How important is it to be proficient in both southpaw and orthodox?

Twixt

Twixt

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I was listening to Cory Sandhagen on JRE and he was saying you pretty much have to be able to fight in both stances to compete at the highest level, but as I've rewatched Pereira vs Adesanya I notice Pereira seems to always fight orthodox and he's arguably the most proficient striker in the UFC. Who are some other high level strikers that stick almost exclusively to 1 stance? Conor Mcgregor? Is it common for muay thai fighters/kick boxers to use both stances ambidextrously? I get it's good in case your lead leg gets kicked repeatedly and you can make yourself harder to read by throwing combos from both stances, but maybe it's better to just be super good in 1 stance with occasional switch/step type attacks.
 
There's only so much time in the day you can work with, so its why most ppl tend to focus on one side (left vs right). For me, there are "attacks" I like when in sp, but its just momentary, in my case its a left body cross and switch kick (I'm orthodox), so I'll have combinations and setups based around those, I train and plan them accordingly, but they're not the main focus.

I think at the highest levels you do have to know how to work in opposite stances and know how to deal with ppl in the opposite, you can't exactly be of the camp "he/she's a SP, I'm not doing this". As said earlier, there's only so much time in the day to work with, and for most, it's better to fine tune and harness what you've been working with forever than have a jack of the trades approach to 2 stances when you could be specializing and figuring out how to deal with it with what you are familiar with.
 
A lot of fighters have the ability to switch, but when they are fighting their best they usually only use one stance. Volk, max, and wonderboy come to mind.

The people that use exclusively one stance would be Leon, Poirier (he shifts once in a while), gaethje, Aldo, Whittaker, Manel Kape, fiziev, topuria, cejudo, Adrian yanez, prime marlon moraes and sergei pavlovich.

The only one who can both fight in southpaw and frequently use it are fighters like dj, Yair, Jon jones, gane, izzy, omalley, sandhagen, petr yan, and jack della maddalena.
 
I can't speak for the "correct way" to be the best fighter. But at my Muay Thai gym they basically teach you to get good enough at the other stance that you can comfortably fight there for a bit. Partly as strategy and all that. But mostly so that if you find yourself in that position, say because you had to land your rear foot forward after a kick, you can adequately continue the combat until you get set back up in your regular stance.

I will also note this has greatly helped me in my western boxing because, on my verrrrry amateur level, stance switching is still a relative novelty and unexpected.
 
Sinister said:
It's not important at all.
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I agree. Important is gym time and effort. It can be some sort of bonus but not a must.

I like to swap stances. Picked it up long ago for fun. Not much intention.

All I know is if my stance is switched to my non primäre stance, my read atacks are pretty trash. But the lead side is good. Not sure how to explain it I kinda of switch automatically and reswitch. I do think it's useful but nothing one should focus on.
 
Twixt said:
I was listening to Cory Sandhagen on JRE and he was saying you pretty much have to be able to fight in both stances to compete at the highest level, but as I've rewatched Pereira vs Adesanya I notice Pereira seems to always fight orthodox and he's arguably the most proficient striker in the UFC. Who are some other high level strikers that stick almost exclusively to 1 stance? Conor Mcgregor? Is it common for muay thai fighters/kick boxers to use both stances ambidextrously? I get it's good in case your lead leg gets kicked repeatedly and you can make yourself harder to read by throwing combos from both stances, but maybe it's better to just be super good in 1 stance with occasional switch/step type attacks.
Click to expand...
I think that this is more prevalent in stadium MT. In the West, being ambisextrous is not taught actively by coaches at all, nor is it necessary.
 
Well, most nightmare I had with guys who were southpaws and fight orthodox.....
Like something 45/55 also if for power job....
Or lads who were equally able to use both legs...

One guy I had was southpaw and he was almost 100%.... ambi... trade school alumni...
Another approx like this.
For KB was one guy where....
His punches were peace of cake, while he was able to use both legs approx like close to 50/50 and guy generated a lot of power...
 
