How To Use The Lead Leg Kick With Owen Roddy
Leg kicks are generally used as a way to either slow your opponent down or take away their weapons. This is because if you’re able to take away your opponent’s base, they will literally not have a leg to stand on. This means that they will struggle to move well, as each step they take puts pressure on their injured leg.
Leg kicks will also take the power of your opponent’s strike, as they can’t sit on their punches if they literally can’t put weight on one of their legs.
For the most part people try to do this with the outside kicks, but at a certain point, especially in the case of Muay Thai fighters and Kickboxers, their lead legs outside portion gets really conditioned to low kicks. It’s to the point that some top tier fighters lead legs, at least the outside portion, is basically leather.
However, the inside of most fighters' lead leg is nowhere near as conditioned as the outside. This means that if you want to do some damage quickly, targeting the inside is the way to go. For the most part, this will mean kicking off of your lead leg. This can be pretty hard for newer fighters so we brought in a top MMA coach to show you how.
In this video, MMA striking coach Owen Roddy goes over how to throw a leg kick with your lead leg.
Who Is Owen Roddy
Owen Roddy is an Irish MMA coach who works with fighters in Straight Blast Gym Ireland. Roddy has trained a bunch of top tier combat sports athletes but the most notable among those is the Notorious one himself, Conor McGregor, whom Owen Roddy acts as a striking coach for.
How To Throw A Low Lead Leg Kick
The video starts off with Owen showing the basics behind one specific kind of lead leg kick. This technique is commonly referred to as a step up lead leg kick. It differs from a switch kick because instead of switching stance to then bounce into the kick, you are simply stepping up with your rear leg and then throwing your lead leg to kick.
You can throw this kick to the inside of the thigh. If you land at an upward angle you will be able to lift up your opponent's leg. You can also go with the current MMA trend and go for calf kicks. Landing a calf kick will also help pick up your opponent’s leg and break their stance a lot more reliably than hitting the thigh. Be careful with inside kicks to the calf though, as one small miscalculation could lead you to land on the shin bone instead of the calf and even potentially break you own shin.
You can also do this kick to the body and to the head but keep in mind that doing this can put you really close to your opponent after you put your leg down. It is quicker than a switch kick though, so it makes this version of the lead leg kick a good one just on the surprise factor.
Learn More From Owen Roddy
If you like this technique breakdown and want to learn more from world-class striking coach Owen Roddy, then you should check out his complete video series “Coach Roddy’s Blueprint by Owen Roddy” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!