Unique Elbow Entries With Artem Levin
A lot of MMA analysts, fighters and coaches have been saying for years that wrestling is the most important skill to have in MMA. It’s the bottom of the pyramid they say. This is because if you’re an MMA fighter and you’re fighting someone who has worse wrestling ability than you, you can dictate where the fight goes. If you want the fight to go to the ground and you have better wrestling, well then the fight is going to, at least eventually, go to the ground. If you want to keep the fight standing and you have better wrestling, at least defense wise, then you are going to stay standing because your opponent can’t take you down.
This is why it’s important to have strong wrestling but it is also important to be well rounded. The people that we think of when it comes to the greatest fighters of all time are usually ones that could do everything. They could strike, wrestle and grapple all well enough to constantly keep their opponent guessing and on their toes. Their ability to mix up what they were doing and blend together their striking, grappling and wrestling made them nightmares to fight.
This is why it’s important to learn how to mix together your wrestling with your striking. This way your takedowns become easier to land and your strikes become easier to land as your opponent is constantly forced to guess and second guess every time you act.This is easier said than done though.
You need to know how to blend certain techniques together and it’s best to have someone give you an example so that you can really grasp the concept. Well don’t worry we have someone to help you out with an example. In this video Artem Levin shows how he likes to use a shot feint to land a devastating KO elbow. 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.
Fake Shot To Elbow For MMA
The video starts with Artem showing how to feint the shot to make sure the elbow lands properly. To feint the takedown, Artem lowers his level and reaches his lead arm out to his opponent’s leg. This will make his opponent sprawl. This fake is more effective if you have landed a few double legs or single legs before you try it.
When your opponent pulls their hips back to avoid the feint, they will leave their head exposed with no hips under themselves. From there you are going to shift your stance forward and throw an uppercut elbow. Shifting means that you step forward with your rear leg while striking so that you end up in another stance.
The video ends with Artem showing that you can do this technique from either southpaw or orthodox and it stays the same. Lower the level, shift to uppercut elbow.
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.