Breaking Down The Mechanics of Yodsanklai’s Left Kick

By Lawrence Kenshin

Yodsanklai is a living legend whose left kicks are feared by all.

His ability to generate enormous amount of power is second to none, so who better to study than
when he's kicking pads? The video below slows down his mechanics and considers several
interesting dynamics, and I'll be breaking it down. (click here to watch the entire video)

Full Power Generation & Defense

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The first thing you may notice is his hand positioning. When Yodsanklai swings for a kick, he
drops his non-kicking side (NKS) arm first and then he swings it back up as he initiates the kick.
Simultaneously, the kicking side arm swings down fully as the NKS arm swings up, and right at
the point of the fully swing, he makes impact with the kick with incredible power.

This is building momentum with the arm swing: it is done for absolute power generation. You'll
see that he doesn't keep a tight swing or his guard very high when he does this--why? The
purpose is power and speed from a state of relaxation.

No matter who you are, when you have a tight guard, your starting point loses relaxation and
therefore the ability to explode. Try tensing your upper body when you kick and then try again
when you don't. Imagine running while keeping a stiff upper body and not using your arms. The
same principles apply here.

Despite his relatively low and loose guard, note how when the pad holder attacks, he's fully
ready to defend with his long guard and knee block--the long guard shuts down punching offense
and the knee block shuts down the rear kick.

The thing about power is that it's one of the attributes that changes everything. Everyone knows
to keep their hands up, in terms of displaying a "textbook" technique. So when many people
looks at padwork and bag work, or even when the legends land their technique effectively
consistently in a fight, they will say "oh that's not textbook he will pay for it."

The problem with that argument is that they do not consider an element such as power.
Yodsanklai can generate so much torque with his kick that anyone who receives it, even if they
block it, is going to have their balance affected, thereby increasing his timeframe to react to a
following counterattack. And as you an see, he reacts plenty in time to defend the pad holder's
assaults.

Now let's assume that the receiving person does not have their balance rocked by a full power
kick, this method of kicking would definitely be ill-advised, and the differences of it with the
textbook kick--one with a tighter and higher guard--would become a “flaw.”
 Kick, Loading Step Low Kick

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Observe how the moment before Yodsanklai launches his kick, he takes a loading step forward.
Analogous to this is how soccer players run and load their kick before the punt the ball, there's
some similarities in the mechanics here. Momentum carrying forward will always help with an
assault, if you can land it.

The loading step helps to cover distance, but again the emphasis is on power generation. Observe
how on the first kick, as the pad holder moves back, Yodsanklai takes the chance to use the
loading step to move forward.

On the second kick, there is even more range between Yodsanklai and the pad holder, and he
takes an explosive loading step to drive his low kick in.

Right Kick, Left Kick

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Yodsanklai's right leg isn't nearly as well known as his deadly left. But throughout his fights,
when he does need to use it, he uses it to change the dynamics. You can see how he used it
against Chike Lindsey's jabs (to attack the ribs as Chike jabbed) or more recently, to attack the
southpaw Marco "Machine Gun" Tentori's punching.

Again, what Yodsanklai displays here is power. The switch kick is generally advocated to be
more of a half switch than a full switch into the other stance in order to deliver the kick. The half
switch is significantly faster because essentially, the switch is loading. Cut the loading by half
and you get a kick that comes half the loading time.

However, what's gained in speed is lost in power. Observe how Yodsanklai does a full switch into
the orthodox stance in order to throw his right kick.

He then lands in orthodox, only to take a loading step with the right leg into the left kick. One
thing to particularly observe with Yodsanklai, is his calf flexion. The dominant school of thought
in creating a powerful kick is coming up on the ball of the foot as the kick is driving in. You can
see just how much Yodsanklai has emphasized this by the baseball size of his calf.

Why does coming up on the ball of your foot increase the power? Because you're letting the
kick, which carryings the momentum upwards (angled), which the calf allows raise not only
allows you to pivot better, but allows you to drive your weight further into it. Small but
important detail--there are other schools of thought on the basing foot, which we'll take a look at
in the following section.

Low Kicks Basing Leg

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For this low kick, you can see that Yodsanklai is either not raising his basing foot or barely
raising his basing foot. For the first kick, it's heavily planted at the point of impact. Why?
Because the driving force of the kick is not going up, but rather, going forward and sometimes
down.

Also, when the basing leg sets it's entire weight on the entire foot, the base is stronger and more
stable--we will examine how certain camps utilize this kick in future articles.

Kick Anticipate, Kick & Kick

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Notice again how after the power kick, pad holder crouches to indicate an attack, and how
Yodsanklai reacts immediately by putting his defences in place. As soon as the pad holder signals
to kick again, Yodsanklai blasts away: this time returning his hands to guard faster.
 Two Kicks in Succession

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Here Yodsanklai throws two kicks in succession. Notice how he couldn't have done two kicks
one right after another like how you've seen in Buakaw's pad videos with his switch kicks. Why?
Because he's blasting the pad holder back with his power kick, and therefore must take another
loading step before launching yet another.

Final Kick

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And here's the final kick--not much to add except that my arms hurt just looking at him holding
the pads, and I think he's also had enough of being blasted.