Rocket3, Luv your avatar. I can't imagine being a righty & fighting as a southpaw. Bruce Lee did it though. Maybe you can develop more power in the left. Thanks, Tom
Buggin out in Full Effect Brotha haha Iv been training orthodox lately and am slowly but surely improving, my striking training has pretty much been self taught through trial and error when sparring and I'm doing better with orthodox. perhaps if I was actually training in a striking art I would have developed better as a southpaw but it was fun confusing my training partners while it lasted.
Sorry to bring back this (somewhat) old thread, but I'm having a little trouble myself in this area. I am left-handed. Write left-handed, bat left-handed in baseball, etc. But when I did TKD, I had an orthodox stance as my better roundhouse was my right leg. Of course you switch stances a lot in TKD, but I still feel more comfortable in an orthodox stance. Moving into boxing, however, I'm wondering if I should start as a southpaw. My stronger arm is my left I'd say. I guess the coordination in using it in a southpaw stance will come with time? Plus southpaws are harder to fight. No sense in giving up a potential advantage, especially if I am legitimately left-handed
Definitely try as a southpaw, I'm sure you'll soon adapt. Work on your right jab A LOT, thats probably the thing that'll take most time to develop and feel weirdest at first.
Slowly becoming a converted southpaw (the CMA background helps) I will tell you, throwing a LEFT STRAIGHT feels weirder for me than ever throwing a left jab!!! Still getting used to putting my "full trust" into that punch. Seems like a weird psychological barrier than anything else (and a bit less power doesn't help).
Your right side will probably always be stronger so i say keep it in front that way your strongest weapon is closest to your target.
Actually almost everything on my left side is just a little bit stronger, while my right side has more control. For example my left kick hits harder than my right. But with my right I have more finesse, and can do a larger variety of kicks. I like having a lead right side kick available. And a strong rear (left) roundhouse which is one of the reasons why I am a southpaw.
My experience/input: Started off in karate. Typically kept the left leg forward (I'm a righty). Worked out pretty well. Years ago, picked up some JKD and Mark Hatmaker's MMA system. Both advocated leading with your dominant side. Since then I've switched to mostly right leg forward. Mark's reasons for advocating dominant side forward are 1-you're throwing more punches at more angles with your lead hand, so make it your most coordinated side and 2-most wrestlers shoot with their dominant side forward, so there's no mental transition between striking and shooting. Incidentally, Randy Couture mentions in his book that he was used to shooting with his non-dominant side (left) and thus didn't have any problem picking up "orthodox" boxing stance and footwork. I think he also mentions that Rich Franklin did the opposite (right dominant, right lead) for similar reasons. Matt Hughes, in interviews, mentions that he switches stance when going for takedowns; as a fighter, I'd prefer to eleminate that habit, as it telegraphs your intentions. I train with people in both right and left leads. This means that for some drills, I'll switch leads and work off my non-dominant side. Because of this, plus years using my non-dominant side to lead, I'm a little comfortable switching leads. However, this can screw up footwork. Side to side is good, but if I'm used to moving my right foot first to move forward (from a right lead), I end up bringing my feet together when I switch leads. This is a big no-no in fighting, especially when takedowns are a factor. If you're not used to training both leads, I'd suggest to sticking with just one. If you've trained out of one lead already, and you're used to it, stick with it. Punch power is based on mechanics, and isn't necessarily dependent on whether your dominant hand in leading or not. I've got plenty of power in my left cross, left uppercut, and overhand left.
Good posts, I've noticed it's more of a footwork mental block, or screwing up the footwork when switching leads. Punches are typically easy to throw for me in any stance... but the footwork is another matter altogether.
Just stick southpaw. If you wrestle a lot in MMA a lot of times you stand Southpaw anyways cuz you drive in for the shoot with a lead right leg. As far as how it effects your stand up you may sacrifice some power in your cross but you add power to the jab which is waaaay underused in MMA. With those small MMA gloves they'll have more power on top of the added power of being a right hander. Just improve your left cross and learn to sew it all together. It will also add even more power to your right hook too.
You'll find that if you tend to stand square-on as do most Thai nak muays then it's easier to throw with either hand and kick with either leg. The adjustment comes in the footwork and the position of the foot after a switch up. Example... many people that train Muay Thai stand orthodox stance... that is left foot slightly forward.... right foot in the bucket. That means their more powerful knee is always going to be their right knee... because the power in a knee is a mixture of timing, force and impact on the target after enough distance. The more distance that knee travels the more powerful it is. This is why people have a lot of trouble to build power in their lead knee. Their left. I see it day in day out. One way to change that up is to think of the footwork prior to throwing the knee. All shots need to be set up with the proper footwork... that applies to hands, knees, kicks etc. So a great way to set that up is to step slightly forward off with the right - when say coming out of a check and then for a split second... the left is now your rear knee... you now have the chance to throw that knee and extend through the hip... easily reaching your target and having enough time/distance to build power in the knee. The same thing can work for punching. But if you are training to only ever step forward with your lead leg (a la the traditional orthodox boxing stance) and never to stand more square on (as in the Thai stance) then it's very hard to get your head and coordination around that type of punching. I believe much of this is extant in the Muay Chaya and Muay Boran footwork... which isn't gone from Muay Thai at all. It's just that most people figure K-1 is Muay Thai (obviously it's not) and most people in general don't actually follow the Muay Thai fights. Yes they may know a fighter or two... but they simply don't have enough exposure to be able to pick up all the subtleties from an observer standpoint... let alone put them into their own practice with a coach who knows how to teach them. Stepping forward out of the orthodox stance with your right (which was your rear leg) now means your left is in prime position to throw a solid left cross with a big amount of power... ideally it should have just as much power as your right cross would. The only problem being that you've probably not trained your left cross from that position... so your central nervous system will be wired one-side dominant. It takes a lot of training to rewrite those movement sequences in the brain until they are easy to call on. It also takes a fair bit of training that to realize that you've now stepped into a Southpaw stance and need to be able to react to something from that stance or switch up again. Ok a bit of ramble... but there you have it.
I love that knee set-up. I like to use a jab - right cross to cover the step (the foot moving into position a fraction after the cross lands) and occupy the guys face while I cover distance. The left knee often has an easier line to a target on an orthodox stance too because the front of the body is more open and in line for it.
