Striking Tips With Henri Hooft
The Liver is one of the most sensitive areas on the human body. This comes as a surprise to people just getting into combat sports, either training in them or just watching them, as most people don’t think of the liver as sensitive. They can touch the area where their liver is and it doesn’t feel sensitive and it doesn’t hurt to get hit there more than anywhere else right.
The liver of the human body is actually one of the worst places to get hit on the human body. Liver shots in combat sports regularly cause fights to end because while the person who was hit is not knocked out, they are in so much pain that they can’t defend themselves in any way.
This is due to many different reasons but the main one is that the liver is full of toxins and acids due to its function in the body. These toxins and acids move around a lot when the liver is hit, which is what causes the insane level pain that the person getting hit in the liver feels.
When throwing a liver shot, you do need to still be precise, despite the overall large size of the organ itself. If you miss the liver, then you’ll just be landing another body shot you need to aim at a precise area, that being around where the lower ribs are on the right side of your opponent’s body, just underneath their pectoral muscles.
In terms of what strikes you can use to target the liver, for the most part they are going to be made using limbs on the left side of your body. This means that your left hand or left leg are going to be your weapons of choice to target the liver, especially if you stand in an orthodox stance.
In this video, world renowned striking coach Henri Hoost shows a few different combinations that end with a left kick that can target the liver. These combinations are really simple and short but fundamentals win fights as we all know.
The first combination is a simple jab to switch kick. This combination is good because it is fast and you can disguise your switch step with your jab, as your jab can block their line of sight on your leg, meaning that they might not see the kick coming until it’s too late.
The second combination that hooft shows can be done in two ways. Both combinations start off with a simple jab cross and then go into either a switch kick or a step forward left kick. You should do the switch kick version if your opponent doesn't move back, as if you step forward and kick you will likely jam yourself up.
If your opponent does retreat off your jab cross then go with the step forward left kick to cover the distance that they made. Even though liver shots are devestaving if they land properly, they are a hard strik to land, so make sure that you move out of the way of any potential counters that your opponent might throw after you finish each combination.
If you want to learn more striking techniques and combinations like these from Henri Hooft, check out our complete video series featuring him, available now.