Switch kick

For some reason my switch kick feels off. I'm relatively new to it all, and I land some effective hits with it, but I don't feel I have anywhere near as much pop or speed with that switched leg as I do just throwing straight roundhouses. A little hip stiffness on that side might be the problem but I'm not sure , Help please!

Will be hard to tell without a video... But most of the times, it's just a lack of training for the "bad" side... ( I suppose it's not the switch movement, but the kick itself been the problem)
Just train it. You can start your kicking techniques with the bad side instead of your good one, so you are less tired when training it. Try to use it more in sparring. At the end of the class, just do some heavy bag with it... Just train it more...

You can also try to compare your technique in slow motion in front of a mirror... see how much you turn, how is your pivot foot etc in comparison to your good side.

If you start switched, can you throw the kick ok? That will tell you if it's the footwork of the switch or the mechanics of the actual kick that are the problem. So if you're orthodox, instead of throwing switch kicks, start southpaw and throw your left kick. If you can do that with balance, speed and power then you need to work on the footwork to make sure it's fluid and you're getting into good position to kick from without moving too much. If you can't kick from southpaw well then you should isolate that and work on the kick from that side for a bit then add the footwork in later.

One technical note, make sure you're springing off the kicking leg when you switch. Almost like you're loading it on the ground then letting it bounce off. It's hard to explain, but when you feel it you'll know what I mean.

It feels off because you are relative new to the technique. As you say.

Probably in the footwork. Try drilling the kick with a hop first till you are launching the kick right when you land. The goal is to be fluid like that when you switch your stance so the kick is launching.

It's a coordination thing that you need to subconsciously know because if your thinking of it "Switch stance, now kick" it's to late. Your technique needs to be faster than your thought process. There's a zillion examples like that the higher you progress.

Drill baby drill!

you may want to try learning the kick from southpaw position first. This will make the switch easier.

I want to steal the topic a bit and ask how do you do a lead switch kick when your previous hit is with a lead hand? It obviously takes to much time for non experienced like me to do all that movement.

Ilk said:

I want to steal the topic a bit and ask how do you do a lead switch kick when your previous hit is with a lead hand? It obviously takes to much time for non experienced like me to do all that movement.

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If you are close enough, you can switch with the jab or hook. So you are already done with the switch when you throw the kick.

If you are out of reach, then you do a full step instead.

Post a vid for more in-depth critique. May be a bit too high level but it might be good to practice the shuffle movement that Saenchai does to get used to switching back and forth. I do the skipping/shuffle on it's own to warm up my hips and get my feet moving before training:

ARIZE said:

Will be hard to tell without a video... But most of the times, it's just a lack of training for the "bad" side... ( I suppose it's not the switch movement, but the kick itself been the problem)
Just train it. You can start your kicking techniques with the bad side instead of your good one, so you are less tired when training it. Try to use it more in sparring. At the end of the class, just do some heavy bag with it... Just train it more...

You can also try to compare your technique in slow motion in front of a mirror... see how much you turn, how is your pivot foot etc in comparison to your good side.

Click to expand...

May sound strange but for some people, their "bad" side is their power side. I'm orthodox but my switch kick feels way more comfortable/powerful than my rear roundhouse.

a guy said:

If you start switched, can you throw the kick ok? That will tell you if it's the footwork of the switch or the mechanics of the actual kick that are the problem. So if you're orthodox, instead of throwing switch kicks, start southpaw and throw your left kick. If you can do that with balance, speed and power then you need to work on the footwork to make sure it's fluid and you're getting into good position to kick from without moving too much. If you can't kick from southpaw well then you should isolate that and work on the kick from that side for a bit then add the footwork in later.

One technical note, make sure you're springing off the kicking leg when you switch. Almost like you're loading it on the ground then letting it bounce off. It's hard to explain, but when you feel it you'll know what I mean.

Click to expand...

That's my issue...I can spring/pop off the switch kick but my rear roundhouse lacks pop on my support leg (left).