Sinister said:
It's not important at all.
Click to expand...
I agree. I saw that online coach Barry Robinson talk about how fighting in both stances is "easy" and is due to fighters just not drilling enough in both stances. To me this is ridiculous. I think far less people should try to switch stances/be switch hitters and just get used to fighting in the open stance. One of my last ammy matches a guy was switching southpaw to take away my lead hand and all I did was drill him with a straight right due to his poor defense in SP.
 
KID Yamamoto said:
I agree. I saw that online coach Barry Robinson talk about how fighting in both stances is "easy" and is due to fighters just not drilling enough in both stances. To me this is ridiculous. I think far less people should try to switch stances/be switch hitters and just get used to fighting in the open stance. One of my last ammy matches a guy was switching southpaw to take away my lead hand and all I did was drill him with a straight right due to his poor defense in SP.
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Dont get me started on Barry.
 
Honest question:

People train out of both stances from the beginning of many TMAs. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you did the same thing with kick boxing, Muay Thai, boxing, etc.

I could see the benefit of training fighters out of their opposite stance to help develop footwork, balance, posture and positioning. I don’t need them fighting that way, but training? Sure.
 
DoctorTaco said:
Honest question:

People train out of both stances from the beginning of many TMAs. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you did the same thing with kick boxing, Muay Thai, boxing, etc.

I could see the benefit of training fighters out of their opposite stance to help develop footwork, balance, posture and positioning. I don’t need them fighting that way, but training? Sure.
Click to expand...

If you're doing it for fun, why not, but a career fighter shouldn't be using valuable training time in a stance he won't be using in an actual match. If you're really good at switch hitting sure, but I don't think it's worth it for most people. How many top fighters are switch hitters? In boxing Crawford is the only one I know of.
 
Tuvatuva said:
If you're doing it for fun, why not, but a career fighter shouldn't be using valuable training time in a stance he won't be using in an actual match. If you're really good at switch hitting sure, but I don't think it's worth it for most people. How many top fighters are switch hitters? In boxing Crawford is the only one I know of.
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what makes training time so valuable, in your opinion? If you’re in the gym for 2-3 hours a day like a lot of fighters, what’s wrong with spending half an hour working switch stance?
 
DoctorTaco said:
Honest question:

People train out of both stances from the beginning of many TMAs. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you did the same thing with kick boxing, Muay Thai, boxing, etc.

I could see the benefit of training fighters out of their opposite stance to help develop footwork, balance, posture and positioning. I don’t need them fighting that way, but training? Sure.
Click to expand...

Russian sport science supports the idea of training in opposite stance to keep developing your usual one. It’s how they teach future combat sports coaches in our sport unis/colleges.
 
Dexter said:
Russian sport science supports the idea of training in opposite stance to keep developing your usual one. It’s how they teach future combat sports coaches in our sport unis/colleges.
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seems like it would make sense to me
 
DoctorTaco said:
what makes training time so valuable, in your opinion? If you’re in the gym for 2-3 hours a day like a lot of fighters, what’s wrong with spending half an hour working switch stance?
Click to expand...
What's the point of having a second stance that's 6 times worse than your main stance? A smart opponent will be all over you the moment you switch stance because he knows you're defenseless.
 
DoctorTaco said:
Honest question:

People train out of both stances from the beginning of many TMAs. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you did the same thing with kick boxing, Muay Thai, boxing, etc.

I could see the benefit of training fighters out of their opposite stance to help develop footwork, balance, posture and positioning. I don’t need them fighting that way, but training? Sure.
Click to expand...
For KB it is relatively common thing initially attempt to get guy capable to use both legs equally....
If will be possible ofc at least in first year of training it IMHO is worth to attempt to make guy use both legs equally...

While in real life it will be from some 70/30 till in best lucky case really 50/50...
 
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