Ready Your Reload With Randy Steinke
Randy Steinke is a pro MMA fighter with over 30 fights fighting out of Payson Arizona! Here, Randy Steinke teaches what he calls the “Double Barrel Reload”, a pad drill that will help you follow up your attacks with defensive movements that also allow you to make an angle on your opponent to follow up further with more strikes!
Check out the video below!
Every fighter and even average people are expecting strikes to come like this: left, right, left,right, etc. Meaning they expect one arm to strike then the other. So a good strategy is to throw doubles and triple from the same side! Fighters such as Mike Tyson are masters at throwing a strike, reloading to the same side and firing off another attack on that side! This drill from Randy Steinke will get you started on the reloading technique!
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In the most basic application of this combination, you are staying still, neither people moving forwards or backwards and you are throwing a jab, cross, cross, hook, hook, cross. Now, when doing this you are not staying square with your partner and throwing light arm punches, you are engaging your core everytime you reload to throw power shots. So after you throw your starting jab, cross, you will reload to your right side meaning you will be twisting your torso, pointing your left shoulder towards your opponent, this inturn transfers the weight into your rear leg so you can fire off a cross, hook. After you throw your hook you will do the same reload movement but on the other side, so this time you twist your torso so your right shoulder is now pointing towards your opponent, this puts the weight into your lead leg making it possible to rip off another lead hook into a cross!
So not only is this combination good because it changes the cadence of strikes in a way that most people are not used to, but also because the action of “reloading” can be used to advance your position and make an angle on your opponent! So doing the same combination of jab, cross, reload, cross, hook, reload, hook, cross but every time you “reload”, you advance forward and make a slight angle to your “reloaded” side! Remember, angles win fights! It usually is never smart to just stand right in front of your opponent and have a rock’em sock’em robot match with them. Get to their side where your weapons are facing them and their weapons are not facing you, even if it is just for a split second, that is all you need!
Other ways you can “reload” with defense in mind is after you throw your jab, cross, If they respond with a jab of their own, you can slip to the outside of it. Slipping their jab will reload your right hand to fire back a cross, hook. When your opponent throw a cross back at you, slip to the outside of their punch, this reloads your hook so you can attack with another hook, cross.
This exact same concept of using slips to reload your punches can be done with rolling hooks as well! So it will be jab, cross, roll a lead hook, cross, hook, roll their rear hook, hook, cross. There are so many ways you can apply this combination to add in elusive movements and defensive blocks and it does not have to just be defenses against punches, you can throw a jab, cross, check your partner's left roundhouse kick, cross, hook, check their rear roundhouse kick, hook, cross. You can mess around with doing cross checks or same leg checks, whichever you like best or want to work on!
One last great way to practice this combination is by setting traps. What you can do is this; step in with a jab, cross, after you tag them with those first two punches, retreat backwards and draw them in. Most likely they will want to counter you after being hit and will follow you, entering in the space you gave them. Expect them to follow, dig in your rear leg and stop their forward momentum with your reload cross, hook. Now once you stopped their momentum they may be moving backwards, reload your hook, follow them, keep them back tracking by throwing your reload hook, cross!
Check out Attacks, Counter, and Feints For MMA by Randy Steinke, available NOW!