Counter The Counter With Manachai
Being able to counter the counter strikers is a great way to get them to stop trying to counter your shots. If you are able to not only dodge their counter shots but counter them on top of that, it will likely dissuade and demoralize your opponent especially if that was their strategy or a really big part of their game.
Another way to stop your opponent from punching all together, including counters and just in general is to attack their legs. Attacking the legs of your opponent will not only hurt more and more the more times that you land it but it will also make it hard to put weight on that leg. That means that putting any weight on their front leg will hurt a lot and even if they are able to push past it they will not be able to put much power into their punches. This means that they are going to throw less strikes overall and the ones that they do throw will be weaker, slower and have less pop on them. This will also make them less likely to throw counter strikes as they probably won’t be fast enough and be more focused on defense.
Your opponent will also move slower and maybe even stop moving as their legs will be in so much pain that every quick move will hurt. This makes leg kicks a great option to not only take the edge off a powerful and aggressive opponent’s strikes but it will also help against those quick and movement heavy fighters who rely on complex footwork to set up their strikes.
A great way to make sure that you can safely throw a low kick with minimal to no risk of it getting checked is to have your opponent be really heavy on their lead leg. This will make it much harder for your opponent to put weight on the opposite leg to lift up their lead one to block.
It is most common for someone to be heavy on their lead leg when that person is coming in with punches. This makes low kick counters to boxing a perfect option to go to, as they will not only mitigate the boxing but also the boxing itself opens your opponent up to the counter.
In this video, multiple time Muay Thai world champion Manachai, puts all of the factors that we just talked about into this one drill. The drill itself is very simple and teaches how to dodge strikes and comeback with a powerful low kick. The drill starts off with Manachai throwing his own right straight to draw out his opponent’s. Once his opponent throws their own punch counter, Manacahi says to slide step back. Keep in mind that when you complete the slide step you should be in your stance and ready to counter, as the window of opportunity for your counter isn’t long.
While your opponent is still punching or when they have fully extended their strike you are going to come back with a hard low kick that they will likely have no ability to block. Make sure to step or jump out on a 45 degree angle to generate as much power as possible. Doing this might seem like it telegraphs the strike and it does to a certain extent, but in this situation you need as much power as possible. This is one of the few times where even if your opponent sees your strike coming, they can't do much or anything to defend it.
To add the maximum amount of power possible, torque your hips hard and with intent to really swing your leg. Think of your leg like a baseball bat or an axe and your opponent’s leg is the ball or the tree.
If you want to learn more striking drills and combinations like this one check out our complete video series featuring Manachai, available now!