Technique Central: Frank Edgar's Cut Kick
by gzl5000 on Sep 1, 2010 8:35 AM EDT
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Hello bloodyelbow readers and BElitists! It's been almost a year since my first (and till now, only!) blog post. I'm now training at a seriously high quality local MMA gym again and thinking of doing a semi-regular technique feature with the help of said school's instructors. Anything you want to see examined, past fights or recent, let me know!
For the first in this new series, I thought I'd briefly examine a small moment from round 4 of the BJ Penn/Frankie Edgar that made it on the highlight reel of Edgar making BJ look very human.
To set up a gif of the moment I'm talking about, here's Ryan Gruhn of Central Pennsylvania Mixed Martial Arts.
Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn UFC 118 - Cut Kick W/ Hand Check (via RealContactFighter)
The cut kick, while not a complicated technique, is under-utilized in MMA. You'll see it a lot more in Muay Thai matches. As Ryan mentions, it's key to this technique's success that you get your opponent reacting to your kicks to the body and legs. Indeed, as the fightmetric report shows us, Frank Edgar set up this technique well in advance throughout the fight, landing at least 2 leg kicks in every round, including the 4th.
Here's Frankie fooling Penn with his body movement and landing the technique we're talking about, a perfect cut kick to put BJ on his back.
via www.yorkblog.com
In addition to absolutely picture-perfect use of the hand check Kru Gruhn talks about in the above video (Frankie places his right hand on BJ's right wrist to prevent a counter), Edgar's right arm serves another function in the sweep. Specifically, it's a lever to push BJ further off-balance and into the cut kick.
To further illustrate the lever effect, here's Cung Le doing an almost identical technique with a different setup (a caught front kick) against Frank Shamrock.
From this angle, the use of the checking arm as a lever in the sweep is made perfectly clear. As well as stopping momentum for a counter-punch, it pushes Frank's center of gravity and balance further over and away from his plant leg, making the kick sweep all the more dramatic.
The cut kick, just one aspect of Frank Edgar's highly technical kickboxing that worked to assert his superiority over BJ. Hope you enjoy the short technique breakdown, let me know in the comments what you'd like to see in the future!
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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It was the end of the round
"The men who get on best with women are those that get on best without them" Lee Christmas
My favorite trip gif of all time.
Best push ever!
Guillotine.
by iiowyn on Sep 1, 2010 10:23 AM EDT reply actions 3 recs
Its amazing
That BJ fought him and did that good. :)
Lyoto's instructional video is pretty sick with breakdowns on a lot of his trips.
Worth checking out if you train or not, it’s helped me understand his movement and footwork and understand his setups.
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by pdl on Sep 1, 2010 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Sumo ftw
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
Contributor for WatchKalibRun.com
Still Subo at Fightlinker.com
by Derek Suboticki on Sep 1, 2010 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions
I remember him doing this SHARP outside reap on Thiago Silva
Notable because of how they went horizontal before even landing, it was so fast.
LoL
yeah, that really made it pop. he also added that spin, which definitely made for serious kazushi and added a bunch of extra force.
Judo FTW.
De-ashi harai happens to be my 2nd favorite throw too. Still can’t beat kata guruma for putting someone on the ground with extreme emphasis.
Ko Soto Gake, Uchi Mata, Harai Goshi, Ouchi/Kouchi Gari. Those are my basic go to attacks. They tend to work well for me. And Uchi Mata is a great counter to the double leg.
Speaking of judo...
Looks like BJ needs some Ukemi work. You can see in the gif I posted, he posts on his elbows. Bad move, BJ.
Interesting considering that an inside cut kick was part of Lyoto's bread and butter
Instead of the stereotypical boxer lead jab to power cross/straight, Lyoto’s was a power cross/straight from southpaw, followed by an inside cut kick — see the Sokoudjou fight for an example of what I mean, though that was the last time it actually knocked his opponent down other than maybe the Kazuhiro Nakamura fight.
He’s tried it on Ortiz (I think?), Rashad Evans, and Shogun, but they all intentionally defended against it or he “missed” by impacting another part of their lower body besides the rear leg.
Very very nice
I like this a lot. Clear, technical, succinct, well written, great use of vids.
BJ’s expression is priceless when Frankie gets him. “You can’t do this to the PRODIGY!!!”
Son of Judo Chop!
Nice stuff. Keep it coming.
Tatum: I think he's a good man. I like him. I got nothing against him, but I'm definitely gonna make orphans of his children.
GSP did this to Hughes when he won the title, didn't he?
I have a specific recollection of Randy Couture (who was doing colour commentary) exclaiming “Sweep of the foot!” as GSP kicked Hughes’s back foot out from under him.
I like using semi-colons; they make me feel smart.
Nah. it was different
/sarcasm
Better known as Black Lesnar
Read me at WatchKalibRun
by S.C. Michaelson on Sep 1, 2010 7:00 PM EDT up reply actions
Is this the same technique that Wandy used over and over on Bisping?
