south paw advice

[sercuerdas]

hey,

I have a wrestling/ sub. back ground and train in escrima I have recently began training/sparring with muay thai guys again. I chose to switch from convention to south paw in thai as to maintain the power lead i developed thru my other arts. first of all,i realize this may not make me the best thai fighter i can be, but train for self defense and think it will help me blend all my skills together better. my movement is better from this side is far better but i am having a hard time rangeing my kicks and keep eating groin shots. any advice would be great .
thanx

[Tom Yum]

Well if you're a natural right hander normally you should be in 'orthodox' but if you choose to fight south paw, you will naturally have a menacingly powerful jab, right hook and right uppercut. Work on developing good technique with your left cross and left uppercut. Your kicks will come with time.

Most people will fight orthodox, so you will have a uniqueness that you can exploit.

[gregimotis]

As a lefty myself, I'd recomend these three things:
1) circle to your right and use your left cross or right hook. The left cross will slide right between the opponents gloves if you step to your right just before throwing.

2) If they are kicking with their right leg, step right and cut kick the standing leg - try it with a friend, it works great.

3)Beware that you and sparring partners don't bang knees when you both kick with opposite legs. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it happens a lot and hurts bad.

I'm sure there is lots more, but this is what I use most often.

[M@T]

I'm a right handed fighter but force myself to train my left side aswell as fight south paw stance. Many people stick to their fave side and only train that side. I belive this to be wrong as your not harnessing your full potential. I'm still better on my right than my left but my left isnt far behind. And when it comes to kicking i've had a few pad holders say they thought my left kick was better than my right.

And it fun when your sparring and your opponent go's to pieces coz you change stance all the time

[zoti]

Yeah, circle to the right and train with someone who is good enough not to throw groin shots.

Also, use you right hand to tap their left hand down and quickly throw a jab after you lower their defence.

[gregimotis]

That's good too Zoti. I hadn't thought of it until someone pointed it out to me recently, but messing with his right glove works pretty well - tap it down and jab, tap it down and hook, tap it down, step right and left cross while he's watching your right.
I don't know... if I could do all the things I can suggest, then I'd be Ajarn Chai.

[zoti]

Here are some more.

- Wait for the opponent to jab and as he does step at an angle to your right and kick his leg with your left leg. Because they have just thrown a jab they will have their weight on the front leg which you are going to kick. Stepping to the right will make them miss the jab. I use this alot against southpaws and if kicked hard enough they will fall.

See my video at: http://www.jzway.com/tomer/misc/TLHL.avi
(the parts where I'm fighting the tall, southpaw guy with the silver headgear and red body shield)

- Step to the right and quickly throw a right front kick to the outside of their left leg.

- As your opponent throws a jab step in and turn your body (body only not legs) counter clock wise and throw an uppercut from under their jab. This is a very good technique when fighting someone with opposite stance. Follow the uppercut with a cross.