Kid Chocolate
Purple Belt
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
- Messages
- 1,773
- Reaction score
- 0
a guy, whats your background mate? I've seen some excellent stuff from you in this thread.
A Basic Study of Angles and Good Footwork (Gif Heavy)
- Thread starter a guy
- Start date
I only just got around to watching that fight right now. Holy shit, another absolute lesson in distance control. Despite having a front foot heavy stance for much of the bout, Swanson was able to completely dictate the range of that fight. Whether he was leaping in with kicks or punches, he was the one who decided when the exchanges took place and when they ended. Siver couldn't catch him clean on the way in or on the way out.
But damn could Swanson catch him both ways. I don't think I've ever actually seen Cub fight before, but he looked great. Yea he could absolutely jab more like you said, but beyond that he's a killer. That was a really exciting fight, the grappling was very fast paced as well, and the finish had my brother wondering why I was screaming so much haha.
I think nice is understating it a bit haha. That was the last thing I expected to see in a fight between what I thought was two striker, Siver really went for a ride.
Thanks
Basically, I've been into mma for about 5 years and have done a little training with guys from a lot of different styles in that time. My training hasn't exactly been consistent however and I've been out of the gym for a while between injuries and being involved in other sports.
Really quick, I have two gifs of WMMA fighter Holly Holm completely destroying opponents with footwork.
In this first gif, she comes in behind a double jab and left hand that get her opponent moving to Holm's right. With her back nearly against the cage, the opponent had the choice of either circling into Holm's power side or trying to circle to the right. This forces her into the right hook to the body, and notice how Holm steps off at an angle away from the opponent's power side as she lands the body shot.
Then, in the gif above, she lands one of the best head kick knockouts I've ever seen. Holm hops around a little and feints a right hand. She notices her opponent lean away from the feint without moving her feet. As a result, Holm then half throws a right hook as she hops out to her right and gets in perfect position to blast the other girl with a left high kick. This is beautiful. Holm gets to an angle where her kick can be thrown full power while the opponent can't touch her with anything.
In this first gif, she comes in behind a double jab and left hand that get her opponent moving to Holm's right. With her back nearly against the cage, the opponent had the choice of either circling into Holm's power side or trying to circle to the right. This forces her into the right hook to the body, and notice how Holm steps off at an angle away from the opponent's power side as she lands the body shot.
Then, in the gif above, she lands one of the best head kick knockouts I've ever seen. Holm hops around a little and feints a right hand. She notices her opponent lean away from the feint without moving her feet. As a result, Holm then half throws a right hook as she hops out to her right and gets in perfect position to blast the other girl with a left high kick. This is beautiful. Holm gets to an angle where her kick can be thrown full power while the opponent can't touch her with anything.
Hey guys, I haven't added to this thread in awhile but with Conor McGregor fighting next weekend, I decided it's time to bring it back. If anyone is interested, I wrote an in-depth analysis of his striking (way too long to post here as I originally wanted to, unfortunately) that you can find here: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/8/10/4598202/conor-mcgregor-the-future-of-the-featherweight-division
So since this is a thread about footwork, I'm going to post a few gifs from there with analysis that focuses more heavily on footwork than on other things:
This first gif is incredible. Brimage is trying to use his right hook to steer McGregor into his powerful left hand. Instead, McGregor performs a hop step back and slightly to his left, with a subtle pivot. This takes him outside the left hand while changing his angle, and he is able to adapt to the range by countering with a left elbow as Brimage runs into it. This is a beautiful simultaneous counter, where both men are striking at the same time but McGregor's superior position allows him to land his strike while being nowhere near Brimage's attack. This is flawless timing, footwork and control of distance. As an end note, watch how McGregor continues to circle out to his left to ensure that Brimage can't followup and continue the attack before resetting.
Here we see McGregor really starting to have success with his uppercuts. Against an opponent that is shorter or in a lower stance, uppercuts are excellent techniques to threaten from below. This is important because it causes the opponent to stand taller, making their head an easier target and discouraging them from changing levels throughout the fight. The way he lands it is very nice. In the first exchange in this gif, we see McGregor throw a jab, left straight, right hook combination. Brimage's level change allows him to keep his head out of the way of the first two punches, and the hook misses as he pulls back out of range. However, McGregor is intelligent enough to realize that Brimage is responding to the jab by bending his knees and trying to counter. As a result, as McGregor comes in to reengage, he feints the jab and comes in with the uppercut. Notice how Brimage immediately stands up taller in response to the uppercut. This, combined with the kick Brimage tries to throw, allows McGregor to land a very solid right hook that knocks Brimage towards McGregor's left. As a result, he throws a second uppercut because Brimage's head is moving towards it, but Brimage is able to recover and avoid the shot while blocking. Still, it shows excellent punch selection and the ability to adapt his combinations to the reactions of his opponents both inbetween exchanges and during exchanges.
