Properly Throwing The Lead Leg Low Kick With Owen Roddy

The core problem when it comes to the low lead kick is that it doesn’t do a lot of damage, and it is easy to block; this makes it a very tricky strike to throw, but it has many benefits.

The solution to the problem - The answer to the problem is simple - always set it up, so it is not easy for the opponent to block the kick and stop you from landing it.

We have a couple of ways to set the kick up, but the most common and effective way is by using the jab and throwing the lead leg kick behind it. We use the kick mainly to off-balance our opponent and square their stance and shoulders; this creates an easy opening for follow-up strikes, usually the straight rear hand down the pipe.

Ways To Throw The Kick -

•  We can throw the kick with no additional steps; this grants us speed but at the cost of power - good for catching the opponent while he is stepping and off-balancing him or even sweeping. 
• The second method we can use is the half step or the switch, this allows us to produce more power, but it is slower - good for inflicting damage.

Who Is Owen Roddy

Owen Roddy is a well know name in Irish MMA; He is famous for being Conor McGregor’s striking coach and a good fighter himself, many believed he would reach the UFC early in his career, but he retired very early due to injuries and worked as a coach under coach John Kavanagh ever since, Owen is now a full-time coach at his own Straight Blast Gym in Charlestown.

In this video, Owen Roddy shows us a simple way we can use the inside leg kick to inflict more damage to the opponent’s legs.

Throwing The Inside Low Kick

To start the video, Owen explains that we have a couple of ways to throw the lead leg kicks, but we will focus on just using the half steps to land our kicks.

When we are talking about the low kicks, the main areas we are going to aim to land them are: above the knee, directly to the side of the knee joint, below the knee, also known as the calf kicks, which are very popular nowadays.

We have two main ways to use our hands when we are throwing the kick, we can keep both our hands up - this is great from a close range (you can see Justin Gaethje use it a lot in his fights), and we can extend our lead arm creating a frame on our opponent, and this is great for more extended range.

Owen then further explained that although we are looking now only at the low lead kick, we can use the half step at all three levels (low/middle/high) with great success.

When we throw our low/middle kicks, it is essential to land our kick with the upper half of the shin where the leg is thicker; Owen gives us the analogy of a baseball bat where the base of the bat is narrow and the higher you go, the wider the bat becomes.

Technique Wrap Up

1. step forward with the rear leg
2. throw the low lead kick aiming for either the knee itself, the area above the knee, or the calf ( below the knee)
3. make sure that you are landing with the wide part of your shin
4. keep your hands or extend the lead hand as a frame while throwing 

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