Tips On The Long Step Jab
Frankie Edgar is one of the best MMA fighters in the history of the lightweight division. His incredible boxing and wrestling mixture makes him dangerous both on his feet and on the ground. This past weekend we saw “The Answer” win a split decision against a very powerful Pedro Munhoz.
Split decisions are such a hard pill to swallow both for the winner of the fight and the loser. It truly means that the fight was so close to call that one of the three judges scored (in most cases) one more round for the other fighter.
It does not happen often but when it does the crowds reactions are often that of mixed emotions. Frankie did everything he needed to do in a fight to check boxes on a scorecard. He got takedowns and landed more shots.
On the flip side, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Pedro was the fighter who was landing larger shots and causing more damage. Pedro landed big shots to the head and was attacking the lead leg of Edgar for a full 25 minutes.
The Two definitely deserved the 50k in bonus money for fight of the night. At the end of 25 minutes the two of them landed 301 significant strikes. Which set a new record for significant strikes landed in a bantamweight bout.
Frankies combos were clean and crisp, while Pedro had no problem eating a few to land heavy leather. There is also a good chance that pedro missed just as many of those big shots as he landed. What was working for him all night was his long step jab.
A long step jab is when a fighter is just outside of range and then just like wrestling takes a deep penetrating step in and fires a jab hitting hard usually to the face, then pushing off the front foot to get clear of danger. To be perfectly honest if Pedro would have used this attack more it may have been a tide turner as it was what was landing consistently.
Unfortunately the Siren that is a knockout is a cruel mistress. She tells you the bigger shot will land and sometimes you miss, again, and again and again. The knockout never comes and you lose that close decision.
Here is a quick video of UFC Veteran Kyle “Crash” Bochniak showing you how to set up and land that Long Step Jab.
Kyle points out that the technique is built off of good range finding. This is often done with foot work and a normal jab.
Next Kyle shows that the step is long and the firing of the jab happens simultaneously. His other hand is up and tucked in tight to protect his body. His chin is buried into his shoulder which has turned to both shield his chin and to get a few more inches of reach.
Last he pushes back with hands back in a good defensive position and gets ready to fire again.
This is a versatile attack, it can go high or low to the midsection. The key is to practice, be quick and snap the jab.
Kyle has been doing MMA at the highest level for a long time. If you are new to MMA or are looking for a great fundamental base to MMA striking, Kyle has just the thing for you in a several part instructional that breaks it all down.
Check it out here!