In recent years the wide variety of combat sports such as MMA, Judo and Muay Thai have all gained a huge amount of popularity around the world.
Another of the fastest growing is the sport of kickboxing which combines the principles of many different fighting styles in an aggressive and effective style. This sport is great physical activity and a lot of fun for those looking to learn more about how to improve their technique.
There is nothing better for learning something like this than a qualified instructor with years of experience, however there are several tips which could provide incredibly useful for beginners.
Kickboxing technique 1: Distancing
Most kickboxing techniques beginners learn are understandably very basic and only require simple, rudimentary moves in order to allow them to learn with progressively more difficulty.
One technique which will remain valuable throughout however is learning how to distance. Try to find your ideal range for hand strikes as well as kicks so that when you’re learning you can get into the habit of working with people at the perfect distance away from you.
This will give you the best setup to learn effectively and fight with quality.
Kickboxing technique 2: Defence
Whilst it’s tempting to try and focus entirely on attack in martial arts, the defensive aspect is probably more important as it not only allows you to out-manoeuvre your opponents, it will also help you keep yourself safe.
Focusing on parrying, blocking and other techniques will hugely help the speed of your overall development as a kickboxer and give you a greater base from which to learn further, more offensive skills.
Kickboxing technique 3: Timing
In order to impart the most force in your offensive strikes as well as putting up the most solid possible defence, timing is crucial.
You must learn when is the best time to strike whilst you are moving and when is the best time in the process of an opposition strike to attempt a counter. Learning how to time strikes as well as possible will give you the ability to react more efficiently to attacks against you along with improving the accuracy of your offence.
It’s one of the kickboxing techniques beginners often don’t consider when first getting into the sport which can leave them without the finely tuned timing of someone who focused on it early on.
Kickboxing technique 4: Sparring
One of the best ways to practice is sparring (this is essentially supervised fights to work on technique). Only working on a punching bag or doing drills will leave you without any real fighting experience.
Whereas learning to spar properly and safely will mean that you can practice with other kickboxers on your level and work on all of the techniques that you will need to develop as a beginner.
You want to have a certain level of aggression when sparring but don’t want to end up causing the person you are training with serious harm. Learning to balance these two will set you up for life when it comes to practicing your technique.
Kickboxing technique 5: Stances
There are a huge variety of stances in kickboxing that will take years, even decades, of hard work to perfect and be able to use in a fight. However, the basic stances for kickboxing are something which fighters need to learn as early on as possible in order to avoided getting into bad habits with their stance.
This affects both offence and defence, giving it huge impact on your overall style and quality of fighting. Kickboxing techniques beginners are taught to learn often begin with the right stance as it forms the basis for your entire style.
Kickboxing technique 6: Shadow Kickboxing
Using shadow kickboxing is a great way to observe the techniques that you have been working on in a free environment where you can try out whatever you want. Unlike working on pads or in a fight, you can try out whatever combination you want at whatever pace is most natural to you.
Complex combos at the beginning will take a lot of time to learn and you will most likely have to start out by practicing them slowly whilst gaining confidence.
Learning to use freestyle shadow kickboxing is a great way to really perfect some of the basic skills that you will be learning.
Kickboxing technique 7: Feinting
Once in an actual fight, feinting can be a key weapon and can give you an elusive aspect that is likely to confuse or frustrate an opponent. Learning to feint confidently as a beginner will make you much harder to fight against as you will learn how to predict what is coming and react to strikes.
This requires a lot less energy than a block or a counter and sometimes it can be the perfect weapon to manoeuvre yourself into the perfect position to strike back at your opponent.
Work on everything
Not one specific technique but a skill that will help develop all of your other techniques and make you a far better-rounded kickboxer. Leaving anything out of your training will create a huge gap in your fighting style that will be easy to see and exploit.
Make sure you develop into the most compete fighter you can be by working on every possible aspect of the martial art.
