Learn To Catch Kicks And Return Fire With Jean Charles Skarbowsky
Catching kicks is a staple of Muay Thai. If you watch some fights that happen in Thailand, especially ones from Rajadamnern and Lumpinee, you’ll see fighters catch kicks constantly. You might even see more kicks caught and blocked than actually land.
If you’re able to catch kicks effectively and often, that's great and you’re well on your way to be a top notch fighter. The thing is, catching a kick isn’t the end of it. There’s a lot of things that you can do after you catch your opponent’s kicks.
The go to for a lot of traditional Muay Thai fighters is just to go for a sweep as a way to show your dominance and play to the crowd. The thing is that sweeps don’t actually score in Muay Thai and they’re technically illegal under modern kickboxing rules.
This means that you want to have a few more options than just sweeps. Luckily, you are able to throw some devastating strikes to your opponent after you catch their kick. Good thing we have one of the best Farang Muay Thai fighters in history to show us how to do it.
In this video, Jean Charles Skarbowsky goes over a few different strikes you can use to land shots
Who Is Jean Charles Skarbowsky
Jean-Charles Skarbowsky is one of the greatest Farang (non-Thai) Muay Thai fighters in the sport's history. Skarbowsky is a multiple time world Muay Thai champion and multiple time Rajadamnern stadium champion, which is one of the highest championships that one can earn in Muay Thai. He also made an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter when MMA great Georges Saint-Pierre brought him in to help teach his team about striking.
Landing Punches And Knees Off Of A Caught Kick
The video starts off with Jean Charles talking about how you need to be careful after catching a kick because when you catch a kick your face is exposed because your arm is down by your body holding the leg.
So you now need to pull your head back and cover it with your other free hand. From this position you are safe and your opponent can only punch but you have punches, kicks and knees at your disposal.
From here, Jean Charles says that you should draw back your free hand to feint a punch. Off of that you are going to want to make a read on your opponent. If your opponent doesn’t cover their head after you feint, then go for a punch to the head.
If your opponent does block their head, then instead of punching to the head, then you can go with a knee to the body. When you throw the knee, you want to bring your rear arm towards your opponent like you were going to punch them but at the last moment you are going to drop your opponent's leg then jump in with a knee.
You can also do a combination when you land the rear punch and after landing you can grab the back of your opponent’s head and pull your opponent into the knee.
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