Scoop The Kick With Carlos Condit
A great way to get your opponent to stop throwing strikes at you is to defend and counter against their strikes. If you’re able to punish your opponent for every attack they make, you’ll make them start to second guess themselves real quick.
One of the best strikes that you can punish your opponent for throwing is kicks to the body. This is because there is a way that you can defend against kicks to the body that lets you really take advantage.
In this video, Carlos Condit goes over how you can capitalize on a cross block to a kick to set up some devastating counters. Carlos Condit is an MMA legend, having competed in Shootobox, Pancrase, the WEC and the UFC. He is the first WEC welterweight champion and was a former interim UFC Welterweight champion.
You can do this counter off of a cross block. A cross block is a pretty standard way to block kicks to the body and even to the head. To cross block, bing the arm on the side that’s being kicked tight to your body. Doing this will make sure that your arm does get fractured or broken. Next you will bring the arm on the side that is not getting kicked and place it next to the other arm with the palm facing towards the kick.
Doing this will provide an extra cushion to help spread the damage around, meaning not only that your body or head takes less damage but both your arms take less as well. Cross blocking also allows you to take advantage of your opponent’s kick, because you are able to scoop the kick.
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Scooping the kick will move your opponent and force them to give you a solid angle to counter. To scoop a kick after a cross block, take the opposite arm that has its palm facing the kick and have it scoop over the kicking leg. After scooping over, you can now move the kicking leg in any direction that you want. Now that you have control, scoot your hips back and pull your opponent’s leg across your body.
Doing this will create a really strong angle for you to follow up strikes as your opponent will be on one leg and unable to defend. Even if you drop the leg like Carlos does in the video, the angle that your opponent is at and the bad stance and position they are in will make it almost impossible to defend against whatever you throw. In terms of what to throw, Carlos says it’s up to you. You can decide what to follow up with based on what you like to do and what the situation calls for.
Condit does give a few examples on what you can do off of scooping your opponent’s leg. The first is to simply go for a head kick. This is a good option as your opponent will have been turned into the direction that the kick is going, so it will do more damage. If you turn your opponent really hard to the point where their back is facing you, you can take their back if you're fighting in MMA. You can also follow up with more basic things like a low kick or a jab cross. Whatever you want and whatever works is the best way to think about it.
Something that Condit mentions before the end of the video is that sometimes in order to get the space to pull the leg across you, you will need to step back with your lead leg. This will mainly be the case if your opponent tries to kick from a really close range. This will not only give you the space that you need to move the leg, but it will also prime you for a head kick with what used to be lead leg.
If you liked this tutorial and want to learn more from former interim UFC Welterweight Carlos Condit then check out his complete video series “Combat Tested Combinations by Carlos Condit” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!