If your stance is correct, either right or left lead, the line of your lead foot should point outside the heel of your opponent's same-side foot. Meaning if both fighters are in a right lead, your left foot should point outside his right heel. This if you have been trained by Master Chai, who was highly influenced by his early training in Krabi-Krabong with his uncle. This will keep you straight on to him, and allow you to counter over his jab with a cross, over his cross with a hook, if you are both in similar leads. Now comes the trick. If you line 2 people up against each other, one natural right-hander and one natural left-hander, face them approximately arms' lengths apart, and tell them to take a fighting stance, watch what happens. Most times the natural right-hander will step backwards and out a little with his right foot. Most times the natural left-hander will step forward and out a little with his right foot to keep distancing correct. If you look at this you will see the left-hander is naturally positioned to throw the right hook over the jab. So, most trainers advise when fighting a lefty, to use the straight right cross more than the jab. And you will notice the left-hander is always circling to his right trying to get the easy shot over your jab. We aid them by always circling to our right to make it easier to throw our cross. Worldwide, approximately 15% of people are naturally left-handed. What that means is the left-handers get much more practice fighting right-handers than right-handed people get fighting left-handers. For most left-handed people it is equally hard fighting another left-hander. Master Chai has told me numerous times that, for a right-handed fighter, the left (front) leg is best used in the street and the right (rear) leg is best used in the ring. Done correctly, the switch-kick (quick left for a right-hander) is supposed to hit the diaphragm while the rear-leg kick is to kick the short-ribs or side of the thigh where the bone is closest to the surface, making for the easy nerve shot. People who switch-kick to hit the side of their opponent almost always are subject to a cut kick, either before or after their kick, because they are moving their pivot to their opponent's center. A few years back a European martial arts magazine noted that, at that time, so many camps in Thailand were teaching the right-leg lead that 50% of the fighters were left-handed. Apparently, and this is my supposition only, they had concluded there was an advantage in being a lefty in the ring.
