Every coach has a different opinion about checking kicks in Muay Thai, Kickboxing and MMA... that should tell you that there is no "correct" technique for it. Most of things you have been told are simply placeholders until both your understanding and your ability increase.
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I like how you've edited it so that the check actually is at 8:07
I like to check leg kicks with my thigh and calves.... It works great for a little bit
Lull them into a false sense of security!
I like to use my neck. I've never had a fight last longer than 60 seconds, so it must be working.
@@hard2hurtthe nate diaz approach
@@hard2hurtso Thai Fighters don't know how to check Kicks
I like to block punches with my chin!
I love that Mike has gone from "side-kicks don't work" to "I'm gonna throw a side-kick in every single video I make, even a flying one if I can, and they always end up working". I guess that's Sensei Seth's long term influence at play. Thank you for the consistently great content.
it could also be the getting nailed with a side kick by wonderboy without even realizing it until afterwards
Coaches lie. Were you not paying attention? 🤥
That's why I keep watching and love this channel. Dude's really trying to give us what he finds out to be true, even if it contradicts his past ideas. That's what martial arts and self defense should be about.
@@thallescastellani317that’s an excellent point actually^^
Character development
"Half the mistakes you make are because you are lazy; The other half because you're a Coward." - Icy Mike More wisdom that needs to be on a front/back t-shirt/rash guard! Thanks as always, Coach!
So accurate. I geared myself up mentally for sparring practice yesterday. Magically I wasn't slow, ineffective, or tired, or injured and had a really good day doing it because I was ready to work and not afraid.
This is generally true as to why people fail in general.
Some of this makes me realize how lazy I practice specific techniques sometimes that I needa work on
I would buy that.
A Bitter Truth, that must be faced. The sooner the better
i love the consistency, almost everytime mike mentions a comment timestamp he lines it up with the video. Fun little detail to pause the video and look out for "at 8:07, he felll uhh fall off balance"
For the niche audience within the niche audience within the niche audience. I created that for you!
@@hard2hurt and we thank you
@@hard2hurt respect
NO FUCKIN WAY HE GOT IT LOL
😂😂😂😂
As a karate guy I naturally check kicks like that, however I always had trouble explaining how to check kicks and whenever I looked at the details of what I was doing I got confused. Thanks for clearing this up.
“Half the mistakes you make are because you’re lazy the other half are because you’re a coward” sounding like my dad 😅😔
In our gym, the ideal check is balanced on the base leg, but includes a hip thrust (like a knee strike). This hurts them, but keeps you balanced, neither falling forward nor being knocked backward. The falling-forward, unbalanced check will work fine until the guy is good enough to pump fake you and then throw the kick as your weight is falling back to earth.
You don't need to be that forward heavy. It's kind of like football you need to be forward heavy enough to resist getting pushed back but not so much that you fall over yourself. And that's the job of a feint it's suppose to bait out a response for you to punish. If a feint works it doesn't have to be due to bad technique on the receiving side it's just cause they lost a footsy battle.
@whitewh1 You were taught correctly. Most of the finer details I was taught a long time ago aren't being taught now. And the kick check wheels inside out, not outside up. This guys also teaching incorrect kick check foot position.
@@branni6538what is the correct position?
Difficult to explain with typing but very easy to show. Always seek oldskool muay boran/muay Thai instruction. These people are teaching sports not true muay thai/boran which includes weapons and self defence. These guys are teaching to accept the full power of a kick. You aren't supposed to. The self defence side of old muay thai/muay boran teaches how to negate the kick and block it and hurt them at the same time. This guy is teaching people to just eat the kick. And incorrectly so. He admits at the start that instructors lie and admits he's guilty of it. He either knows truth and is lying or he doesn't know how to do it correctly. I've even seen the Thai boxing gyms in Thailand teaching incorrect clinch neck control and incorrect hand grips. They are teaching sports and the martial art is being diluted and abridged.
@branni6538 do you know of any good lineages or schools in particular I can learn from? I will probably never be in fights but I love the art and the history and I want to learn the real thing
I just watched Sean Strickland check kicks for 25 minutes straight I think I'm an expert at this now
Strickland has always been very defensively sound. People just thought otherwise because of KO loss to Pereira. That was a pure offensive and defensive masterclass. Just good straight punches and Philly shell style defense, and yes, excellent checking of leg kicks. I'm still in awe that he beat Adesanya at his own game, with ZERO takedown attempts.
He checked 2 leg kicks in a row . It was incredible .
@stephengann5978 it was masteclass because sean was actually better than his last fight. In his last fight he had the philly shell in his chest from all ranges whiches why izzy was more favored to win, this fight sean comes in with a modified Philly shell for long to mid that he held up to his face and up close Philly shell on his chest
he learnt some things from training with Pereira @@SuperZombiezero
You should have Jay back! I miss seeing him, a good ol’ video where you have a competition with Jay on who can take more leg kicks would be great.
