Closing The Distance To Land A Powerful Combination With Alexsandro Pereira
In martial arts, footwork is a vast subject covering more areas than all other aspects of fighting. For example, when we look at boxing, we tend to overlook that an essential part of the sport is footwork, even though it is known as a sport that heavily uses the hands.
So we know that footwork is a critical aspect of fighting, but many practitioners let time pass by without deliberately putting the effort to learn the proper way of moving their feet.
Not learning the basics of footwork results in fighters who don’t know how to control the distance, set up their shots, or even generates power in their strikes. We can see that this is a big problem that many practitioners don’t acknowledge in their training programs.
To break through this wall, we need to shift our minds and understand that the first battle we look to win in a fight is the battle of the feet and not the hand. Then we can start to learn the different maneuvers that will allow us to gain good positioning and set up our strikes.
So as we can see, by giving enough attention to our footwork as much as we provide to our strikes, we will be able to push through the boundaries early on and continue our development as fighters.
In the following video, Alexandro Pereira will show us how he sneaks his way into the close range using a simple footwork maneuver.
Who Is Alexsandro Pereira?
Alexsandro Pereira (also known as Alex Pereira) is a Brazillian Kickboxer and pro-Mixed Martial Artist. Alexsandro is the former middleweight champion and the current light-heavyweight champion in the world’s most decorated organization for Kickboxing- Glory. Alex is known for knocking out UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya when they met under the Kickboxing rules. Alexandro transitioned to MMA in recent years and signed the contract with LFA, where he won his debut in a viral left hook knockout.
Closing The Distance With The Jab To A Combination
In the following video, Alexsandro Pereira will work with us on how he sneaks his way into the close distance using the Jab.
So, we will start in a position where I am far enough from him that we both cant hit each other with the Jab. Now when many practitioners try to close the distance they step in with the Jab, they get hit with a Jab because the opponent might be faster than me and were both in the punching range.
When we want to set up the Jab, we need to keep some things in mind; we first must stay in our stance in a neutral position because if I am stepping in and open my base, he can hit me as we said before, and I’m not in a good position to take a punch.
Now to set up the Jab, we need to make him focus on something else, so we are in front of him, and we start swinging our body from side to side without changing our stance or closing the distance.
When I’m ready, I will raise my rear foot and step it forward without moving my head, so the opponent doesn’t notice we have changed the distance. As we end up in a narrow stance, we don’t want to lock our knees; we want to keep them bent for balance.
After I landed My rear foot forward, I will finish the movement stepping in with my lead foot and Jab that he won’t see coming. Now it’s a power Jab, and I turn my hips so he is shocked from it and can rotate my trunk back and forth for two more powerful hooks in the close distance.
Notice that as we throw our hooks, our shoulders are switching places this adds power to the torque we are creating.
Learn More From Alexsandro Pereira
Suppose you liked this concept of sneaking into the close-range with the Jab, as Alexsandro Pereira illustrated here. Make sure you check his complete instructional and get a deeper understanding of his system- “Total Striking Control - Manipulating Your Opponent With Strikes - By Alexsandro Pereira” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.