Hit Tips from WNY MMA & Fitness: Sidekicks

I will be discussing a kick that isn't very popular in the current fight promotions, whether it be mma or kickboxing. But, one place that it is popular and used often is in Sanshou competitions; these competitions are held globally and were often a venue for sanshou vs matches, where sanshou would compete against other stand up styles like muay thai and kyokushin. Anyway, what I want to discuss is the sidekick; it's rarely used because of it often having tell tale signs from its set up. Its true that some styles have a very obvious sidekick, but there are a few things about the sanda sidekick that may make it a nice back pocket tool to have. All this courtesy of WNY MMA & Fitness.

• Shuffle in: when starting that sidekick its important that your initiation is not predictable, make sure you mix up your foot work between steps and shuffles to masks the starting point of the sidekick.
• Raise the knee: Just like you would when throwing the front thrust kick or a teep. If you look back at how Benny the jet would kick, everything came from the same "chambered" position. It made it extremely hard to distinguish which would be coming at you. Doing this, you can also use the lead leg check as a faint to set up the sidekick as well. 
• Foot parallel to the ground: Its just a matter of turning that knee towards the body so the foot is parallel with the ground and heel pointing straight toward the person in front of you. This will make it easier to engage the gluts and help with thrusting the foot. 
• Sidekick: At this point, explode the leg out using the gluts. Follow a straight line, drive that heel into someone's liver or solar plexus. 

Now I know, just throwing this kick by itself is a no no. It will be seen, unless we do something to mask it. One good way would be getting someone used to covering for your punches; off of a lead hook that doesn't need to land really, just enough to make them cover up, and fire that thing right at their exposed body. Ill post two videos below on the sidekick from Sanda and how to set it up for mma.

Happy Training. Should definitely have a superhero training day at WNY MMA & Fitness.