Paradigm said:

May sound strange but for some people, their "bad" side is their power side. I'm orthodox but my switch kick feels way more comfortable/powerful than my rear roundhouse.

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Doesn't really sound strange to me. I think my left leg is stronger too, but my right one has better technique (and a lot more flexibility).
Just out of curiosity, do you feel more power from your left only when you switch kick, or also if you start from a southpaw position and throw the left as a rear roundhouse? Maybe the movement of your switch adds power, and it's not just the leg?

Haha I feel my Switch kick is more powerful.

Put it this way, you're taking a step swing adding more power to your kick. Almost like kicking a Rugby ball off a tee.

ARIZE said:

Doesn't really sound strange to me. I think my left leg is stronger too, but my right one has better technique (and a lot more flexibility).
Just out of curiosity, do you feel more power from your left only when you switch kick, or also if you start from a southpaw position and throw the left as a rear roundhouse? Maybe the movement of your switch adds power, and it's not just the leg?

Click to expand...

Haha...don't want to derail the thread but TS hasn't replied in a few weeks anyway. My left kick is stronger, regardless if I switch or start in southpaw. My theory is that I'm kicking off my weak leg (left) when I'm kicking with my supposed power side and kicking off my dominant right leg when kicking with the lead side. When I throw the left, there's a little hop with my right foot...my right kick pivots but doesn't seem to have as much explosiveness (if that makes sense).

I'm going to throw up a video tomorrow of padwork I did last week to get some critique so you'll see what I'm talking about. This doesn't apply to my rear hand vs my lead hand though, so I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be orthodox (since I'm right handed).

clemyobon said:

Haha I feel my Switch kick is more powerful.

Put it this way, you're taking a step swing adding more power to your kick. Almost like kicking a Rugby ball off a tee.

Click to expand...

I don't think it's necessarily the switch (in my case, anyway). If I switch to southpaw and try to switch kick with my right, it's still weaker than my left switch kick but then again...I've probably done 1000x as many switch kicks with my left vs my right. Maybe even 10000x as many lol.

I'll do my best to break down the technique slowly.

Firstly, most people think switch means you swap your legs around - don't do that, it's what beginners do but all it does is give you a massive telegraph.

When you swap your legs around all you've done is announce that you're going to throw the kick and thereby you lose the distance, at best you're only going to connect well with the end of your foot and at worse you've been knocked out.

I used to use the leg swapping technique, then I decided to start copying Kru Dam from Sitmonchai's technique, and it works infinitely better,

Kru Dam breaks it into 3 steps:

1) Drag your lead foot back a small amount, around 6 inches

2) Bring your front leg forward in front of your lead leg


3) Kick


Doing this allows you to eat up the space between you and your opponent and it allows you to chase him down without. You will find it awkward at first, and that's okay, but the speed you get with it is SO much faster than the standard method, but unlike bringing your lead leg straight up, it actually has power.

Fuck the switch kick, just fire your lead leg right from its position, aka "Fast Kick"

MaxMMA said:

Fuck the switch kick, just fire your lead leg right from its position, aka "Fast Kick"

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Hehe...That TKD showing you blinding fast attacks?

My go to was lead leg inverted RH catching peeps coming in. It turns your chest and head away from their attack and they walk right into your kick. The plus side if you have the balance is if you miss your shin is against the side of their head gear or chest protector and you can spring off of that to re establish distance...TKD switch kick is more of a deceptive tactic so your opponent doesn't have time to react to which side you attack from.

AndyMaBobs said:

Doing this allows you to eat up the space between you and your opponent and it allows you to chase him down without.

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That's the way i do it, but funny thing is that it was my TKD instructor that first showed me how to do it. Since in TKD they move back a lot to avoid a strike, you really need to close the distance fast. They don't really use switch kicks, it's a very slow technique for them, with a huge tell, so like CFGroup said it's mostly use like a stance faint. I still don't tag the TKD guys with it, but it's a lot faster now when i use it in MT.