This counter left looks eerily similar to the counter elbow McGregor landed earlier. This is, once again, an excellent showcase of his footwork. He uses another hop step and throws the left straight as he lands. The difference between this and the elbow counter is the range. McGregor moves backwards farther and takes less of an angle, so he adapts by throwing the long left over the right hook instead of an elbow at the same time as the left hand from Brimage. The beauty in this is his ability to make Brimage pay for coming forward. Too often when a fighter attacks with that sort of wild aggression, the defender will simply cover up and back away. Instead, McGregor aggressively counters and never lets Brimage get any momentum going. The lesson here is that moving forward against McGregor is best done steadily and intelligently, not recklessly and explosively. If you leave openings as you engage, he will punish you for them.
The finish of this fight is something to behold. McGregor begins by landing a left uppercut, left straight combination from an inside angle, then pivots out to his left with the straight to avoid Brimage's attacks. Brimage tries to cut him off by hopping to his own right, but squares and lowers his stance as he does so, allowing Conor to land a brutal uppercut. Conor then pivots out the other way with a right hook to take a significant angle, essentially turning Brimage's southpaw stance into an orthodox one. Brimage tries to turn to correct this, but squares up again and turns right into another killer left uppercut. Conor outmaneuvered Brimage so badly here that he was able to take angles in both directions multiple times within a few seconds. His brilliant footwork kept Brimage a step behind and always turning or ducking into punches. Meanwhile, McGregor was always facing his opponent while moving around him to open up opportunities to strike without ever being out of position or easy to hit. Also note the hand positioning of McGregor. Since he is using constant and very technical footwork for defense, his hands are free to stay lower and move around more. Keeping them lower causes them to come from underneath the opponent's vision, increasing the offensive potential and eliminating any telegraphing of his uppercuts.
I know the gif isn't the best quality and it's hard to see, but pay very close attention to McGregor's feet in this exchange. He sees his opponent's commitment to attacking, so he hops back and observes. Notice how the opponent is stepping his lead foot forward and off to the right as he throws the right hand? While it's normally considered textbook strategy to get your lead foot outside the lead foot of someone in the opposite stance, McGregor shows what happens when you know how to work with the inside foot position. McGregor takes advantage of the fact that his opponent is stepping offline to pivot to his left (outside the right hand) as he throws a straight left. McGregor thus takes the inside angle to square Buchinger up as he lands a hard counter punch. This is incredible footwork because he is able to avoid being hit, land his own shot AND end in a great position, all while being in the right range at the right time. If the opponent didn't go down, Conor still would have had his angle to work more punches from. The reason I love this knockdown so much is that it proves once again that you CAN circle into the power hand of someone using the opposite stance with spectacular results. It really opens up a great angle to land your power hand if you face the opponent properly as McGregor does.
Hope you enjoyed it guys, and sorry I couldn't put the full article here! Too many gifs and too many words
So since this is a thread about footwork, I'm going to post a few gifs from there with analysis that focuses more heavily on footwork than on other things:
This first gif is incredible. Brimage is trying to use his right hook to steer McGregor into his powerful left hand. Instead, McGregor performs a hop step back and slightly to his left, with a subtle pivot. This takes him outside the left hand while changing his angle, and he is able to adapt to the range by countering with a left elbow as Brimage runs into it. This is a beautiful simultaneous counter, where both men are striking at the same time but McGregor's superior position allows him to land his strike while being nowhere near Brimage's attack. This is flawless timing, footwork and control of distance. As an end note, watch how McGregor continues to circle out to his left to ensure that Brimage can't followup and continue the attack before resetting.
Here we see McGregor really starting to have success with his uppercuts. Against an opponent that is shorter or in a lower stance, uppercuts are excellent techniques to threaten from below. This is important because it causes the opponent to stand taller, making their head an easier target and discouraging them from changing levels throughout the fight. The way he lands it is very nice. In the first exchange in this gif, we see McGregor throw a jab, left straight, right hook combination. Brimage's level change allows him to keep his head out of the way of the first two punches, and the hook misses as he pulls back out of range. However, McGregor is intelligent enough to realize that Brimage is responding to the jab by bending his knees and trying to counter. As a result, as McGregor comes in to reengage, he feints the jab and comes in with the uppercut. Notice how Brimage immediately stands up taller in response to the uppercut. This, combined with the kick Brimage tries to throw, allows McGregor to land a very solid right hook that knocks Brimage towards McGregor's left. As a result, he throws a second uppercut because Brimage's head is moving towards it, but Brimage is able to recover and avoid the shot while blocking. Still, it shows excellent punch selection and the ability to adapt his combinations to the reactions of his opponents both inbetween exchanges and during exchanges.
