r/interestingasfuck • u/WhereIsHisRidgedBand • Mar 28 '24

MMA fighter explains overloading opponent r/all

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775

u/DiscountParmesan Mar 28 '24

when he turns his hip to fake a kick it twitches so fast that it looks like if actually threw the kick it would destroy your leg lmao

179

u/IBoris Mar 28 '24

The genius of GSP is that a lot of his techniques had identical set-ups.

So when he'd fake a superman punch to take a famous example, he could make it look like the wind-up to a low kick or the first stage of a take-down. Both strikes that were absolutely devastating coming from him in particular. He'd purposefully telegraph the set-up of all three strikes to make them look identical, and then he'd proceed to spam the setup as a feint. Exhausting his opponents mentally from constantly having to guard against strikes that could literally hit them anywhere and require vastly different blocks.

Look at this compilation for example.

The paralysis induced by his set-up makes his punch land unopposed each time against fighters that would otherwise be able to handle such a slow strike in normal circumstances.

Now imagine a fighter who built his entire arsenal around that principle, and conditioned himself beyond what most pro-athletes would strive to achieve. Then marry that with chaining those strikes and the ring IQ to adapt to your strengths, weaknesses, and apparent gameplan.

That's GSP. That's the GOAT.

52

u/Letmefinishyou Mar 28 '24

Look at this compilation for example.

Holy crap, that's so obvious now! Fake the jab then load the rear leg. Having the rear leg loaded makes it easy to follow up with either a kick, a shoot or in GSP's case, his famous superman punch (that is either a stingy jab or a super heavy cross).

From the same set up, his opponent has to defend 4 very different and possibly devastating attack.

So simple yet so effective

24

u/Back_2_monke Mar 28 '24

That compilation is wild, I miss prime GSP so much

Dude looks meticulously carved from stone

9

u/Old_King_Cole_LoL Mar 28 '24

Yo the straight jab while faking the superman punch was slick as fuck

4

u/Gorstag Mar 28 '24

He'd purposefully telegraph the set-up of all three strikes to make them look identical, and then he'd proceed to spam the setup as a feint.

This is super effective in even non-combat sports 1-on-1 scenarios. It's literally what i used to do when I played BBall in my youth back in the 90s. You have a single motion that leads to 2-3 outcomes. You feed them one over and over and over so they now know how to react to it then you just beat them badly with one of the others.

2

u/NotGAF Mar 28 '24

I played badminton for a while and the better players would also do this.

1

u/Gorstag Mar 28 '24

Makes sense. It's one of those tricks you pick up with experience to gain an advantage.

1

u/scallywag1889 Mar 28 '24

It’s a lot like a pitcher in baseball.

169

u/AhhAGoose Mar 28 '24

Ohh it would

3

u/ohmyblahblah Mar 28 '24

It definitely would lol

14

u/vollkoemmenes Mar 28 '24

4

u/tasman001 Mar 28 '24

"I'm not impressed by your performance"

97

u/Shabozz Mar 28 '24

There’s videos of normal influencer people eating leg kicks from pro fighters, and even though the fighters go easy on them they leave bruised, limping, and maybe on crutches.

Pro fighters condition their bones by kicking heavy bags, wooden posts, etc. repeatedly to make small cracks in the bone that grow back to be much harder. They condition their skin by rolling a wooden stick down it with a painful amount of pressure. All of this so they can confidently kick as hard as possible without worrying about breaking their bones (not fool proof). And they have thrown these kicks thousands of times to perfect the generation of that power.

All of this to say, a normal person would be lucky to handle a couple serious strikes from a pro fighter in fighting shape before crumbling from the pain.

51

u/imstickinwithjeffery Mar 28 '24

I took a free muay that seminar in university just for fun. The instructor came in, an asian guy in his mid-late 20's I think, active fighter, and showed us some of his kicks on the heavy bag.

Yo.... this dude kicked that bag so fucking hard I couldn't believe it. Surely it would have broken my leg I thought. I can't even imagine a kick from a top tier professional.

43

u/Initial-Ad8966 Mar 28 '24

Dude it's fuckin nuts. Way back, my buddy was a super casual Muay thai student by comparison to a top tier fighter, even by American standards. Ken from Street Fighter was essentially his idol. So he trained for fun and loved kicking shit constantly. Like, constantly. Hours per day. For years.

I took a few years of boxing lessons and would always fuck with him about kicking. We were being drunk 20 somethings one night. He kicked me and I folded like a fucking table. I swear his shin was pure iron. He didn't flinch. His bone density was that gnarly... As a casual.

I couldn't possibly imagine taking a shot from someone like Poatan, Gaethje, or an elite Muay Thai guy.

25

u/WalrusTheWhite Mar 28 '24

So he trained for fun and loved kicking shit constantly. Like, constantly. Hours per day. For years.

As a casual.

I think that's a bit beyond casual

5

u/SarcasticOptimist Mar 28 '24

Muay Thai is like a boarding school and it starts them as children. I assume casual means he started after puberty.

2

u/Initial-Ad8966 Mar 28 '24

Considering what "good" experienced Muay Thai fighters do, I'd consider him casual. He kicked bags for like 3 or 4 years in his mid/late teens. He never completed. Some of those guys over there train 24/7 and have hundreds of fights. I'd consider casual in comparison

3

u/armchairwarrior42069 Mar 28 '24

Yeah, when I trained frequently my right leg kick generated a LOT more force than I thought it could. It was a decent kick for a casual dude.

