Creative Combinations For MMA With Carlos Condit!
Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit is an American MMA fighter, fighting out of Jackson-Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Carlos Condit is a veteran MMA fighter with over 40 fights, previously holding the Interim UFC Welterweight Champion and the final Champion of the WEC Welterweight division. Carlos Condit is known for his unorthodox striking, melting styles together to create a unique way of moving and attacking. Here, Coach Condit introduces you to his Tomahawk Series!
One aspect of fighting that Carlos Condit is well known for is his elusivity, Carlos is always moving making himself difficult to hit rather than shelling up and taking punishment. To start this drill, Coach Condit’s partner will throw a right straight to Carlos’ head. To defend against the punch, Coach Condit slips to the outside.
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Notice when Carlos does his slip his feet are not glued to the floor, his lead leg will take a slight step to the outside of the punch while Carlos pulls his rear shoulder forward to his chin. This is important because it helps cover his chin. Coach Condit is now in a position where the majority of his weight is in his lead leg, expecting his opponent to follow up with a left hook, Carlos then bends his knees and shifts his weight from the lead leg to the rear leg, allowing him to safely duck under the punch. Notice again, Coach Condit does not have his feet glued, he took a small step with his right leg as he rolled. This will help give Carlos an angle on his opponent.
Coach Condit makes sure to keep special attention to his defensive guard as he is rolling, explaining that sometimes you will get hit so it is important to keep your hands up protecting your head. Another detail Coach Condit stresses is that when rolling the hook, your knees should be bending to lower your level under your punch rather than bending at your waist. When you bend at your waist your balance will be displaced over your legs making it difficult to move, a key element to Carlos’ excellent footwork is that his feet are always where they need to be so his legs are under his body keeping him mobile. So now Coach Condit practices just slipping the right straight and rolling the left hook. After practicing just the basic defensive movements a couple of times Coach Condit will then look to add some offense into his defense, using the opponents own attacks to open them up to counters.
Everything is the same, Carlos will slip the right straight and continue to roll under the left hook but now adds a step through hook as his counter punch. Coach Condit uses the momentum of his roll to land a quick hook to the opponent's torso. Notice that even though Carlos is throwing a hook as he rolls, his footwork is still the same, still taking small steps before during his slip and roll to try and gain an angle over the opponent all while still maintaining a strong guard, keeping his hands high because remember that at any point you can mess up or read the situation incorrectly and get punched in the head so a strong guard is essential. Carlos will then practice the drill a couple of times with the added in step through hook.
The final variation of this drill adds in another hook and right cross. Carlos Condit will continue practicing the drill exactly as above but now after his hook to the body Coach Condit explains he has options (the reason he has options is because of his footwork allowing him to achieve a dominating angle over the opponent). The most common option he explains is to throw your right hand, a cross over the opponents lead shoulder. Coach Condit explains that that is a fine counter but one people expect so he likes to throw something they will not be expecting. What Carlos likes to do is throw a quick left hook to the head. So after your rolling body hook Carlos throws a quick hook up high, then follows up with his right cross.
Notice when Carlos throws his hook he slightly pivots on his lead leg, this will add more power to his quick hook as opposed to loading up that side or cocking his arm back for power (which takes time and telegraphs his intention). That slight pivot into the hook will also load his right shoulder up for a hard right hand after his hook. All of Coach Condit’s footwork sets up his strikes. Coach Condit explains that he likes this counter because it is fast and does not need a lot of power because it is accurate and sneaky. To finish the drill Carlos likes to make it a little more realistic so instead of having his opponent staying still he has him turn towards Coach Condit once he makes his angle because realistically most people are going to turn towards you to continue fighting another option he has his partner do is to move backwards to simulate someone bailing out making Carlos have to adjust his feet to chase the opponent so he can land his strikes!
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