This counter left looks eerily similar to the counter elbow McGregor landed earlier. This is, once again, an excellent showcase of his footwork. He uses another hop step and throws the left straight as he lands. The difference between this and the elbow counter is the range. McGregor moves backwards farther and takes less of an angle, so he adapts by throwing the long left over the right hook instead of an elbow at the same time as the left hand from Brimage. The beauty in this is his ability to make Brimage pay for coming forward. Too often when a fighter attacks with that sort of wild aggression, the defender will simply cover up and back away. Instead, McGregor aggressively counters and never lets Brimage get any momentum going. The lesson here is that moving forward against McGregor is best done steadily and intelligently, not recklessly and explosively. If you leave openings as you engage, he will punish you for them.
The finish of this fight is something to behold. McGregor begins by landing a left uppercut, left straight combination from an inside angle, then pivots out to his left with the straight to avoid Brimage's attacks. Brimage tries to cut him off by hopping to his own right, but squares and lowers his stance as he does so, allowing Conor to land a brutal uppercut. Conor then pivots out the other way with a right hook to take a significant angle, essentially turning Brimage's southpaw stance into an orthodox one. Brimage tries to turn to correct this, but squares up again and turns right into another killer left uppercut. Conor outmaneuvered Brimage so badly here that he was able to take angles in both directions multiple times within a few seconds. His brilliant footwork kept Brimage a step behind and always turning or ducking into punches. Meanwhile, McGregor was always facing his opponent while moving around him to open up opportunities to strike without ever being out of position or easy to hit. Also note the hand positioning of McGregor. Since he is using constant and very technical footwork for defense, his hands are free to stay lower and move around more. Keeping them lower causes them to come from underneath the opponent's vision, increasing the offensive potential and eliminating any telegraphing of his uppercuts.
I know the gif isn't the best quality and it's hard to see, but pay very close attention to McGregor's feet in this exchange. He sees his opponent's commitment to attacking, so he hops back and observes. Notice how the opponent is stepping his lead foot forward and off to the right as he throws the right hand? While it's normally considered textbook strategy to get your lead foot outside the lead foot of someone in the opposite stance, McGregor shows what happens when you know how to work with the inside foot position. McGregor takes advantage of the fact that his opponent is stepping offline to pivot to his left (outside the right hand) as he throws a straight left. McGregor thus takes the inside angle to square Buchinger up as he lands a hard counter punch. This is incredible footwork because he is able to avoid being hit, land his own shot AND end in a great position, all while being in the right range at the right time. If the opponent didn't go down, Conor still would have had his angle to work more punches from. The reason I love this knockdown so much is that it proves once again that you CAN circle into the power hand of someone using the opposite stance with spectacular results. It really opens up a great angle to land your power hand if you face the opponent properly as McGregor does.
Hope you enjoyed it guys, and sorry I couldn't put the full article here! Too many gifs and too many words
Hey guys, I haven't added to this thread in awhile but with Conor McGregor fighting next weekend, I decided it's time to bring it back. If anyone is interested, I wrote an in-depth analysis of his striking (way too long to post here as I originally wanted to, unfortunately) that you can find here: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/8/10/4598202/conor-mcgregor-the-future-of-the-featherweight-division
So since this is a thread about footwork, I'm going to post a few gifs from there with analysis that focuses more heavily on footwork than on other things:
This first gif is incredible. Brimage is trying to use his right hook to steer McGregor into his powerful left hand. Instead, McGregor performs a hop step back and slightly to his left, with a subtle pivot. This takes him outside the left hand while changing his angle, and he is able to adapt to the range by countering with a left elbow as Brimage runs into it. This is a beautiful simultaneous counter, where both men are striking at the same time but McGregor's superior position allows him to land his strike while being nowhere near Brimage's attack. This is flawless timing, footwork and control of distance. As an end note, watch how McGregor continues to circle out to his left to ensure that Brimage can't followup and continue the attack before resetting.