Blue balled us with the LEG MUSCLE 😂😂
Interesting! I’ve noticed the same thing when Thai fighters throw lead leg teeps: If you pause a video of them when they’re in the “chambered” position, they are leaning forward (all the way from their right foot to their head). There’s a level of forward commitment on Thai style strikes.
ผมรู้สึกดีที่คุณศึกษามวยไทยจากการดูนักสู้ชาวไทย
Can we not say LEG MUSCLE!!! anymore
We all saw him say it in our minds
In Muay Thai we would also use the checks to offer an instant counter,either using a switch or head kick alot of the time where I trained. The switch kick was always my go-to for countering after a check. Love the vids man big up from the UK 💯
12:16 such a good callback
LIEG MOSSLE 🦵
What’s also great about checking like that is your also adding momentum to your counter. It can act as a trigger step for a hard straight punch or a cheat step to immediately throw a leg kick before they are able the check.
One of the best videos you have posted. I usually reference getting the knee waist high and keep hands up. That puts the large part of the shin on the checking leg in position to check. If they "sneak" a body kick between the knee and elbow.....good for them.
Love your coaching and energy, brother! 🙏🏽
Thank you for mentioning this; when checking kicks, I noticed that intentionally going off balance to the direction of the attacking kick is what keeps me stable upon receiving its impact
Another lil trick you can do (but dont spam it) is after you lift knee to check kick instead of putting it down in the same spot spill your balance forward enough initially to follow their kick down with your knee a bit and sorta get a lightning footwork step-in and innitiate the dirtyboxing/standing grappling. Assuming you can get past their arm fencework during the step-in.
As a tkd guy, I've started checking kicks to the body, since we don't do leg kicks, and it's absolutely great at allowing you to counter quickly
That's good But it would benefit you to train with legkicks once in a while imo
But i was told that people arw not allowed to check kicks with the legs in TKD??
I don't know about ITF, but under World Tae Kwon Do rules it's illegal to check kicks. See Article 14. The following are prohibited acts a)Lifting the leg to block b)Kicking the opponent’s leg to impede the opponent’s kicking attack c)Kick was aiming to below the waist. (I don't make the rules, I'm just pointing out that checking is illegal).
@@juandenz2008In the 80s I checked body kicks in ITF and WTF matches. Because this was before MMA and Muay Thai popularity no one expected it, so it hurt and they stopped throwing round kicks to the body. But they probably stopped allowing it because it would have minimized kicking. And now I’m going to take my old butt to bed because I just did a “back in my day.”
@jestfullgremblim8002 it.might depend on the organization. My cousin teaches taekwando and they're allowed to check kicks at tournaments...at least they did a few yrs ago.
Gotta love how all of Mike's students hesitate to answer his questions. They've all been burned too much lmao.
Checking kicks shin to shin hurts unless you have really great bones, dead nerves or just made of steel. A Thai coach told me evade or change angle to lessen the impact first if you can and checking kicks only as a last resort. But he had more of a Muay femur/evasion style of fighting. He still told us that being able to pressure or stand and bang was important . You just have to learn to block properly, accept and ignore the pain and trade Give more than you take he said. It's impossible not to get hit in a real fight with a good opponent.
I think that's true. Footwork is most always the best defence.
Underrated comment
Thank you Mike. You see this is why I love martial arts and choose to be one. Even after almost 26 years in the field learning different arts, I can still learn something new from anyone and any art. I throw my ego to the trash and learning. One of the arts I practice is Muay Thai and I have been taught to check the kick the way you showed in the beginning. In my case I wasn't lazy I just didn't know the option exist.
Great work Natalia! As usual, your technique is on point.
Love your enthusiasm and passion for the sport! Respect man, you're a phenomenal coach💯
Great stuff. Well explained and explored through all the permutations. Meat and potatoes H2H. "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." -- this saying used to be on the wall in my team's gym. Also, if you're a nasty, mean kind of guy out to cripple someone, then right after a good check is a great time to throw the oblique kick or side kick to the knee. That's in a lot of close quarters styles -- southern Chinese kung fu and old Okinawan karate. In fact, Jesse Enkamp did a nifty video with Kevin Lee that showed a leg kick check immediately into a low sidekick to the knee without putting the foot back down. EDIT: I realize now that the short I'm referring to was filmed at your gym. Duh. LOL. No wonder the two lessons jived so well!
Icy Mike just got back from helping Sean Strickland win that fight apparently 😆
This is why you're a legend Icy Mike. Keep it up.
This is one of your best videos yet in my opinion! It's not easy for most to make a good tutorial entertaining.
