How To Throw A Switch Uppercut Duane "Bang" Ludwig
The uppercut is a fundamental strike in boxing and pretty much all combat sports that include punching. The problem with them is that they are also usually the least trained punch in combat sports as well. Unless uppercuts are your speciality strike, they usually don’t get trained too often. This has the unfortunate outcome of people not training their uppercuts a lot and thus they have trouble landing them in sparring and in competition because they don’t understand the proper range and set ups required to land the strike.
A big thing with the uppercut is the range, since it is such a short range strike most of the time. This is why it pays to learn a few tricky and sneaky set ups for the uppercut can come in handy. One of the more tricky and footwork based tricks that you can use to land an uppercut involves a stance switch. Naturally this technique is called the switch uppercut and we have one of the best striking coaches in MMA today to show you how to do it.
In this video, coach Duane Ludwig shows us how he sets up and throws the switch uppercut. Duane “Bang” Ludwig is a former UFC fighter and current MMA coach who is known for his eccentric style both in and outside of the ring. He actually held the record for fastest UFC knockout with a win in 6 seconds of a fight before that record was overtaken by Jorge Masvidal with the flying knee heard around the world. Duane Ludwig has worked with a ton of great fighters like Joseph Benavidez and former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw.
How to Throw A Switch Uppercut in MMA
The video starts off with Coach Duane showing us how he likes to switch and the position he likes to land in after he does. When you switch your feet to throw a switch uppercut, you want to land with your head off the centerline with your hips loaded. This way you will be safe from any punches that your opponent might throw and also have your hips loaded to throw your uppercut as powerfully as possible. Make sure that you also land with a solid base so that you can move properly and defend properly after throwing your strike.
Once you land properly, you throw your uppercut. Don’t worry about the arc of your punch, just make sure that you’re throwing towards the target. After throwing the uppercut, switch again to the stance that you started with. Get your head off the centerline and load up your hips again to throw the switch uppercut with your new lead hand.
This becomes a pretty good way to drill this technique. You can just try doing the switch uppercut back and forth for a full round or two in order to really drill in this technique from both stances.
To can help further disguise the switch uppercut by throwing your lead hand before you switch. This makes the technique harder to see coming. Once you throw the lead jab then switch and go into the switch uppercut.
