Pad holding for Southpaws..

**fxyrslf** · Posted On: 7/17/2008 7:07pm

Hi

I searched this topic and found this mentioned in passing in an old thread on do's and don't for pad holding but I need clarification.

I have recently joined an mma school run by a fairly well known fighter in the UK. Some things about it have been a bit of a let down to be honest, and not to bore you but this is the main thing:

Before training here I was training grappling and boxing with my brother who has fought and is of a decent standard. I now feel like I have been a bit spoiled by him as he has very good pad feeding technique, gives me plenty of feedback, and most importantly mirrors my southpaw stance when feeding me combos even tho he is not himself.

I assume that this is the correct way to feed a combo, ie - always match the persons stance, at this new place I feel like I am getting a raw deal because I have to explain to every random wally in the class (which has a fairly high quota of portly midddle aged beginners) that they need to mirror my stance when holding the pads which seems to baffle them. Then one of the "better" younger students started telling me "no, im going to stay in my stance because you need to learn to fight people who will be standing orthodox" - Does this make any sense whatsoever? All it did was mess up the combo for me, surely a pad combo and sparring someone are two different things and his logic was faulty. The teacher said something vague about knowing how to fight both ways which wasnt massively helpful, I feel like i need to clarify this with him as, like I have said along with a few other things it is starting to annoy me and I don't feel like I'm getting a good work out.

Could someone with more knowledge than me please break it down and basically tell me whether I am right before I ask him specifically and come off as some dickie know it all.

Thanks

**Anna Kovacs** · Posted On: 7/17/2008 7:11pm

I don't have any experience working pads with lefties but I think your brothers way makes more sense. Holding pads so you can refine your technique is pretty well irrelevant to what stance your opponent will be fighting from.

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 7/17/2008 7:15pm

Good pad holding is an art and surprisingly challenging.

**fxyrslf** · Posted On: 7/17/2008 7:18pm

^^Yes I am aware of that, thats why I am finding this frustrating, could you elaborate with regard to my specific issue.

Its annoying because people seem "put out" by my request when surely learning both ways is part of decent pad holding skill.

Thanks for the quick responses.

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 7/17/2008 7:25pm

It's impossible to give you a satisfactory answer your best bet is to discuss it with the people running the place.

In my MMA school the Muay Thai classes are beginner, intermediate and advanced obviously the pad holding improves as you move up.

If the school you're at doesn't have some sort of system like that where you can find good partners then you should look for another school.

As far as different stances go we do combo's from left side forward and then same combo's from right side to keep it interesting and the holder always mirrors the stance.

I have no idea if this is helpful or not

**Sang** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 3:22am

I’m a lefty and i prefer pad holders to stay in orthodox stance for me. The footwork is different between L V L and L V R as are some of the combinations such as jab, right hook, left leg kick.. if you practice them against someone standing in a lefty stance as well you won’t get used to stepping at the right angle/distance and kicking their left leg as apposed to the right one.

It is all personal preference and at the end of the day you are still going to need to pull it together with sparring so i wouldn’t stress too much if someone is not sitting in the right stance against you. I find it more annoying when they hold the pads for a kick at the wrong angle myself, or tap the punch with too much force, or hold an uppercut pad at nipple level. You probably do one of these things yourself so don't get too high and mighty about pad holding when there could be training partners equally pissed at you over on some other martial arts forum.

It sucks holding pads for a southpaw (having to reverse combinations in your mind, the headache), so keep that in mind.

**Domite** · Posted On: 7/19/2008 12:20am

The stance of the padholder shouldn't matter at all.

**Squerlli** · Posted On: 7/19/2008 3:44am

Originally Posted by Domite

The stance of the padholder shouldn't matter at all.

If you're with a good pad holder. If they're not that great, mimicking your stance will usually make this easier.

I recently started doing pad work with my chick friends that have a slight intrest in boxing/kick boxing. If they're righties I stand south paw, if they're lefties I stand orthodox.

I do it just to suppliment the cardio exercises I show them but aside from that... I don't know if it's better or worse for fighting.

**Dempsy Roll** · Posted On: 7/19/2008 2:48pm

It shouldn't really matter how they're standing as long as they're holding the pads where they need to. I'm a southpaw and generally the hardest thing for other people is getting used to doing all the movements with the pads backwards. Just go through the combo slowly the first time or two that you do it so they can get used to where they should hold the pads and correct them if they're not in the right place/angle, ect.

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 7/19/2008 4:34pm

when i'm holding pads i match their stance. i have considered doing some switchstance pad work with the most advanced people, but i never tried it.

when i see someone doing it in my class, it usually causes problems and i tell them to switch.