LMAO That "Never do this. You do this your fired" caught me off guard 2:17
The energy of this channel is amazing
12:18 the powered up "LEG MOSSELS" was about to go so hard he had to censor it!
Mike sure does love to teach. And we love watching it 🤓
Thanks for this video man very informative! I would love more videos like this, learned a lot.
The leg muscle cut gag is driving me crazy, keep it up 🙏🏻
You always have great advise, and you bring your advise in a great way Thnx for tips 👍🏻
Absolutely loved this video, checking kicks this way was something I'd been thinking about for a bit. A request though, can you do a video on spear hand and the weird techniques where you hit with your fingers or the knuckles on your fingers? It would be awesome, thank you!
You mean the phoenix eye fist? Yeah that would be interesting to see too
That was brilliant and very very well explained. Thank you.
Great advice! Thank you for sharing...👍
The double tease! You are the best! And Mike, you contributed to Jesses knowledge. Still imcredible
Awesome tips. Great stuff. Interestingly I study real Okinawa karate. So usually I just keep my trap shut rather than weather the prejudice. So while I will probably regret this…. Leg checks are part of the reason why the traditional back stance in Shorin Ryu splits weight 60/40 to the back foot. We also catch, pass or check block the kick with our leg check. So three options or styles of leg check can be done. The only way to do these is if you hold your position without shifting back. Check blocks with the leg are awesome entering moves.
I'm glad you saying this cuz I've been teaching this to my guys for a few months and it been working moving on to using the momentum to counter
"More than one way to skin a cat" is great advice. Too many people get too dogmatic about martial arts. I don't know what it is about MAists and finding the new truth. First time I ran into (literally) the forward stomping leg check, where the big part of his shin met the small part of mine was in a Monkey Kung Fu seminar of all places. Like in the late 80's or early 90's. I remember it hurt so much I didn't want to throw another leg kick for a week.
I can’t express to you on how much I enjoyed this video
Consistently good videos, thank you :)
I know I once saw Ernesto Hoost check a leg kick just by turning his knee slightly outwards, that check ended the fight. It was in a K1 tournament in the early 2000s and I think it was against Peter Aerts, if any of you remember the exact fight, please reply. Ever since then I saw leg kicks and checks in a very different light.
That's how I learned to check a kick from my coach, turn the knee to the side so you catch the weak part of their leg on the strong part of your shin.
That's common practice I wouldn't agree with a lot of the things this guy said but there's always different ways of doing things
😂😂😂 I really liked the disconnecting noise🤭 Props to the editor
My big shame is that I did this Krav class forever, and they only ever sparred once a month, so they were basically just doing drills and stuff. Wish I had a serious place like yours near me at that time cause I wasted a lot of training time, and I was *dedicated* back then, man. Love the vids, I was thinking you had stopped posting but YT just stopped recommending me these. Gotta watch some manually to get the algorithm working for me.
The video I needed, especially after getring my leg torn up last time I sparred.
Absolutely right and for round-housing, kneeing and blocking, I develop my tibialis anterior muscles and never strike with the joints.
haven't heard you say the half n half mistakes line in a while. refreshing
Great advice indeed. I’m going to renew my subscription. “Checking” hurts; but not as much as getting kicked on the muscle! I never realized the Strong vs weak part of the shin block. That’s very important.
I was taught this and similar when blocking punches too, then fire back with the shot as you will have 'naturally' torqued your body into lining up for you to fire a shot right back. Works great!
When i check kicks, half the time i don't even take my leg off the ground. I just lift my heel and that catches leg kicks at VERY low risk. Catches right in that sweet spot where your strong and they're weak. I taught it to a friend of mine and works for him too. Another sneaky trick i do is sometimes i time their kick and lift their leg with my knee, which is then super easy to catch and again, low risk.
You're the Michael Scott of Kickboxing instructors, always a blast watching your videos 😂😂
A good way of getting advantage of checks from a wider stance like this is keeping your leg glued to his lower shin after the kick, and while he brings his leg back down to his position, sweep it. Controlling the opponent gloves/having contact with his guard to desestabilize him also helps the sweep.
Great wisdom, its kinda like how you would receive a kick with a pad, just using your shin. Also kinda reminds me of when karate guys will throw a front kick and then step-jab/cross, just use the check as that first step to get your weight forward a bit. Thanks Mike!
I discovered the more lazy check he demonstrates by accident. The one he demonstrated that lands below the knee. Everytime that person goes down in pain. And I never felt it either. No pads btw.
very interesting stuff man thanks
this is great advice
This was GREAT !!! 👍🏿
Good lesson. And good fighter lady. Thanks
Great one!
"You're lazy and a coward." First off....stop calling me out
Roger Denton taught me this years ago. It’s also a really good set up to throw the cross after.
