Should I change my stance

[Lawblaw]

I normally stand in a Muay Thai stance. My legs are close to each other and my lead leg is very light so my jab is almost like a teep (only less power). I use it so I can land teeps and jabs but when I stand in a wide stance (similar to Conor or even Travis Browne in his last Arlovski fight) I feel a lot faster.

My punches are much better and my kicks are better but I can't check kicks as good and my switch kicks are much slower.

Any suggestions?

 

[fluffball]

In what context?

If your jab is THAT weak I'd say yes even in pure Muay Thai, but let's hear some more from you.

 

[Lawblaw]

It's not that my jab is weak. When your lead left leg is light and most of your weight is on your right leg, your job will not be as powerful.

 

[fluffball]

Ya but what is the situation? Are you training for a MT fight presumably?

And I just meant I personally prefer a strong jab over nearly anything, even in, say, MMA.

 

[Lawblaw]

I don't know man.. to be honest I've been training Muay Thai for like 8 months and I absolutely love it, but I want to go for MMA. My coach tells me Jabs are not meant to be powerful just use them a lot and mix them with teeps to set up other powerful strikes.

 

[Tug]

getting rid of your lead leg and ability to check for the sake of a better jab *really* contradicts the muay thai scoring system tbh as well as the obvious practical problems

it depends what you're training for. if you want to do mma you should do it, or stay the course on what your coach advises for muay thai.

your stable mates will get a bit miffed if you bowl in with wack technique in sparring while they are actually training with the goal to fight under the established mt scoring and rule set (i know i find it annoying lol)

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Do both in sparring. Whichever one you feel better in, you choose that one.
Voila

 

[aries]

You don't have to stick religiously to a front heavy or a front light stance. I made this mistake when I started. Because I found it quite difficult to get my weight further back for checking having come from boxing to MT I ended up adopting quite a front light style until the checking became more natural. Watch the good fighters and you'll see that they alternate between weight more forward and weight further back depending on the situation. That bouncing/marching style is the way that they switch between front foot back foot heavy.

Watch this training vid of Saenchai who's reknowned for his great movement, notice how often he changes weight from front to back foot almost like he's stepping on hot coals. He virtually never stands still. He keeps a fairly medium split stance since he likes to be able to change direction quickly. Contrast that with someone like Yodsanklai in the video after who has a fairly wide stance (for MT). But he's more about power, being planted and less about movement.

For someone who switches between the two stance widths check out Samart Payakaroon. In his early MT career he had a relatively narrow stance but as he got more into boxing his stance became wider and during the transition period you can see how he alternates between the two in his MT fights.

 

[j123]

When you initiate the attack (jab), you could shift the weight forward so you're front leg heavy (80-20 weight distribution), it'll be stronger than having all the weight back. When you're not attacking, switch back to your regular traditional stance.

For me, I stand 50-50, when I initiate an attack or combination, I shift to 80-20 front leg, after that I resume 50-50. I find this way I can check kick and have weight in my attacks

 

[KillerElite]

I normally stand in a Muay Thai stance. My legs are close to each other and my lead leg is very light so my jab is almost like a teep (only less power). I use it so I can land teeps and jabs but when I stand in a wide stance (similar to Conor or even Travis Browne in his last Arlovski fight) I feel a lot faster.

My punches are much better and my kicks are better but I can't check kicks as good and my switch kicks are much slower.

Any suggestions?

If you feel uncomfortable then change it. Also If you have the wide stance I will be like: DAT LEG.

 

[StopDucking]

If I threw a jab while being front leg heavy, my coach would hit me on the head with the mitt and tell me to throw jabs with my lead leg off the ground.

There is no reason to compromise your defense and your ability to follow up with your power hand for the sake of a power jab.