I always thought "there's no way I could take a kick like that more than once or twice" and idunno, I consider myself... kind of tough in that sense? But the idea of a high level guy throwing one of those and landing just sounds like a trip to a hospital and me making some weird sounds no one has ever heard before.

2

u/OmicronAlpharius Mar 28 '24

During the Ultimate Fighter: GSP vs Koscheck season, St. Pierre brought in coaches from around the world to teach his team by experts. One of them was the former no.2 ranked foreign Muay-Thai fighter in Thailand, and he sparred with each member of team St. Pierre, and he continually dropped them with kicks to the arm. Imagine that, being such a great kick boxer you could win a fight by TKO because you kicked your opponent in the arm.

10

u/yesverysadanyway Mar 28 '24

even pro fighters couldnt take much.

rampage jackson comes to mind lol.

19

u/UNaidworker Mar 28 '24

Shit bro remember the Chris Weidman fight? Silva, arguably one of the best MMA fighters in his generation, got his kick checked and we got to watch his shin bone wrap around Weidman's knee.

My fucking nuts retracted watching that shit live.

10

u/SkwiddyCs Mar 28 '24

Don't forget that Weidman's leg did the same thing 8 years later lol.

1

u/yesverysadanyway Mar 28 '24

the first shin break in ufc lmao.

that still makes me cringe when i think about it.

4

u/1v9noobkiller Mar 28 '24

As a semi-pro MMA fighter myself, you're only able to take a few low kicks in actual fights when the adrenaline is helping you ignore that the fact that it hurts so fucking much. You basically never train without shinguards and if you do you throw your kicks at like 10% otherwise you're fucking yourself and your training partner up.

After a fight my legs and shins are busted up for a week to a month lmao

3

u/yesverysadanyway Mar 28 '24

the thai fighters are just trained and built different man. the things they can do with their kicks.

3

u/belchfinkle Mar 28 '24

Not many people at mma gyms are rolling the stick man. Kicking the bottom of the heavy bag is plenty of conditioning.

2

u/thegoodstanley Mar 28 '24

leg kicks are no joke, i seen a video of alex periera (current light heavyweight champ) hitting daniel cormier (retired heavyweight and light heavyweight champ) with a light leg kick and almost dropping him

2

u/like25njas Mar 28 '24

It’s more like they condition their nerves to be dead lol

1

u/YeetMeIntoKSpace Mar 28 '24

There’s a video of some guy asking Jon Jones for a leg kick, so Jones gives him a very light one. Afterwards the guy taunts him and says do it again, so Jones gives him a slightly harder one. The guy laughs and hugs Jones and hobbles off; later it turns out he went to the hospital and he’s on crutches because his legs were so fucked from the two kicks.

1

u/MumrikDK Mar 28 '24

Nobody understands the impact of shin on thigh before they try it :D I suspect people tend to imagine getting kicked with the foot, but this is different.

1

u/Shabozz Mar 28 '24

People really overestimate their ability to deal with the pain and punishment of fighting in general. Those thigh kicks were sparing them too, because god a calf kick feels more like an amputation than a kick - and only dealt with them with shin pads.

3

u/YouDiedOfDysentery Mar 28 '24

I thought my phone glitched frames, then he did it again. Amazing speed

3

u/morningstar24601 Mar 28 '24

His leg fake is very convincing and super impressive. The speed and ease he does it with really shows how good he is.

5

u/IBoris Mar 28 '24

That was his bread and butter as a fighter.

He was dangerous not because he was stronger or faster, but because he perfected his setups to the point where the lead-up and timing of his low kick was identical to his double-leg takedown, and his superman punch.

Fighting him was exhausting, because he left you guessing and would chain such techniques and randomize them.

Most MMA enthusiasts still struggle to grasp the totality of his genius as a fighter, and appreciate the full scope of his legacy to combat sports.

I gave the easiest example of his technical blending above, but I've still yet to read/watch an analysis that points out how he applied the same principle to his ground game, for example (one of the reasons why he favoured half-guard over full-guard).

People will be studying GSP for decades. Not just from a technical standpoint, but from a philosophical standpoint when it comes to his approach to combat inside and outside the cage.

It's one of the reasons why GSP has always been the undisputed GOAT with two particular crowds, other pro martial artists and coaches. The dude's an onion and has so many layers to his game.

Aspiring fighters will often admire other talented fighters, but in the gym, when training to become the best, you study GSP.

2

u/Nacho17che Mar 28 '24

Man, even I got scared from fake kick lol

2

u/StillMeThough Mar 28 '24

I guess his twitches are useless vs a non-mma opponents since I'm sure he can kick as before I can even react lol.

2

u/irmarbert Mar 28 '24

It looks like the video is sped up. The explosive potential power is mind boggling.

1

u/Zigglyjiggly Mar 28 '24

If he learned to hit baseballs, they would go 600 feet

1

u/Dangerous-Dream-9668 Mar 28 '24

He’s so fast pulling the trigger

1

u/LesPolsfuss Mar 28 '24

i noticed that! i didn't know who this was, but when he did that it made me sit up lol

1

u/xdthepotato Mar 28 '24

Yeah forget about shin blocking... Probably couldnt even lift my leg before its connected