Closing the distance

[Heroic Wolf]

Hi everyone,

I was looking for some ideas on closing the distance against kick-oriented fighters. I'm usually cautious and back off to dodge kicks thrown at me, which is good for avoiding damage, but also limits my ability to implement my punching/kneeing strategy. Any ideas? Maybe what I need is to just get the notion out of my head that every kick needs to be dodged. In fact, I should maybe train to run forward when I see a kick coming, lol

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Well you should always close the distance somehow with combos. Time it so that right when you finish checking his kick you get in there with a combo to get within punching/clinching range. Also you might want to consider pressuring him. If you're constantly pressuring him and cutting him off it's going to be hard for him to get full power into those kicks and easy for you to get in there with a combo.

[Heroic Wolf]

Can you give some example combinations? My distance-closing combos right now consist of boxing combos which lead me to taking kicks to the stomach half the time and punch-punch-kick combos that force me to enlarge the distance in order to accomodate for the kick.

[Tom Yum]

What style of kicking?

Muaythai or Karate/Taekwondo.

[Heroic Wolf]

The kicks I used are muay thai style. The kicks the people I'm trying to close in on can potentially be both (ppl at my school use muay thai kicks, my friends who do martial arts use taekwondo/karate kicks)

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Don't go at them so head on. You should constantly be taking angles and circling. If you're talking about kicks to your stomach then they're probably more TKD or Karate oriented since you said you're not really facing any muay thai exponents. From a muay thai stand point, just to throw it out there, any lazy or sloppy kicks can be caught and then you simply step in and throw a hard straight with your free hand, so that's one way for you to get within range and land those shots. If you're a good boxer, you can time his roundhouse kicks and counter with a right cross. Just try closing in on your opponent with angles so he can't get those sidekicks, teeps, etc in.