Whenever people talk about striking, they always seem to mention that fighters have “good footwork” without any thought. In my experience, good footwork is one of those phrases that people who are completely bullshitting like to throw out there because it sounds like something people who know what they’re talking about say. Kind of like how I could watch a basketball game and comment on the ball handling skills of the top guys or watch football and talk about their ability to read plays. The point is, it all sounds good and I’m probably right, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still just talking out my ass.
So anyway, the point of this thread is to highlight what good footwork actually is and what it looks like in fights. For all intents and purposes, let’s define good footwork as a fighter’s ability to move to dominant angles/outmaneuver their opponents in order to land clean strikes and avoid being hit by clean strikes while maintaining balance and leverage.
As for angles, I think everyone knows what they are but most people don't notice them when they happen. Especially at higher levels, they tend to be very subtle. It's important to be aware of that subtlety because it can be very hard to notice and often doesn't appear to give a fighter much of an advantage, even though it can make all the difference. The whole goal of this thread is to help people see this "invisible" level of striking that often decides fights, as well as to appreciate the skill of fighters who take advantage of it. If you don't care about my examples and thoughts, feel free to skip to the bottom and add your own contributions.
I’ll start us off with some gifs of one of the most creative strikers and dangerous kickers in MMA today, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis. Observe his outstanding use of footwork to land devastating kicks:
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In this gif, we see Pettis using his hands to disguise and enhance his footwork as he moves into position to blast his opponent with a left head kick. Pay attention to how his weight loads up onto his front hip as he leads with the cross. This baits the lead hook from the opponent while also putting more potential for power into the kick. His weight shifts back to the right foot as it slides forward into perfect range and his head pulls back to avoid the counter hook. What's really interesting is that he takes an inside angle to land the left kick, when it's normally taught that you should step the other way. However, his method allows his shin to come around the side as his foot wraps around the head, ensuring clean contact and leveling the opponent.
In a pretty similar knockout, Pettis shows his tendency to kick from a southpaw stance. It's very rare to see guys who can fight with either hand forward, although Pettis mainly does it to land kicks like this one. You'll see that he's kicking from the inside position again, which is interesting because Lauzon doesn't seem to realized what type of kick is coming at all. He probably didn't expect it to be thrown from there. That kick is tricky because it was thrown without being set up in the usual way. Also, if Lauzon had his guard up and didn't duck into it, that kick probably would have come partially behind and around it anyway and still done damage based on their position. Pettis does a great job of aiming and arcing that kick perfectly to land just over the shoulder and right on the jawline, but if Lauzon had defended by standing straight up and blocking then Pettis would be in a good position to arc the kick down and around his block.
This brutal liver kick is done from a more traditional angle. With his lead foot outside Cerrone's (Pettis is southpaw again), he throws a lightning fast kick with an upward trajectory that crushes right into Cerrone's torso. Cerrone was already hurt by the time this kick was thrown, so it didn't take much work for Pettis to just step to the angle and blast out the kick for the knockout. It's important to recognize that this slight angle makes the kick land that much sooner and makes it that much harder for Cerrone to reach with a counter.
Backing up a bit before that liver kick, we see Pettis using some great control to land what has been lovingly named the "showtime knee". Notice how he uses his footwork to get close enough to trap Cerrone's hands and avoid any kicks, but far enough that Cerrone can't just tie up, knee or punch without exposing himself since his balance is being controlled through his guard. Pettis sneaks in a quick straight left as he pushed Cerrone into the cage, before jumping off it to throw a flying knee that comes from an angle underneath and to the side. Throwing crazy shit when people are backed up against the cage is a standard affair for Pettis, but in this case he really cuts Cerrone off and outmaneuvers him to force him into the cage and land that knee. Something cool you'll see if you look closely is that right before jumping into the knee, Pettis fakes a superman punch with his right hand and Cerrone raises his left hand to defend against the punch, clearing a path for the knee.
In this exchange, Pettis lands a stiff jab and then a solid right hand that sends Bendo stumbling back. He achieved this by taking an inside angle (against a southpaw) while jabbing immediately after defending Bendo's switch kick. This allows him to avoid the right hand Henderson tries to throw while he moves, as well as forcing Henderson to end up squared to him in punching range. In a good position to attack with Henderson in a bad position to defend, he lands a clean right.
This gif is pretty similar to the one above, but the footwork is reversed. Instead of moving to his left for an inside angle, Pettis moves to his right in response to a rear leg kick and takes an outside angle. This one is pretty hard to see because of the camera switching at the exact moment he moves, but watch how he ends up in the center of the logo when he starts to the side of it. This footwork takes him away from the power of the kick while giving him a nice angle to land his right hand again, this time without a jab preceding it.
So hopefully this proves interesting for some of you. My challenge to you is to find fighters (in any combat sport, not just mma) who have good footwork and provide specific examples of them using it. This is especially for people who like to study fights, or who want to start studying them instead of just watching them. You don't necessarily have to provide gifs with in depth analysis like I did, but it'd be helpful to at least include a highlight/fight where the fighter demonstrates the skills you mention.
