Set Up The Rear Knee With Artem Levin
Knee strikes can be absolutely devastating if you are able to land them. The second part of that statement is what most people have a problem with. Knees are a very short range strike even at their longest. This means that you are going to need to do some work to make sure that they land. This usually makes it so that knees are only thrown from the clinch with some kind of control.
However you might want to throw a knee from the outside. For some people they might just throw a jumping knee.however this can be risky. What you might want to try is setting up knees with strikes, like you would with kicks.
Well we have someone who is super qualified to help show you just how you can do this. In this video, aRtem Levin shows us how he likes to set up his rear knee with the same side punch.
Who Is Artem Levin?
Artem Levin is a Russian Kickboxer, Muay Thai and MMA fighter and is a former Glory Middleweight champion. As of 2020, he currently ranks as the number 5 Middleweight Kickboxer in the world.
Setting Up Knee Strikes
The video starts off with Artem saying that this is one of his favorite ways to set up knee strikes and he throws it a lot in sparring and even in fights. The way that Artem does this is that he throws a rear hand and then immediately goes into a rear knee. Most of the time in striking combinations tend to go back and forth between sides.
This is part of what makes this combination so effective. Since your opponent is likely going to be expecting you to switch back and forth with your hands, throwing two shots from the same side right after each other will be very effective.
Artem first throws the right hand and then jumps into the knee to help cover some of the distance. This works well because when you throw your right hand, depending on how you do it, your body will already be pulling you towards that direction.
Artem likes to do this when he is moving back. When moving back you will pop out a few rear straits. Once his opponent is used to that, he will then jump into a lunging knee after throwing the rear straight. This will catch your opponent off guard and hit them in the body, which is likely exposed.
Even if your opponent blocks the first technique, your rear straight will likely pop up their guard which will help further expose their torso to your knee.
The great thing about this technique is that it also works well from either stance that you, or even your opponent is in.
Learn More From Artem Levin
If you like this elbow technique tutorial and want to learn more from former Glory Middleweight champion Artem Levin, then checkout his complete video series “ The Elbow Encyclopedia By Artem Levin” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.