Effective Striking Variations From Brandon Gibson
Brandon Gibson is one of MMA’s most sought after coaches,coaching at the famous Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gibson has worked with some of the world's most elite fighters. Just to name a few of the high level athletes Brandon Gibson has worked with in no particular order: Jon Jones, Carlos Condit, John Dodson, Cub Swanson, Tim Kennedy and Alistair Overeem among many more! Here, Brandon Gibson shows you how to vary the levels of your straight punches to manipulate the opponent's guard, allowing you to land a head kick!
Add Some Variety To Your Strikes!
Using linear punches only for this combination, Brandon Gibson starts by establishing a jab to the head. This first lead jab can be used to just poke and prod at the opponent to find your range or it can be thrown with power to snap the opponent's head back and deal damage, either way, Gibson lands his lead jab then lowers his level to throw a jab at the opponent’s body. If the opponent blocked the first jab the body will be open for the jab, if the opponent blocks the body jab, Gibson is already following up with a rear cross to the opponent's head. Attacking high, low, high.
Make Note Of Your Opponent's Defense
Brandon Gibson makes special notice to the opponents elbows. He is watching to see how the opponent defends these punches. If the opponent catches on to your tactic they may keep their hands high to block that rear hand cross to the head. Knowing that they want to block the cross, Gibson does everything the same. He throws a jab high then a jab low. Noticing that the opponent is keeping his guard high to block a punch to the head, Gibson instead decides to throw the cross to the body. Best case scenario is you just landed two straight punches in a row to the opponents solar plexus, this can knock the wind out of them and deal a lot damage as well as opens them up for further attacks.
Notice when Brandon Gibson does this, he is constantly faking and feinting before he comes in. The constant use of fakes and feints along with changing up your striking levels is a high level way of making your opponent open up for you. This is especially effective with the small 4oz MMA gloves because they can find openings in the opponent's guard more easily. The whole time Brandon is keeping his eye on the position of the opponents elbows. If Brandon continues to utilize linear strikes, the opponent’s guard may start to become narrow so they can more efficiently block and parry the attacks. Because of this tight narrow guard, Brandon can use that reaction to land a circular strike since the sides are now open!
Because all the strikes Brandon Gibson threw at his opponent were linear strikes, the opponent in turn starts to narrow their guard to more effectively defend against the straight line attacks. Using this to his advantage, Brandon will follow up his cross with a right leg head kick. So everything remains the same, Brandon will go high jab, low jab, cross, head kick, if the opponent blocks the cross their head is open because their hand moved to stop the punch, if the punch lands clean it will pop the opponent's head back out of their guard to then be kicked. The other variation is Brandon will go high jab, low jab, body cross, head kick. The body cross variation if done right should have the opponent's hand almost completely away from their high guard allowing you to land your kick nice and clean because their hand will have dropped to defend the cross to the body, if it does not drop the body cross will usually make the opponent’s hand drop naturally in response to being hit in the solar plexus.
The last detail Brandon Gibson makes note of is another reaction of the opponent. Because you are in boxing range landing these linear punches, the opponent may back up. When they back up, they essentially place themself in your own kickboxing range even just for a second. This will allow you to land your head kick because the opponent moves back to avoid your hands, naturally putting them in kicking range!
Six Gun Striking is available TODAY! Add diverse striking concepts to your arsenal with one of the best coaches in the game, Brandon Gibson!