Great post! Looking forward to the next one
Re: Wandy vs Bisping
Yep! He did it more often from a kick catch rather than a feinted low kick, but the technique is pretty much the same. Here’s a gif:
The only thing about Wandy’s technique that I don’t like here is that he doesn’t do the hand check to prevent Bisping from counterpunching; though he’d have to use his front hand for the check, and Bisping’s punches have less power when he’s standing on one leg anyway.
Pretty sexy dodging by Wanderlei though!
Guillotine.
by iiowyn on Sep 1, 2010 5:23 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
For sure! Really makes Bisping look like a fool there.
by Horselover Fat on Sep 1, 2010 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, a little Anderson in there, but less smooth and more hateful:)
What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?
by Kwisatz Haderach on Sep 1, 2010 6:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Gorgeous.
(Also, LOL at Bisping)
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
Contributor for WatchKalibRun.com
Still Subo at Fightlinker.com
by Derek Suboticki on Sep 2, 2010 3:29 AM EDT up reply actions
Don't forget the Franklinweight version
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
That was a really good fight.
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
Contributor for WatchKalibRun.com
Still Subo at Fightlinker.com
by Derek Suboticki on Sep 2, 2010 3:29 AM EDT up reply actions
Great post!
Might just add that in Muay Thai matches it’s a great way of showing your technical superiority by repeatedly sweeping out the legs of your opponent so that he falls. While it doesn’t score more than regular leg kicks, it’s humiliating for the opponent and looks bad in the eyes of the judges (when done over and over again).
I plan to try to hit as many sweeps as possible
at my first muay thai match in October. I love sweeps… Maybe it’s the Judo player in me.
Cool, good luck :)
It’s always a nice thing to pull off, looks good for the crowd and the judges and is discouraging for your opponent. I’ve only just started training Muay Thai a few of months ago, so I haven’t been sweeping many legs yet, and matches are out of the question until I improve. I’m definitely enjoying it though!
by Horselover Fat on Sep 1, 2010 5:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Where do you train?
Sweeping can be tricky in sparring, as you don’t want to hurt your partner, but when you find someone who you work well with that generally allows you to go a little harder… and make the sweeps happen!!!!
Haha, yeah. We usually go at it pretty hard in sparring :) Oh and I live and train in a mid-sized city (by our standards) in the middle of Sweden, so unless you also happen to be from here I doubt you’ve heard of it :P
by Horselover Fat on Sep 1, 2010 5:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Saenchai has amazing sweeps. He KO’d Khem with one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8GOnPwX_X4
"...I don't want to save the World, I don't even want to save me. We're so boring that we don't event want to save ourselves...There's nothing left to say, we're so fucking boring. Let it die I say. Let there be a new beginning...It's awful. Goodnight"
by dancingChicken on Sep 2, 2010 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Hey do you mind
If this is reposted over at MMAlinker.com? Or you could just post it yourself over there, but its really interesting and I’d like to share it.
by ImmortalTechnique92 on Sep 1, 2010 5:52 PM EDT reply actions
I don't have an account there, but go for it!
Please make sure to keep the links to CPAMMA’s website in, and send me a link when you post! That way I can let the instructors know more people are enjoying their videos and knowledge.
More gyms need to do things like this to get some pub. The reader gets a cool, knowledgeable breakdown, and the gym gets a little notoriety, and hopfully gets seen by some local eyes and maybe gets a new student or two. Everybody wins.
Just Blog Guy - http://JustBlogGuy.wordpress.com/
Read my mind, man.
It’s pretty cool to have a young, knowledgeable and friendly instructor who thinks the same way too.
I love looking at BJ’s face when Frankie sweeps him. It’s complete shock. You know he was thinking “How the hell?” He also looks like he fell down hard.
"Girls are mean." Lisa Ward
Absolutely. I commented above, he needs to work on breakfalls. His reaction when he falls is to try and reach back to catch himself on his wrists; normal human reaction, but terrible idea. It’s clear he hasn’t trained that response out yet, and replaced it with a proper breakfall on his back.
Shogun says, don’t post with your arms!
Pfft, Mark Coleman was training that move for months.
/being sad that Coleman couldn’t get the decision against Rua
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
Contributor for WatchKalibRun.com
Still Subo at Fightlinker.com
by Derek Suboticki on Sep 2, 2010 3:30 AM EDT up reply actions
Aldo pulled off a more vicious version on Faber
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
This threat is amazing.
I think in general trips are underutilized in MMA. I’m no expert, but Maia and Akiyama use them to good effect. Someone should post the gif of Maia’s takedown of Sonnen. I know it’s not the same thing, but it was awesome.
you can see it here
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/4/9/1406417/ufc-112-preview-bloody-elbow-judo
Not the same thing at all but it’s sweet.
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