Here we see McGregor really starting to have success with his uppercuts. Against an opponent that is shorter or in a lower stance, uppercuts are excellent techniques to threaten from below. This is important because it causes the opponent to stand taller, making their head an easier target and discouraging them from changing levels throughout the fight. The way he lands it is very nice. In the first exchange in this gif, we see McGregor throw a jab, left straight, right hook combination. Brimage's level change allows him to keep his head out of the way of the first two punches, and the hook misses as he pulls back out of range. However, McGregor is intelligent enough to realize that Brimage is responding to the jab by bending his knees and trying to counter. As a result, as McGregor comes in to reengage, he feints the jab and comes in with the uppercut. Notice how Brimage immediately stands up taller in response to the uppercut. This, combined with the kick Brimage tries to throw, allows McGregor to land a very solid right hook that knocks Brimage towards McGregor's left. As a result, he throws a second uppercut because Brimage's head is moving towards it, but Brimage is able to recover and avoid the shot while blocking. Still, it shows excellent punch selection and the ability to adapt his combinations to the reactions of his opponents both inbetween exchanges and during exchanges.
This counter left looks eerily similar to the counter elbow McGregor landed earlier. This is, once again, an excellent showcase of his footwork. He uses another hop step and throws the left straight as he lands. The difference between this and the elbow counter is the range. McGregor moves backwards farther and takes less of an angle, so he adapts by throwing the long left over the right hook instead of an elbow at the same time as the left hand from Brimage. The beauty in this is his ability to make Brimage pay for coming forward. Too often when a fighter attacks with that sort of wild aggression, the defender will simply cover up and back away. Instead, McGregor aggressively counters and never lets Brimage get any momentum going. The lesson here is that moving forward against McGregor is best done steadily and intelligently, not recklessly and explosively. If you leave openings as you engage, he will punish you for them.
The finish of this fight is something to behold. McGregor begins by landing a left uppercut, left straight combination from an inside angle, then pivots out to his left with the straight to avoid Brimage's attacks. Brimage tries to cut him off by hopping to his own right, but squares and lowers his stance as he does so, allowing Conor to land a brutal uppercut. Conor then pivots out the other way with a right hook to take a significant angle, essentially turning Brimage's southpaw stance into an orthodox one. Brimage tries to turn to correct this, but squares up again and turns right into another killer left uppercut. Conor outmaneuvered Brimage so badly here that he was able to take angles in both directions multiple times within a few seconds. His brilliant footwork kept Brimage a step behind and always turning or ducking into punches. Meanwhile, McGregor was always facing his opponent while moving around him to open up opportunities to strike without ever being out of position or easy to hit. Also note the hand positioning of McGregor. Since he is using constant and very technical footwork for defense, his hands are free to stay lower and move around more. Keeping them lower causes them to come from underneath the opponent's vision, increasing the offensive potential and eliminating any telegraphing of his uppercuts.
I know the gif isn't the best quality and it's hard to see, but pay very close attention to McGregor's feet in this exchange. He sees his opponent's commitment to attacking, so he hops back and observes. Notice how the opponent is stepping his lead foot forward and off to the right as he throws the right hand? While it's normally considered textbook strategy to get your lead foot outside the lead foot of someone in the opposite stance, McGregor shows what happens when you know how to work with the inside foot position. McGregor takes advantage of the fact that his opponent is stepping offline to pivot to his left (outside the right hand) as he throws a straight left. McGregor thus takes the inside angle to square Buchinger up as he lands a hard counter punch. This is incredible footwork because he is able to avoid being hit, land his own shot AND end in a great position, all while being in the right range at the right time. If the opponent didn't go down, Conor still would have had his angle to work more punches from. The reason I love this knockdown so much is that it proves once again that you CAN circle into the power hand of someone using the opposite stance with spectacular results. It really opens up a great angle to land your power hand if you face the opponent properly as McGregor does.
Hope you enjoyed it guys, and sorry I couldn't put the full article here! Too many gifs and too many words
Unbelievable ... My favorite is first and the last GIF's ...
I'm a huge fan of the second gif because of how it shows Conor's adaptation in the middle of the fight. You can see his thought process in the combinations he forms and it's really cool.
But let's be real, they're all savage.
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2013
- Messages
- 10,924
- Reaction score
- 1,364
Hi "a guy". Have you had any time for watch Alex fights? It would be awesome if someone could break down Jones vs Alex from stand up viewpoint. I think Alex is flying a bit under radar here coming to the fight.. He is generally still a quite poorly known fighter, considering his ranking and skill set.
