Develop Quick Counters With Brandon Gibson
The ability to counter punch is one that many fighters want to develop. It’s one of the greatest ways to make your opponent not want to strike because if you are able to hit them every time they attack you, they will be very unwilling to strike first.
Counter punches are also a great way to score a heavy shot and maybe a knockdown or even a knockout. This is because if you counter your opponent while they’re coming in and striking at you, they are probably exposing themselves and they will also be running into your strike.
This massively increases the damage of your punch, as your opponent's force from coming in is combining with yours going forward. It’s the same reason that head on cart crashes are more dangerous than a car hitting another one that’s stationary.
The most difficult part of counter punches is that the window of opportunity is pretty short. You need to have the split second reaction time and keen eye to be able to notice the opening and also be the proper position to throw the counter.
This is why learning how to throw the fastest and most efficient counters possible is important. Luckily we have a super qualified coach here to show you how to do counters!
In this video, Brandon Gibson shows us how to do trigger counters off of blocking hooks.
Who Is Brandon Gibson?
Brandon Gibson is an MMA coach from Albuquerque, New Mexico who specializes in striking. He is also one of the youngest coaches to train such high level fighters like Jon Jones, Carlos Condit, John Dodson, Cub Swanson, Tim Kennedy and Alistair Overeem. He also works with the MMA up and comer Aaron Pico, who happens to appear in this video.
Trigger Counters For MMA
In this video Brandon Gibson and Aaron Pico show us what a trigger counter is. Trigger counters are counters done after blocking with the same arm that the block was done with. This type of counter is usually done after blocking a hook. The aim is to a land straight punch before your opponent brings their arm back to their head.
You can also do this after you parry a strike. After you parry the strike, you then punch with the same arm that you just parried with. In this case you can kind of think about it kind of like skipping a stone over water.
The first trigger counter that Brandon has Aaron show is after parrying his opponent’s straights. He also does more than one punch to train him to learn to not rely on one punch to end a fight.
The first trigger counter is to parry with your rear hand and immediately go into a rear cross, lead hook and then finish with another rear cross.
Trigger counters can also happen off of defending bodyshots. For body shots blocked with the right arm Aaron responds with a rear uppercut, lead hook into a rear cross. For body shots to his lead side, Aaron responds with a lead uppercut rear cross and finishes with a lead hook.
You can do these defensive counters on their own as a drill to really get them down pat. After really mastering this you can add these counters into regular pad work sessions to really help keep your fighter or yourself on your toes.
Learn More From Brandon Gibson
If you like this technique breakdown and want to learn more from Brandon Gibson then you can check out his full video series “Six Gun Striking By Brandon Gibson” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!