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Hi there,
Here’s the situation for which I’m looking some advice from you all:
– You’re sparring in KM fight class against a taller partner with greater reach.
– Both of you are roughly equally fast (even if he/she is bigger).
– Your opponent knows how to use his/her advantage by jabbing & kicking you outside of your reach.Question:
How do you best close the distance against an opponent with greater reach? What are some good tactics for engaging and attacking this kind of opponent (e.g., coming aggressively at angles, relying on counter-attacks)?I’m sure many folks here are desperate for good tips & tricks on how to fight better against taller opponents so please reply and share something from your toolkit & lessons learned!
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
THANK YOU for posting this… I get creamed by the taller guys, and they always tell me to fight from the inside and move in close, unleash a flurry of attacks, then kick them and push off to create distance. But it is easier said than done.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
over hand right should be your best friend. as he jabs, slip it to the inside while throwing a big looping overhand right at his face. Lot of taller people with a big reach often has a lazy jab because they think the opponents reach is not a threat which gives a great opening for an overhand right. They are also punching down at you which make it harder for them to cover there jaw with their shoulder. Make sure your left is up and covering your face. obvisouly after you land this, you don’t want that to be it. you need to followup with some more punches once your inside. maybe a livershot, hook to head than an uppercut. so the entire combo would be slip/overhand right, left(liver), left(hook to head), right uppercut. You can finish with a left round kick by either stepping out a bit or pushing your opponent to create some space for your kick.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
quote leejam99:over hand right should be your best friend. as he jabs, slip it to the inside while throwing a big looping overhand right at his face. Lot of taller people with a big reach often has a lazy jab because they think the opponents reach is not a threat which gives a great opening for an overhand right. They are also punching down at you which make it harder for them to cover there jaw with their shoulder. Make sure your left is up and covering your face. obvisouly after you land this, you don’t want that to be it. you need to followup with some more punches once your inside. maybe a livershot, hook to head than an uppercut. so the entire combo would be slip/overhand right, left(liver), left(hook to head), right uppercut. You can finish with a left round kick by either stepping out a bit or pushing your opponent to create some space for your kick.Thanks, I will start working that combo on my bag and shadow boxing and see if it helps!
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
Attack as soon as you see them start an attack.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
Leejam: I am one of the tall ones in question (6’3″) and got caught with that very combo that you just mentioned last week in fight class. It definately works. My question is how is the best way to defend against this if you get caught with your jab out there. In class, against the opponent that caught me with it, I started feinting with the jab and throwing a right cross or a kick to prevent this from happening again. I just want to know how to prevent getting hit with punches 2, 3 and 4 of the combo once you get caught with the first one.
The over hand right in that combo was not the one that stung (my chin was tucked and the punch grazed off my shoulder and the top of my head) it was the left hands that hurt (the speed surprised me and he snuck the first one in between my arms and hit me square in the nose). Just curious as to how you would defend against this. It has taken me about 4 months to really start to be able to use my reach to my advantage and getting caught like that was rather painful….
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
2 things to prevent from getting pounded on with combos.
1. tight defense. Remember that when you are in range to hit your opponent, it is pretty safe to assume that he/she is in reach to hit you. when you are out of range, you can have your hands loose, down, in front… when you are in range or in the pocket, you have to tighten up your defense meaning hand up and in tight. When you punch with either hand, you have to bring that hand back just as fast back tight to your face/body to block their counter. You should always practice bringing your hands back after each punch as if a counter is always coming. I use couple different drills with my students for this.
a. as my partner throws a jab or a cross(you could be holding focus mit, catch it with your cloves or just block for the drill) counter back right away with 1 punch. So my partner not only gets to focus/practice punching, they also need to focus on brining their hands back to block the counter. For this drill to work properly, you have to counter back as soon as they touch your mit/gloves.
b. after that, you can move on to combos. have your partner send 1-4, than you counter back as soon as they are done with their combo. again, counter back right away.
I like to do these drills not with 1 partner holding mits but have them just block than counter back. this way, both parties work. 1 works on punching and defending the coutner, the other works on defending and countering or answering back right away.2. Movement. After you punch, be prepare to move your feet! You can obviously choose to stay in the pocket to counter and exchange but if you don’t want to get hit, move…and move laterally not straight back. You can never back paddle faster than your opponent can move forward so take a step back than move out laterally. At this point you should also be using your defense and moving your head as you move.
hope all that makes sense. its kinda hard to explain over typed words. in short…when you punch, cover right away and move your feet!
btw, this is only for sparring. in the street, you don’t have the big gloves to cover your face with so staying in the pocket and covering up than countering will for sure land you flat on the ground 🙂
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
Great advice! Thanks.
I have been getting some great advice lately. I think through intro to fight, when I was told to hit and move, I really got the impression I was to move in and out. As I have further sparred, I totally see myself hitting and trying to move back out, or stand there waiting for them to swing back. I have been consciously trying to work on my lateral movement. Of course, when I forget, I just stand there and the whole getting hit in the head tends to remind me. (Oh yeah, I tend to think of myself as one of them with the longer reach).
Dave
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
also remember that the general rule about moving from your opponent is that you want to move away from their power side meaning if you are fight a right hand fighter, you want to move/circle to YOUR right so that your not walking into their power right punch. If you fighting a left handed guy, move to your left.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
quote leejam99:also remember that the general rule about moving from your opponent is that you want to move away from their power side meaning if you are fight a right hand fighter, you want to move/circle to YOUR right so that your not walking into their power right punch. If you fighting a left handed guy, move to your left.our instructors have always told us, as a righty ALWAYS circle left, as a lefty, ALWAYS circle right.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
did you ask him why? If he has a good reason why and it makes sense to me, I would be glad to change my opinion.
no one should ever just take the word of someone just because they have an “INSTRUCTOR” title. Everyone should know exactly why someone is telling you something… especially if they are telling you to do something in a certain way.
There are tons of different systems and school of thought out there. I’m always open to hear others opinions and try it out for my self and see if it make sense and works for me.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
[quote=leejam99;37125]did you ask him why? If he has a good reason why and it makes sense to me, I would be glad to change my opinion.
quote]As I read it, his instructor is taking the same stance as you are, but from the offensive.
It seems as though your stance is to always stay out of your opponents Strong side, and his instructor is telling him to move in a way to always keep the opponent in his strong side.
You are coaching to not get hit. His instructor is coaching to always be able to hit.
Dave
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
keeping them on your strong side make sense for obvious reasons but to say “ALWAYS” move in one way….. is another thing.
What i said was “a general rule”.
I’m also moving in reference to my opponent. In a situation dynamic as a fight where you are fighting/interacting with another person, i don’t think you can ALWAYS move solely on your own position, strength, power, etc. You have to move with the fight/opponent.
Re: Tactics for closing distance & engaging when sparring a taller opponent?
I agree and I think that is great advice. I have noticed that when I feel I have a better sparring session, it is usually because my feet were as busy as my hands. Which side I move to greatly depends on my opponent as I try to slip/bob & weave to the same side that my opponent threw from. For example: a jab (righty) I slip to my right and counter with a right hook left uppercut combo. Obviously it doesn’t always work out that perfect for me or I would be fighting for a living vs. selling consumer goods… lol. Anyway, that is the principal I am working towards. When I first started fight class I used to just stand there and try and exchange (or in other words, get my butt kicked). It wasn’t until I started learning lateral movement and how to create angles and openings that I could confidently go into fight class without needing the ice pack so much when I was walking out.
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