In this post you will learn 6 effective and easy kickboxing combos for heavy bag drilling and sparring.
These kickboxing combos are used regularly by pros.
Kickboxing is a relatively simple martial art in terms of techniques and attacking weapons. Punches, knees and kicks can be very effective in fighting.
But it is when you can combine these techniques together in kickboxing combos that they become really effective.
In a fight or in sparring a single attack such as a head kick most likely will be blocked and countered or dodged and evaded without some form of combination and set up.
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Combination of techniques and setting up your favorite techniques from your power side is the way to make your kickboxing combos effective and serve the intended purpose which is to cause damage to your opponent.
Here are 6 easy kickboxing combos that have a high percentage success rate.
Simple but effective is often the best in fighting and these kickboxing combos support that idea.
These 6 easy kickboxing combos are great for beginners and are also used in the ring by professionals as well due to their effectiveness.
The 6 easy kickboxing combos listed here are divided into three different combo types which are:
- Punch-Kick Combos (using your hands to set up your kicks – your most basic kickboxing combos)
- Punch-Knee Combos (using your punches to set up knee strikes)
- Kick-Punch Combos (using your kicks to set up your power punches – common in Dutch Style)
These are the basic but also very effective and high percentage and this is by no means a comprehensive list of all kickboxing combos.
But these combos are relatively easy to learn for a beginner and also are used in the ring regularly by pros.
Punch Kick Combos
These are the most common form of kickboxing combos.
With punch-kick combos the punches are used to set up your kicks.
Whether they be low, body or high kicks, its good to set them up with your hands in a Punch-Kick kickboxing combo.
The strategy is to get your opponent to shell up or affect their balance and distract them by blinding them with punches to the face which will help set up your kicks.
The two basic kickboxing combos below both involve initiating with your lead hand (either Jab or a Lead Hook) and finishing with a kick to the body or leg kick.
1. Lead punch – Rear Low Kick
This is often the first combo you may learn in putting together punches with kicks.
The lead punch can be a jab or lead hook.
This gets your opponents guard up or they may slip your punch and shift their weight to the back leg.
With weight on their back leg it is harder for your opponent to check your low kick and you can attack the rear leg.
2. Lead punch – Rear Punch – Lead Hook – Rear Body Kick
Same principle as above with the hands used to distract and blind your opponent to set up the rear kick.
Initiate the combo with a lead punch to the face. The lead punch can be a Jab or Lead Hook.
Follow with a Rear punch to the head/face which can be a Cross or an Uppercut
Finishing the punches with a Lead Hook is probably the best option to set up the rear body kick.
Use the lead hook to rotate your waist to load your rear body kick in a ‘coil and release’ action.
Punch-Knee Combos
3. Lead Punch – Rear Straight – Lead Knee
You can lead with the Jab or Hook but the Jab is my preferred option for this combo,
Follow with the rear straight/Cross.
The Lead Knee here has two options:
i) If the opponent moves back you can step forward with your rear leg and throw your lead knee
ii) If they shell up and don’t move too much backward then the distance is shorter to deliver your knee so you can switch stance and throw the lead knee.
The video below shows the switch stance knee as the pad holder doesn’t back up after the punches are thrown.
4. Lead Punch – Rear Punch – Lead Hook – Rear Knee
This combo is similar to combo #2 but instead of a rear kick, the rear knee is thrown.
You can throw the rear knee either by clinching or throw a spear knee from distance where your lead leg will step forward a little to reach the target and ‘spear knee.
The video below shows us the Jab-Cross- Hook-Rear Knee combo with a clinch on the opponent.
Sean ‘Muay Thai Guy’ Fagan shows us a great demo of the rear spear knee in the video below.
Kick- Punch Combos
The key to Kick – Punch Combos is using your footwork after the kick to get a good base to throw strong punches.
Make sure that after throwing your kick your kicking leg resets quickly and using that motion to load your punch after the kick.
In this form of kickboxing combos, the kick is used to set up your punches. So the kick does not need to be full power but to set up your hard punches.
5. Lead kick – Rear Cross – Lead Hook
The combo is initiated with the lead kick.
This lead kick is a little more advanced but good to learn early. It requires a quick switch step so that the lead leg moves to the rear in quick fashion to be able to strike with power.
Check out the video below from Sylvie Von-Douglas Ittu one of the most active female muay thai fighters out there.
Here she is taking a private lesson from Gen Hongtonglek of the Hongtong twins gym in Chiang Mai.
The aim is to strike quickly so your opponent is off balance to set up a strong cross to their face and finish the combo with a lead hook to the head.
After the lead kick is thrown make it sure it comes back down to the mat quickly but in good stance and well balanced and loaded to throw the powerful rear cross.
6. Rear Body Kick – Left Hook – Rear Cross
Here the combo is initiated with a rear kick. You don’t have to strike with full power with your rear kick as you are aiming to set up your strong punches.
Such Kick-Punch combos are favored by Dutch Kickboxers and also helps to switch up your attacks so they are not so predictable.
Remember the footwork here. When you bring your foot back down to the mat after the rear kick you should be in good balance and loaded to throw your Left Hook following the rear kick.
Former Glory Kickboxing Champion Joseph ‘Bazooka’ Valtellini demos his favorite Kick-Punch combos in the video below and also explains well the reasoning behind the Kick-Punch combos.
Putting them Into Practice
Each of these effective but easy kickboxing combos can be practiced on the heavy bag.
But I would recommend using the Thai Bag or Banana Bag so you can practice the leg kicks also.
They can also be performed in Dutch style drills with a partner but make sure you use shin guards and 14oz boxing gloves for safety purposes.
As stated these effective and easy kickboxing combos can be done by beginners and are used by pros as well due to their simplicity and effectiveness.
Drill each of the techniques for a 3 minute round each. Repeat and drill and repeat again to get them hard wired into your system so they come out instinctively in fighting or sparring.
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