I'm really hoping people will participate because I think this will be a great chance for us to get a better appreciation and understanding of our favorite fighters, as well as to have conversations and think on a deeper level than "he's a dangerous striker with good footwork and blah blah vague, generalized nonsense".
So anyway, the point of this thread is to highlight what good footwork actually is and what it looks like in fights. For all intents and purposes, let’s define good footwork as a fighter’s ability to move to dominant angles/outmaneuver their opponents in order to land clean strikes and avoid being hit by clean strikes while maintaining balance and leverage.
As for angles, I think everyone knows what they are but most people don't notice them when they happen. Especially at higher levels, they tend to be very subtle. It's important to be aware of that subtlety because it can be very hard to notice and often doesn't appear to give a fighter much of an advantage, even though it can make all the difference. The whole goal of this thread is to help people see this "invisible" level of striking that often decides fights, as well as to appreciate the skill of fighters who take advantage of it. If you don't care about my examples and thoughts, feel free to skip to the bottom and add your own contributions.
I’ll start us off with some gifs of one of the most creative strikers and dangerous kickers in MMA today, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis. Observe his outstanding use of footwork to land devastating kicks:
In this gif, we see Pettis using his hands to disguise and enhance his footwork as he moves into position to blast his opponent with a left head kick. Pay attention to how his weight loads up onto his front hip as he leads with the cross. This baits the lead hook from the opponent while also putting more potential for power into the kick. His weight shifts back to the right foot as it slides forward into perfect range and his head pulls back to avoid the counter hook. What's really interesting is that he takes an inside angle to land the left kick, when it's normally taught that you should step the other way. However, his method allows his shin to come around the side as his foot wraps around the head, ensuring clean contact and leveling the opponent.
In a pretty similar knockout, Pettis shows his tendency to kick from a southpaw stance. It's very rare to see guys who can fight with either hand forward, although Pettis mainly does it to land kicks like this one. You'll see that he's kicking from the inside position again, which is interesting because Lauzon doesn't seem to realized what type of kick is coming at all. He probably didn't expect it to be thrown from there. That kick is tricky because it was thrown without being set up in the usual way. Also, if Lauzon had his guard up and didn't duck into it, that kick probably would have come partially behind and around it anyway and still done damage based on their position. Pettis does a great job of aiming and arcing that kick perfectly to land just over the shoulder and right on the jawline, but if Lauzon had defended by standing straight up and blocking then Pettis would be in a good position to arc the kick down and around his block.
This brutal liver kick is done from a more traditional angle. With his lead foot outside Cerrone's (Pettis is southpaw again), he throws a lightning fast kick with an upward trajectory that crushes right into Cerrone's torso. Cerrone was already hurt by the time this kick was thrown, so it didn't take much work for Pettis to just step to the angle and blast out the kick for the knockout. It's important to recognize that this slight angle makes the kick land that much sooner and makes it that much harder for Cerrone to reach with a counter.
Backing up a bit before that liver kick, we see Pettis using some great control to land what has been lovingly named the "showtime knee". Notice how he uses his footwork to get close enough to trap Cerrone's hands and avoid any kicks, but far enough that Cerrone can't just tie up, knee or punch without exposing himself since his balance is being controlled through his guard. Pettis sneaks in a quick straight left as he pushed Cerrone into the cage, before jumping off it to throw a flying knee that comes from an angle underneath and to the side. Throwing crazy shit when people are backed up against the cage is a standard affair for Pettis, but in this case he really cuts Cerrone off and outmaneuvers him to force him into the cage and land that knee. Something cool you'll see if you look closely is that right before jumping into the knee, Pettis fakes a superman punch with his right hand and Cerrone raises his left hand to defend against the punch, clearing a path for the knee.
In this exchange, Pettis lands a stiff jab and then a solid right hand that sends Bendo stumbling back. He achieved this by taking an inside angle (against a southpaw) while jabbing immediately after defending Bendo's switch kick. This allows him to avoid the right hand Henderson tries to throw while he moves, as well as forcing Henderson to end up squared to him in punching range. In a good position to attack with Henderson in a bad position to defend, he lands a clean right.
This gif is pretty similar to the one above, but the footwork is reversed. Instead of moving to his left for an inside angle, Pettis moves to his right in response to a rear leg kick and takes an outside angle. This one is pretty hard to see because of the camera switching at the exact moment he moves, but watch how he ends up in the center of the logo when he starts to the side of it. This footwork takes him away from the power of the kick while giving him a nice angle to land his right hand again, this time without a jab preceding it.
So hopefully this proves interesting for some of you. My challenge to you is to find fighters (in any combat sport, not just mma) who have good footwork and provide specific examples of them using it. This is especially for people who like to study fights, or who want to start studying them instead of just watching them. You don't necessarily have to provide gifs with in depth analysis like I did, but it'd be helpful to at least include a highlight/fight where the fighter demonstrates the skills you mention.
I'm really hoping people will participate because I think this will be a great chance for us to get a better appreciation and understanding of our favorite fighters, as well as to have conversations and think on a deeper level than "he's a dangerous striker with good footwork and blah blah vague, generalized nonsense".
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