Any righties prefer fighting southpaw?

**Anna Kovacs** · Posted On: 6/24/2008 1:38pm

How long have you been training?

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 6/24/2008 1:43pm

Hrm...I've fought mostly left-side-first my whole life and am very comfortable there. But I just started cross training with american top team, and I was thinking maybe it'd be an interesting experiment to do ALL southpaw training with ATT, like I'm starting from scratch with the beginners, and then go back to left-foot when I do sanshou. See if I develop different habits on each side.

I probably won't do it, but I wonder what would happen if I did.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 6/24/2008 2:56pm

I do both.

I actually am better with my left forward, but I am learning southpaw for now just to learn it, become a little more coordinated. I'm at the point now though where I need to pick a side to focus on, so I'm going to focus on an orthodox stance and just practice south paw once in awhile, instead of doing it 50/50.

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 6/24/2008 3:05pm

There you go.

**moonwatcher** · Posted On: 6/24/2008 6:40pm

I'm orthodox, but I find southpaw is useful for setting up certain combinations, and screwing up distancing for your opponent.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 6/24/2008 11:29pm

Its also good to just be comfortable with both, while specializing in on for MMA. Sometimes you want to switch your stance to shoot in on a guy for certain takedowns.

**selfcritical** · Posted On: 6/25/2008 4:20pm

Anna, when you head out to the gathering talk to Marc Denny about this subject if you get a chance. Unmatched lead and ambidexterity is a big subject of his unarmed material.

**Happy Panda** · Posted On: 6/25/2008 7:34pm

I love sparring people who switch stances. They inevitably telegraph their right-hand jab since they don't practice it enough, which makes it easier to slip to the outside and counter with a cross. They also usually don't practice checking kicks with their right side forward, so I can get roundhouses to the body until they get tired of it and switch again.

It would take a long, long time to get really proficient with both sides. More time than most people have, I think.

**truepwrz** · Posted On: 6/25/2008 10:59pm

i was a righty, then last year or so i injured my right hand and found out i can write/eat/play handball with left just fine. i can fight both stances at will atm and it saved me in the beating i got from question(i switched to southpaw, got hit less and i landed most my shots in southpaw stance

**theotherserge** · Posted On: 6/26/2008 1:40am

Originally Posted by AnnaTrocity

Personally I see no advantage to fighting southpaw if you're a righty, you take away power and sneakyness from your main weapon by putting it out front, no big deal when you're holding a knife or sword, but when you're punching you've basically just turned your strong hand into your jab hand and robbed it of power for no real reason.

This is one of those things that need to be judged on an individual basis. Some will certainly use it better then others, but my experience has shown me that "switch fighters" especially suck it up.

I can't argue with this ^^ from a striking standpoint.

But as a crappler-dude, I know that I can't rely on the KO punch, so having a right-hand lead means I have an easier setup for throwing/takedowns which is my bread and butter anyhow.

I like the analogy of a baseball pitcher: it takes so goddamned long to hit the outside-corner -fastball reliably that why would you try it from the other side?

I've also learned from my excellent student and boxing mentor that southpaw lead for a righty can make sense depending on your style. If you can develop a really effecient jab, then the cross is basically a "club" that doesn't have to be as accurate, it is used to open your opponent up for other abuses.