How to Build Your Own Advanced Kickboxing Combos -

This post will give you 4 concepts or ideas to help you develop your own advanced kickboxing combos.

These concepts are:

Same side attacks
Doubling Up attacks
Switching stance
Spinning attacks

Using these concepts and examples provided in this post, you can develop your own advanced kickboxing combos to use in your sparring and competition.

Simple VS. Advanced Kickboxing Combos

In a previous post I wrote on 6 Simple but Effective Kickboxing Combos, I listed combos under three types:

Punch-Kick Combos
Punch-Knee Combos
Kick-Punch Combos

Each of the simple kickboxing combinations discussed above utilized opposite side attacks, which meant Lead-Rear or Rear-Lead attacks. Opposite side attacks such as Jab-Cross-Hook-Rear Low Kick are still very effective.

But in this post I want to discuss concepts that will make your combos more unpredictable and even more effective.

Advanced Concepts to Build Your Own Combos

In this post rather than giving you specific combos to drill I want to discuss concepts and strategies that you can use to develop your own combos.

So building on the opposite side attacks we can make our kickboxing combos more advanced and unpredictable and ultimately more effective in fighting and sparring.

So how do we build more advanced kickboxing combos?

1. Same Side Attacks

Opposite side attacks such as Jab-Cross-Hook-Rear Kick flow well as each strike sets up the next strike through body rotation and loading up the hips and shoulders.

This however also makes them easier for experienced fighters to read and block.

Utilizing same side attacks are more advanced as it requires ‘reloading’ your strikes on the same side.

This also makes your attacks and combos more unpredictable for your opponent to defend against.

Examples using same side attacks:

Jab-Lead Hook-Rear Kick (Lead-Lead-Rear)

Jab – Lead Teep – Lead Body Kick (Lead-Lead-Lead)

Jab-Cross-Rear High Kick (Lead-Rear-Rear)

The Holland Dill from the Bang Muay Thai system uses Jab-Cross-Hook-Lead Body Hook-Lead Head Hook- Rear Leg Kick (Lead-Rear-Lead-Lead-Lead-Rear)

2. Doubling Up Attacks

Doubling up attacks is similar to same side attacks in that it breaks the rhythm and makes your attacks more unpredictable.

However in doubling up you want to use the same strike twice or more in order to off balance and confuse your opponent or to score quickly.

Vasyl Lomachenko effectively uses the double jab to get his opponent off balance and covering up in order to land a hard rear punch to the body or head.

Great examples of doubling up attacks include:

Double Jab – Cross – Lead Body Kick

Jab – Double Rear Cross – Lead Body Kick

Doubling up kicks in order to score fast and damage your opponent.

Check out the excellent video below breaking down the technique for the double kick.

3. Switching Stance

Switching stance is not recommended for beginners and many gyms and academies are very much against switching stances when competing.

It takes a lot of balance and much time spent drilling basic stance and footwork to be able to switch stance effectively.

One of the all time greats in muay thai, Samart Payakaroon was known for being extremely effective in either stance in muay thai as well as in Western Boxing where he also won a World Title.

Benefits of switching stance:

cover distance quickly
create angles outside of opponent
unpredictability

How to switch stance?

There are really only two ways to switch stance.

Step forward with your rear leg into different stance.
Step back with your lead leg into different stance.

You can build many variations of switching stance and incorporating attacks in order to change angles and off balance your opponent.

Some I like to use myself are:

Step forward with rear leg into Opposite stance and throw rear cross, lead hook and rear body kick.

Step back and to side with lead leg into opposite stance at angle to an advancing opponent and throw rear kick.

The video below shows 5 great switch stance examples you can use. But essentially they are either stepping forward with the rear leg or stepping back with the lead leg to switch stance.

4. Spinning Attacks

A more advanced concept to use as part of your combos is to include spinning attacks. Some useful and effective spinning attacks include:

Spinning back fist
Spinning Heel kick
Spinning back kick

Spinning attacks are incredibly powerful and fast and can result in a KO to end the fight.

Spinning attacks such as the spinning back fist can be used off of missed strikes. When you miss the target with a right cross for example, you will be able to rotate all the way through and spin to launch the left spinning back fist.

You can also “purposely miss” or use ‘throw away’ strikes to get your opponent to react. The throw away strike also is used to initiate your spin to be able to launch your spinning attack.

As more advanced techniques, take your time to develop your spinning attacks.

Drilling and Training

Using the concepts discussed in this post you will be able to develop your own advanced kickboxing combos.

You can develop your own style and figure out how to incorporate your favorite techniques.

Develop your movement and rhythm with your combos in your shadow boxing and heavy bag work.

Then work with a partner in Dutch style drilling and on the Thai pads to see how they flow in different situations or against Southpaws or opposite side stance to you.

Once you have these down you can then try them out in sparring in a safe environment hat allows you to be more creative.

And eventually you can use these advanced kickboxing combos that you develop yourself and with experienced trainers and partners, to use in competition.