Using Your Footwork Offensively With Katel Kubis

Many fighters lack the essential ability to use effective footwork; as most students learn how to move correctly, they do not know how to move effectively. To have effective footwork, we should move to make something happen; The problem is that most people just move from an instinct.

By not moving intentionally, we allow our opponent to lead the dance and move us as he wishes, making us expend more energy, make predictable moves and enter into the traps he laid for us.

Having effective footwork goes hand to hand with “ring generalship”; for example, by not moving correctly, we can somehow find ourselves with our back on the fence and stuck there like prey looking for a way out. 

The first concept we need to understand when we talk about footwork is what “taking ground” and “giving ground” essentially is; what “ground” means is the surrounding area, which you can reach with a step of some sort in any direction. 

If an opponent steps into our “ground,” he “takes ground” from us and makes us react by a strike or movement; if he steps back, he “gives ground,” and now he knows that he can catch you coming in with strikes of his own.

Now we talked about the movement back and forth, but whats about moving sideways? 

Movement sideways can make two things happen:

1. In the open - the opponent will be forced to turn and face me; otherwise, I can punish him from a superior angle/position.
2. On the fence/ropes - the opponent will try to circle away from me, and I can cut him off by using side steps, always staying in front of him, not giving him a chance to circle onto a safe position in the open. 

Some examples for using our footwork offensively:

1. I take ground - opponent reacts with a jab - I slip and counter with the right hand
2. I give ground - opponent steps in - I catch him with a low kick on the step where he cannot block or pull his leg back
3. I use a side step - opponent turns to face us - I throw a straight right hand down the pipe where he is open.

Who Is Katel Kubis

Katel Kubis is known for bringing the venomous calf kicks to American Top Team; this kick has won many bouts for the team and saw great success and acknowledgment. Lately, we saw the calf kick wins the fight for Dustin Poirier against Conor McGregor in the biggest bout of the year.

Throwing The Rear Outside Low Kick Behind The Jab

The video starts with Katel telling us that we will work on a drill that we can do by ourselves. The exercise does not change no matter who the opponent is; it is simply a drill to manage our own distance, and this is important because the distance we need to maintain will never change as it depends on the length of our limbs and type of our body, if we focus on the opponent distance from us we will face many problems as we cannot tell where he can hit us or not.

Katel then reminds us that we have more than one type of position we can have - the fight distance/ the safe distance/ angles/ facing his back, and we can play between all of them.

Our job is to keep playing between the positons before we found the right moment to land the kick, we can feint a little bit, close the distance get an angle, and when we see the moment, he reacts like we expected we kick.

Once we find the timing, we can choose between a fast kick or a kick with power behind it, but after every kick, I need to get set because there is a significant opportunity to finish the fight if the opponent’s leg suddenly gives out.

Remember, you do not need a partner for that drill, and you can make it a part of your shadow box routine where you use your footwork effectively and timing the right moment when your opponent will need to react and throw the kick.

To sum up, the drill lets go over the essential points:

• Use your footwork mindfully 
• play between all the positions you can manage
• find the right moment when the opponent reacts and kick

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