Uppercuts To Elbows With Dave Leduc
Elbows are a great strike, they can cut open your opponent, smash their bones and even finish a fight when landed at the right place at the right time. The problem with elbows is that they are the shortest range strike that someone could throw, meaning that you aren’t going to find yourself in the range to throw them most of the time. Even if you do find yourself in a solid opportunity to throw an elbow, your opponent is also going to be able to hit you.
This leads to the vast majority of elbows being thrown in the clinch or in a situation where one fighter has a hand on their opponent. Both of these situations mean that you have some level of control on your opponent, so you can prevent any counters that they might throw.
While throwing most of your elbows from this range is a pretty good idea to minimize the risk of taking any damage, the ability to throw elbows from the outside is still an important one to have. Being able to throw elbows from range is a great way to mix up the strikes in your combinations and keep your opponent guessing. Mixing in elbows into combinations is also a great way to set up those elbows from the outside, because your opponent will most likely not be expecting them.
In this video, current Lethwei WLC cruiserweight champion and the “King Of Lethwei” Dave Leduc, goes over a combination that mixes in traditional western boxing to set up some devastating elbows. The combination includes some straight punching, some uppercuts, a little head movement and traditional horizontal elbows.
The combination itself is rather simple for anyone who has trained striking. It starts off with the bread and butter 1-2 then goes into a lead uppercut, followed by a rear elbow. Off that rear elbow you are going to roll, hopefully dodging any counter strikes that your opponent is going to throw. Off of that roll, you can step out to the side that you’re rolling into to take a superior angle on your opponent. From here you are going to throw a rear cross, lead hook, into another rear elbow to cap off the combination. Remember that if you are able to land an elbow, your opponent can hit you as well, so after landing your elbow, move out of the line of fire or clinch up to prevent any devastating counters.
This is a great combination for setting up elbows from the outside. First it gets your opponent thinking that you are in a western boxing style or mode, so they won’t be thinking about elbows from the outside,making this a great way to set up elbows. Second landing the lead uppercut right before an elbow, or any strike to the head really, is a perfect way to lift up the chin of your opponent, so that you can target it with your elbow. This is a perfect way to set up an elbow KO.
Check out Lethwei Legend Dave Leduc's latest instructional!