Countering Kick Catching

[HighestHand]

So I just sparred an opponent who happens to be very good at kick catching even after I set it up with punches/feints. I managed to get him a couple of times with the Superman punch, but I don't want to rely on that one single move.

I tried to maneuver away or into a clinch, but he was very fast at executing his combination after catching the kick, so I had no success.

So I'm going to continue practicing maneuvering away or into a clinch, but what can I do to prevent him catching my kicks in the first place? Better punches/feints? Faster combos? What would you guys do?

 

[j123]

Are you giving a tell when you kick? eg. pre-pivoting

Or are you throwing the same combinations repetitively? Also, if he's catching your kicks quite often set it up for something, like a headkick.

 

[Fire of Youth]

What kick catching technique are they using on you?

 

[strike thought]

So I just sparred an opponent who happens to be very good at kick catching even after I set it up with punches/feints. I managed to get him a couple of times with the Superman punch, but I don't want to rely on that one single move.

I tried to maneuver away or into a clinch, but he was very fast at executing his combination after catching the kick, so I had no success.

So I'm going to continue practicing maneuvering away or into a clinch, but what can I do to prevent him catching my kicks in the first place? Better punches/feints? Faster combos? What would you guys do?

It can get difficult once the kick is caught. You could just continue exploiting his opening if the superman feint style works for you. Where you throw a technique and have it transition into a different technique.

Since you’re landing the superman, it looks like he’s taking your bait and exposing his guard. You could use other variations of kick feints to transition into other punches if you can bait him into dropping the hands. Here’s a few.

Feint roundhouse into cross. (Masato, Yodsanklai)

or

Feint a kick into hook. (saenchai)

or

Feint low, into the question mark kick. Sounds like you’re already able to make him drop his hand, so the question mark kick should be able to move the kick over into his head. (Rockhold, Saenchai)

If you really fixed on still wanting to land the roundhouse to the body, you can try to use timing to land the kick when he can't necessarily catch the kick well. Like throwing the kick to the body as he advances with his punches. His hands will be occupied with attacking instead of catching.

You can also try taking a new angle and kicking him while he moves to adjust to your new angle. Petrosyan does similar things to this when he fights.

 

[Paradigm]

It can get difficult once the kick is caught. You could just continue exploiting his opening if the superman feint style works for you. Where you throw a technique and have it transition into a different technique.

Since you’re landing the superman, it looks like he’s taking your bait and exposing his guard. You could use other variations of kick feints to transition into other punches if you can bait him into dropping the hands. Here’s a few.

Feint roundhouse into cross. (Masato, Yodsanklai)

or

Feint a kick into hook. (saenchai)

or

Feint low, into the question mark kick. Sounds like you’re already able to make him drop his hand, so the question mark kick should be able to move the kick over into his head. (Rockhold, Saenchai)

If you really fixed on still wanting to land the roundhouse to the body, you can try to use timing to land the kick when he can't necessarily catch the kick well. Like throwing the kick to the body as he advances with his punches. His hands will be occupied with attacking instead of catching.

You can also try taking a new angle and kicking him while he moves to adjust to your new angle. Petrosyan does similar things to this when he fights.

Nice gifs.

You still have options once its caught. Put your weight onto the caught leg and try to step forward towards them and clinch...depends on how high up the leg you're caught.

If they have you by the heel/Achilles you can twist and pull out of it before they sweep or off balance you. Sometimes, you can also rotate your heel towards their body and push off with it.

I love the question mark kick idea but not everyone has the leg dexterity to pull it off.

 

[HighestHand]

Are you giving a tell when you kick? eg. pre-pivoting

Or are you throwing the same combinations repetitively? Also, if he's catching your kicks quite often set it up for something, like a headkick.

I can't be too sure, I try to disguise it with feints and stuff, but honestly I don't know if I am telegraphing my kicks or not.

What kick catching technique are they using on you?

Both teep catch and round house catch.

It can get difficult once the kick is caught. You could just continue exploiting his opening if the superman feint style works for you. Where you throw a technique and have it transition into a different technique.

Since you’re landing the superman, it looks like he’s taking your bait and exposing his guard. You could use other variations of kick feints to transition into other punches if you can bait him into dropping the hands. Here’s a few.