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2010
- Messages
- 56,408
- Reaction score
- 58,667
he did a good analysis of alex a few pages back on this thread.
- Joined
- May 18, 2012
- Messages
- 3,550
- Reaction score
- 213
Wow. Was looking for some good guides on footwork and everything seemed too simple, basically only found things like "left step like this, back step like this". I'm more interested in using footwork and angles to set up strikes and counter strikes.
Then I found this thread and lots if it is going over my head. I've seen mention of someone's lead foot pointing the wrong way or how you need to keep pointed at your opponents centerline with your center line off eft...
Anyone have any good sources on footwork that I could study to better understand all this?
Then I found this thread and lots if it is going over my head. I've seen mention of someone's lead foot pointing the wrong way or how you need to keep pointed at your opponents centerline with your center line off eft...
Anyone have any good sources on footwork that I could study to better understand all this?
Check this channel - it has a lot of interesting info on footwork.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PwJo76WpTOk-3N8dazt1A
Specifically, this and other related videos -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUg-TURgnsY&list=PL4Mb5fp5ywgKcSE_1guYjsfKPbS2c80ed
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PwJo76WpTOk-3N8dazt1A
Specifically, this and other related videos -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUg-TURgnsY&list=PL4Mb5fp5ywgKcSE_1guYjsfKPbS2c80ed
Sorry I haven't responded to this thread in a long time. I've been really busy recently. Anyway, the channel he posted is really good and I definitely like that guy's videos a lot.
To explain footwork simply, it's about moving to a position where the opponent's attacks are less effective and where your attacks are more effective. Where the lead foot of each fighter is pointing is a very good way to determine this. The two basic angles are inside where your lead foot points between their feet, splitting them in half and forcing them to stand square to you and outside where their lead foot is turned inwards and facing away from you, you are essentially doing the striking version of taking their back. To get a picture in your head, think of the inside angle as like when someone is backed against the cage and they're forced to stand square with their feet facing forward, while the opponent is able to attack them in a good stance. Think of the outside angle as what you're always told to get against a southpaw, though you can do it to orthodox fighters as well.
Those angles can be very subtle or very extreme depending on the situation. They're often hard to see but are very important. Good footwork is all about getting to those angles without losing balance. There are a million different ways to take those angles both on offense and on defense.
To explain footwork simply, it's about moving to a position where the opponent's attacks are less effective and where your attacks are more effective. Where the lead foot of each fighter is pointing is a very good way to determine this. The two basic angles are inside where your lead foot points between their feet, splitting them in half and forcing them to stand square to you and outside where their lead foot is turned inwards and facing away from you, you are essentially doing the striking version of taking their back. To get a picture in your head, think of the inside angle as like when someone is backed against the cage and they're forced to stand square with their feet facing forward, while the opponent is able to attack them in a good stance. Think of the outside angle as what you're always told to get against a southpaw, though you can do it to orthodox fighters as well.
Those angles can be very subtle or very extreme depending on the situation. They're often hard to see but are very important. Good footwork is all about getting to those angles without losing balance. There are a million different ways to take those angles both on offense and on defense.
I bilieve, that in some cases even if you don't create angles, your footwork can still be effective.
Say, if you are a fast guy, may be you can be successfull with constant in-and-out tactic. Even without creating dominant angles. A lot of amature boxers are like that.
One more example, if you are a tall guy with a good punch. In that case, the footwork which allows you to constantly keep your opponent on the end of your punches can be enough.
It's true that you don't need angles all the time but you really should be looking for them whenever possible. If both guys are lined up to hit each other than it's that much harder to hit without being hit. If you can get the other guy out of position then it's much easier and safer to land.
It's good for the tall guy to be able to maintain range and keep you at the end of his punches. It's better for him to be able to take angles as he does that and in fact he shouldn't be able to do it without trying to create angles.
Also meant to add that a lot of the time guys who use in and out footwork actually take angles before they leap in. So it looks like they're fighting in straight lines when they engage but really they're attacking as the opponent is readjusting.
May be you are right ... In some examples that you posted I would never pay attention to the angles without slow motion/suggestions.
Wow great find! That's beautiful. I love how he throws the right hand and steps his rear foot forward, then keeps the right hand going to jab as he takes that angle. It was the perfect combination because the opponent had been escaping to Ward's right the whole time, so he stepped there to block off the exit and got the knockdown. That's what stance switching is all about. Not giving the opponent a new look or trying to confuse him, but stepping into advantageous positions in a way that isn't possible while maintaining your stance. Awesome.