The dialup noises when someone puts you on the spot are extremely relatable
Woooow! I watched your episodes on the perfect techniques in the bus and knife defense. KZhead only now shows this channel. I'm a new subscriber now. Didn't know you were a street fighter either. 👌
Half of our mistakes are because we're lazy. Do you think that's why traditional martial arts had tales of people doing unbelievable feats of training? Like I've heard that traditional judo schools would have guys practice the same throw with flawless form literally for an entire day. Is there merit to having someone train there hip flexor for a ridiculous amount of reps just so they don't do it the lazy way?
Oh man I'm thinking of all the feats unrelated to fighting that people cite like "he could do 1 finger pushups!" Lol. There is definitely diminishing returns if a beginner is training that specifically. His time would be better utlized on general conditioning and skill development.
8:07 Damn man you got right on the ball with that one
Sunmary: check kicks in a way where your strongest shin part meets their weakest shin part Also don't shift your weight back when checking kicjs, instead stay controlled or even over balance yourself forwards so you can counter the kick. Also don't raise your leg high when checking kicks if you know its a low kick.
In kickboxing this is a great piece of knowledge. In MMA people either barely lift their leg up or just eat it or they come forward. The problem with checking a kick is your opponent gets to reset for another kick because you stayed in one spot.
12:17 you robbed me, this made me stand up actually
Thx i need to hear this
I died a little inside when you cut out the “LEG MOSSELS”
Coach Mike's first step in dismantling Jeff Chan's fight style
Excellent I learned something new 🤗
Theres difference in defense for beginners and as you become more advanced. You have to shell up more and have a tighter guard as a beginner because you're not really adept at seeing when/what an attack is and what it's targeting. It is evolving. Great video.
Best sparring on Tube ever!
I need a new Hard to Hurt Fight Seminar and T-shirt.
I like to shift my weight to the side taking the hit when the hit comes. Incorporating checks into your movement and striking drills makes it fluid and convenient instead of a hassle of an option
I really like your videos. Brutal honest. ;)
The modem sounds are awakening core memories
That's a damn good video!
If it's Blocked,, it Blocked,, if it's Checked it's....... Checked.. Have fun . You now know everything.. cheers from Huntington Beach CA 🇺🇸
Totally agree with you on this one 👍👍
Here's a point you may not have considered also- in any form of melee combat, a powerful attack with a lot of leverage (like a kick, in unarmed combat arts) ONLY has significant impact out at the extent of its reach. It can do SOMETHING in the middle range maybe, but if you're very close when the strike lands, it will have almost no leverage, and therefore almost no force. So if you opt to shoot in instead of check the kick or dance out of range to tire your opponent out, you get inside and they don't hit you hard enough for it to matter. How does this help us counterattack though? Since this is especially useful against a naked kick to begin with, and that's what the whole conversation is about, they won't be keeping you at distance with their hands if you're trying to do this, so throw a short range, powerful punch when you shoot inside their guard, like a shovel hook to the liver. This is something I became more familiar with in swordsmanship than in unarmed combat, and I haven't sparred a lot using these kinds of principles in unarmed combat against kicks, but I have found this sort of thing to work well against people throwing long-range, full extension punches against me. Keep in mind where your opponent's kinetic energy is, and where it has to go, and you can see openings as their possible moves change based on how they position themselves. I really liked this video, love your content, always glad to see another video.
If you go off from stopping the kick, can't you use the momentum to send the leg you stopped the kick with to the back and the leg you were 'balancing' (but not really/effectively) on becomes the one in front?!
"A check is a poorly excecuted destruction." If i remember it correctly that's a quote from Dan Inosanto ;-) Goes totally in line with the vid! Nice
..the way you showed it here also takes economy of motion in consideration.
Mike was gonna say but he still got my LEG MUSCLE!
Ok, I'm glad to know my instructor is good, cause he told me to do it like this. But seeing the video made me realize I can check the kicks better by being a little closer
Great video! When I was a teen I just kicked any kicks coming at me as I didn't know any other way. My sparring partner's legs were full of bruises.
"throw me a real kick" Instantly ends up with face of contemplation
Your so smart for having her in your videos, even if you didn't know what your taking about and were a total doofus I would still watch because of her! 🤣
Could we get a breakdown of one of the biggest upsets in mma??
13:48 the Bruce lee “waaaaaaaaa” really rounded out and completed this video for me
Pull elbow down towards knee when you do that and lean slightly forward . Try it although you may frog yourself . Now you can sweep the leg out position.
12:15 - Mike's such a tease. "It's still gettin' my.."
Yo Mike, need some advice on boxing gloves. Do I buy a size that fits on my hand perfect or do I go one up because I’ll be wearing wraps?
7:42 Crazy that's like swordsmanship. Get your strong where your opponent is weak.