, I thought it would be good to have a discussion about why we are only seeing it from certain fighters lately (Izzy, Dustin, Munhoz, Royval, Gaethje, etc.).

It's been around for a while of course, but used sparingly, and I always wondered why other fighters didn't all hop on the band-wagon back in the day. Typically in MMA when something works and everyone can "theoretically do it" they all start hopping on the bandwagon. But with calf-kicks we are really only seeing it now from a few fighters that have spent a lot of time putting work in on it. Otherwise if it was so easy everyone would just kick their opponent in the calf a couple times and cripple them. So I was wondering why more fighters didn't try to build on this tool for some time.

Earlier today I listened to Jim Miller talk with Joe Lauzon and Yves Edwards on a podcast revisiting their epic fights; Miller brought up that even though he only landed 6-8 calf kicks in the first fight (he called it a "cutting kick") it fucked up his shin so bad that it literally took him years to fully heal (he said only just recently did it finally fully callus over and stop bothering him). This also brought to mind when Luke was trying to chop down Yoel and got checked so bad it split his shin, which ended up bothering him for years as well.

Basically what Jim said was that calf kicks hurt you like hell as well, they just hurt your opponent more, so if you can compartmentalize in the moment in a war of attrition they are an excellent tool. So you need to be willing to cause incredible structural damage to your own body to achieve that goal. It made me realize that "attritional fighting" is a mindset within fighting that certain fighters are more privy to then others; if you don't have the crazy kickboxing background like Izzy where you've spent decades hardening your shins it's just a brutal technique to have to use (even if you land it perfect it does significant damage to you). Most fighters would prefer to distribute damage and receive little-to-none in the techniques they employ, so most techniques are based around minimizing risk/damage to you and maximizing it to your opponent.

On that basis you need to be a certain type of fighter to use - incredibly tough and attritional with lots of experience working on it (Poirer/Gaethje/Munhoz) or with insane kickboxing background/experience (like Izzy) where it doesn't hurt you that much.

I do think we will see this technique with slightly more frequency, but it isn't some "super-move" that will revolutionize the game. It's a very unique attack that certain type of fighters will flourish in implementing. But just as Aldo showed against Moicano there are plenty of defenses and counters to it, so it's not some skeleton key that will unlock the fight game by itself.

TLDR - The calf kick is amazing attritional damage weapon but it causes you incredible damage as well (unless you are elite kickboxer), so most fighters aren't going to build a game around it because of the repercussions of using consistently (and also difficulty in implementing, since low-kicks are all about speed/timing/set-ups).
 
Spot on with your assessments, same reason why other fighters don't throw leg kicks even though it's been proven to be effective since the early days of UFC. They still need the timing/skills to execute the move, plus need the shin conditioning that a lot of fighters don't have. It can be a very painful technique just like you stated. You will take pain, but you will dish out more pain to your opponent. Very hard not to hit the shin/knee with leg/calf kicks. Not everyone is conditioned for bone on bone contact.
 
@Kanka he said shin conditioning instead of leg conditioning might want to correct him on that
It is shin conditioning. You condition the shin bone and the pain receptor nerves.

Leg conditioning is conditioning the muscle and nerves to handle the pain when getting leg kicked.
 
Spot on with your assessments, same reason why other fighters don't throw leg kicks even though it's been proven to be effective since the early days of UFC. They still need the timing/skills to execute the move, plus need the shin conditioning that a lot of fighters don't have. It can be a very painful technique just like you stated. You will take pain, but you will dish out more pain to your opponent. Very hard not to hit the shin/knee with leg/calf kicks. Not everyone is conditioned for bone on bone contact.

All leg kicking in general is incredibly difficult for so many reasons, but I think it's a unique technique in the sense where you are knowingly causing yourself pain.

Every other strike you don't expect to hurt yourself (of course you could break your hand/explode your elbow/etc. but it's not an expectation from the technique).

Leg kicks are literally like - this is going to hurt you a lot more then it's going to hurt me...but it's still going to hurt like fuck o_O
 
It is shin conditioning. You condition the shin bone and the pain receptor nerves.

Leg conditioning is conditioning the muscle and nerves to handle the pain when getting leg kicked.

I know but some people would rather waste time argueing the difference
 
I dont see why all fighters don’t just 1 punch KO their opponent like Brad Kohler did to Steve Judson
 
Takes a pretty decent time to thicken your leg bones, I don't know the name of the bone so what. Ever seen tai fighters kicking trees? Taking the risk to break your leg if they check the kick in such a way that will do that. I can't imagine what that feeling is like as a fighter. Risk kicking and they check and break my leg vs. kick their calf and it works flawless.
 
Some fighters have respect and don't use them

Low skill technique that does too much damage too quickly
 
Did Anderson break his leg on a calf kick?

I'm pretty sure he was trying to kick him above/inside the knee with an inside low-kick; just watched a bunch of slow-motion replays and got the chills again.
 
I'm pretty sure he was trying to kick him above/inside the knee with an inside low-kick; just watched a bunch of slow-motion replays and got the chills again.
That was nasty footage which is why I am not going to watch it again and just ask :)
 
Kicking skill in MMA is probably the lowest in MMA compared to any other skill in striking or grappling. There are exceptions like Barboza & Stephen Thompson who are great at it but for the most part fighters aren't exceptionally talented at it even today.
 
Shin conditioning and knowing how to throw those. You do those kick half assed/ not aiming the calf and you might get hurt or with your leg all fucked up like Andy Silva.
 
In the chaos of a fight you will inevitably end up cracking shins together at some point if you throw enough low kicks, but you will not hurt yourself at all if you land a well placed calf kick. Your shin doesn't need to be all that conditioned to fuck up someone with leg kicks that land where you want them to either. It's when you start hitting bones that damage gets done. So it's correct to say that you'll pay a price for making a habit out of throwing those in a fight, but it's inaccurate to say that it's guaranteed to happen.

It's like someone breaking their hand because they landed on their opponent's forehead, when they meant to hit their nose. That isn't a reason to stop throwing punches. The fact is that calf kicks are new for most fighters and there are big tradeoffs strategically that have to be made in order to prioritize them. Fighters are weighing the pros and cons, for most it isn't worth it to completely change their game plan, stance, attacks, setups, etc. It isn't as simple as just going out there and spamming kicks, it takes a certain type of fighter to be able to land those and not get knocked out with a counter.
 
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