Feint roundhouse into cross. (Masato, Yodsanklai)


If you really fixed on still wanting to land the roundhouse to the body, you can try to use timing to land the kick when he can't necessarily catch the kick well. Like throwing the kick to the body as he advances with his punches. His hands will be occupied with attacking instead of catching.

You can also try taking a new angle and kicking him while he moves to adjust to your new angle. Petrosyan does similar things to this when he fights.

Tried the Brazilian kick, it didn't work, although I manage to catch a lot of people with it. To be honest, I'm scared what happens if he starts to not take the Superman bait.

 

[HighestHand]

Nice gifs.

You still have options once its caught. Put your weight onto the caught leg and try to step forward towards them and clinch...depends on how high up the leg you're caught.

If they have you by the heel/Achilles you can twist and pull out of it before they sweep or off balance you. Sometimes, you can also rotate your heel towards their body and push off with it.

I love the question mark kick idea but not everyone has the leg dexterity to pull it off.

Yeah I'm going to practice those too but it makes me feel so in danger if my leg is caught.

 

[Paradigm]

Yeah I'm going to practice those too but it makes me feel so in danger if my leg is caught.

If it's a teep catch by the heel, just jump up and use the other standing leg to head kick them lol. Never had the balls (or athleticism) to try it myself haha.

I'd look for a gif but it's probably too hard to find...I think I've seen Cung Le do it back in his old Sanshou rules K-1 fights (maybe).

 

[strike thought]

If it's a teep catch by the heel, just jump up and use the other standing leg to head kick them lol. Never had the balls (or athleticism) to try it myself haha.

I'd look for a gif but it's probably too hard to find...I think I've seen Cung Le do it back in his old Sanshou rules K-1 fights (maybe).

There you go.

 

[HighestHand]

That looks like a torn ACL ready and waiting to happen X.X

I MIGHT try that.

 

[Paradigm]

There you go.

That's the shit right there haha...mesmerizing. It's amazing how Bendo's left hand just kind of hovers over Frankie's head. Good thing for Frankie, he's got some good reflexes...I doubt most people expect that coming as a response.

That looks like a torn ACL ready and waiting to happen X.X

I MIGHT try that.

Please do and report your findings here. You have insurance, right?

 

[BigPapaShango]

With regards to the catches, are they hooking your leg, or are they bracing with say the left and scooping with the right.

With the single arm hook catch, force your knee down across their waist and turn your hips out, grab their head, engage clinch and break leg out.

you can also try to kick your leg out, you usually have to explode with this as soon as you see the kick being caught.

With the brace and scoop under, you might be going for a ride if your opponent is quick and technical.

 

[Fire of Youth]

Both teep catch and round house catch.

What I mean is, that there are different ways to catch the kick. Lets look at catching an orthodox fighters right round kick. One way to catch it is to come forward and jamming your right elbow/hand into the fleshy part of the quads whilst the left catches under the shin and lifts. Another way of catching it is by dropping your left arm over the top of the kick as it hits your ribs and stops it from retracting. Another is to lean your head back and out of the way (if kick thrown high), but leave your right hand out front to catch the instep and then push up and away as you straighten your posture back up. Each kick catch leads to a different position thus has different value depending on the context.

Consequently, a different method of defending against it needs to be employed. For example, if your leg gets caught in the first catch, you can turn your kicking knee down and pull straight out. For the second catch, you might turn the knee up and pull in for a clinch and/or punch/elbow. For the last one, you would take the push and spin away out of the kick to create enough space to recover your balance. Just three responses to three different types of kick catching techniques.

 

[Higus]

I've had success just turning the knee and bending the hip once the leg is caught to close the distance. You can pull a clinch before you get tripped or something.

 

[aries]

So I just sparred an opponent who happens to be very good at kick catching even after I set it up with punches/feints. I managed to get him a couple of times with the Superman punch, but I don't want to rely on that one single move.

I tried to maneuver away or into a clinch, but he was very fast at executing his combination after catching the kick, so I had no success.

