Muay Thai VS American Kickboxing

[Torakaka]

Bas actually advocates leaning your weight slightly onto the target leg and eating the kick instead of shin blocking. He feels it leaves you too open to punches. For those of us not born with superman genetics and a slight brain malfunction, is this a really, really bad idea?

I... wouldn't recommend it... but then I'm not Bas Rutten. Taking kicks to the thighs can really mess up your whole game, even if your able to tense it and take the kick on the top of the thigh instead of the side/back. Using that technique and counter punching I think could be an effective strategy depending on how badass of a leg kicker the opponent is.

[ViciousFlamingo]

Bas actually advocates leaning your weight slightly onto the target leg and eating the kick instead of shin blocking. He feels it leaves you too open to punches. For those of us not born with superman genetics and a slight brain malfunction, is this a really, really bad idea?

When did he advocate that? I just took a look back in his Big Book of Combat, and I didn't see anything of the sort. I found four tactics:
1. Checking the kick with either shin (well, I guess this is two techniques, the check and the cross check), or
2. Stepping back and dodging the kick, or
3. Using a stop hit, or
4. Stuffing the kick by advancing forward before the other guy has turned over his hip and put his whole body into the kick, then counterpunching.

I think you might have seen #4, but that is in no way "eating the kick". Eating the kick would imply letting the guy just kick the **** out of your thigh. The way Bas does it, he's stop-blocking in a way, by closing the distance so there's almost no power in the kick when the leg makes contact with his thigh. I've tried stuffing kicks with knees and thighs, and it still isn't fun if you don't stuff the leg immediately with your thigh, and it needs to be done REALLY REALLY fast (and it all goes to **** if you wait a millisecond too long), but stuffing with the knee puts me somewhat off balance. Doing it Bas's way closes the distance and lets the counterpunching begin immediately, so I have a good stance and the other guy has only one foot on the floor. Also, it's probably better suited for MMA, where you don't have to worry about the takedowns.

This is a stupid argument anyways, eating a kick to the leg full-on is going to suck regardless of what you do, just learn to check kicks properly for chrissakes. Jeez.

P.S. Is there any equivalent of "crappling" for striking?

[alex]

its a technique ive seen guys like mike zambidis use, but it only works against people who arent that great at leg kicks. otherwise your leg still goes dead for that split second you need to throw the punch and it doesnt get thrown.

[PointyShinyBurn]

It's in a video instructional (not the old school Pancrase one where he has a beard, a newer one) I watched, possibly from the big DVDs of combat. He says, if you have to, eat the kick rather than do a shin block, and says that if you see a guy do the opposite then fake the low kick and knock him out with a 'right straight'.

[LiaoRouxin]

Like Alex said, this works against people with less than stellar leg kicks. If you fight someone who is a kick specialist, don't bother. It's way better to be safe than sorry in this sort of situation.

[chillaplata]

I learned this technique ("stump block"?) as primarily a fallback defense if you can't get your leg up for the shin block in time. Also, when you block this way aren't you supposed to pivot the leg out and flex the knee a bit, the idea being that you take the kick on the meatiest part of the quadriceps rather than on the side of the thigh?

[huge]

...
P.S. Is there any equivalent of "crappling" for striking?

shtriking?

(s)hitting?

It's harder than you'd think.