So I'm going to continue practicing maneuvering away or into a clinch, but what can I do to prevent him catching my kicks in the first place? Better punches/feints? Faster combos? What would you guys do?

Try a brazillian kick. Throw it as though you are going to the body, flick it back and then fire it high.

Another one that I learned from here is to fire at kick at his upper arm with mean intent which makes it difficult to catch, then off the rebound throw another kick but this time lower and angled into his body. You should find it goes nicely under the arm which you have just frozen up by kicking it.

One other one I like to do is to fire the roundhouse but turn it into a teep to land on the body. If he tries to catch it he won't be able to protect his body from the frontal teep attack.

 

[strike thought]

Try a brazillian kick. Throw it as though you are going to the body, flick it back and then fire it high.

Another one that I learned from here is to fire at kick at his upper arm with mean intent which makes it difficult to catch, then off the rebound throw another kick but this time lower and angled into his body. You should find it goes nicely under the arm which you have just frozen up by kicking it.

One other one I like to do is to fire the roundhouse but turn it into a teep to land on the body. If he tries to catch it he won't be able to protect his body from the frontal teep attack.

Here's a visual.

Funny how most of the things we discuss can easily be traced back to things Saenchai will do. Most of life's questions can be answered with Saenchai's violence.

 

[HighestHand]

Try a brazillian kick. Throw it as though you are going to the body, flick it back and then fire it high.

Another one that I learned from here is to fire at kick at his upper arm with mean intent which makes it difficult to catch, then off the rebound throw another kick but this time lower and angled into his body. You should find it goes nicely under the arm which you have just frozen up by kicking it.

One other one I like to do is to fire the roundhouse but turn it into a teep to land on the body. If he tries to catch it he won't be able to protect his body from the frontal teep attack.

Yep that's one of my weapons

Here's a visual.

Funny how most of the things we discuss can easily be traced back to things Saenchai will do. Most of life's questions can be answered with Saenchai's violence.

Ain't that a teep?

Edit: NVM thought you were talking about the Brazilian kick.

 

[Bennosuke]

To echo Strike Thought, your best bet is to not get caught. Along with the ideas echoed above (changing the kick level, superman or same side punches, switching to a teep), another big part is just feinting kicks. You don't have to follow it with anything. Jack Slack talks about that a lot; how feinting regularly will start to dull his trigger finger for dropping his guard to catch your kicks. If you just trick the kick into another technique, only one or two will work, and only a couple of times. But if you mix your kicks with feints, as well as trick kicks, he will soon become frustrated. If you do it right and keep your guard when you feint, you also won't be exposed for AS LONG, as if you were to say throw a questionmark kick.

Now the trick to feinting is that you also have to land a significant kick every once and a while to keep him reacting.

 

[HighestHand]

To echo Strike Thought, your best bet is to not get caught. Along with the ideas echoed above (changing the kick level, superman or same side punches, switching to a teep), another big part is just feinting kicks. You don't have to follow it with anything. Jack Slack talks about that a lot; how feinting regularly will start to dull his trigger finger for dropping his guard to catch your kicks. If you just trick the kick into another technique, only one or two will work, and only a couple of times. But if you mix your kicks with feints, as well as trick kicks, he will soon become frustrated. If you do it right and keep your guard when you feint, you also won't be exposed for AS LONG, as if you were to say throw a questionmark kick.

Now the trick to feinting is that you also have to land a significant kick every once and a while to keep him reacting.

Good advice, thanks.

 

[SummerStriker]

I use TKD style kicks whenever I think there is a possibility of a catch. Pivoting MT kicks to the legs, TKD snap to the body, MT Pivoting kicks on top of the arms and hybrid kicks to the head.

Pivoting MT kicks to the body are the easiest to catch and at least for free style, the risk outweighs the reward in my opinion.

TKD kicks can be snapped back so fast people can't catch them most of the time.

IMO, the main two kicks that get caught are Push Kicks thrown from maximum range and shin kicks to the body. At full power, they are less likely to be caught, but a push kick at the end of the range doesn't hurt or move you enough and gives you time to see it coming. Pivoting shin kicks to the body can't retract fast enough, no matter what, so unless you blast them back and their hand slips on your sweat, they can get it.