Jumping and flying attacks in combat sports

[the combat analyst]

Jumping and flying attacks in combat sports

Jumping and flying attacks are an ultra rare move in combat sports. While they are very rare to even be seen at all it is even more rare to see them land and work effectively.
However despite this after studying quite a few flying knockouts and jumping strikes I have found quite a few consistencies among them so let's take a look at them.

The first consistency I found was utilizing a flying strike to catch your opponent as they come in to attack.
A prime example would be Michael venom paige’s knockout of cyborg Santos.



As Santos comes in to attack a bit recklessly leading with his right, he is met with a powerful flying knee that knocks him out.
And this tactic seems to work very well with flying knees in general.
Another example would be Cory Sandhagen knocking out Frankie Edgar.



Edgar comes into attack with his well known pressure but is countered with a fight ending flying knee
One more example comes from the pfl, a knockout much similar to the ones before.



The biggest consistency I found that made these attacks effective was rather than chasing their opponent with flying attacks the fighter throwing the fight ending knee, while retreating at first would suddenly stop their retreat and stand their ground before throwing the knee.
In other words they briefly stopped backing up and very briefly stood in place before throwing the flying knee.
This works so effectively because of how quickly they change from retreating to quickly attacking. Getting their competitor to follow their retreat closely so they run Into a quick attack.

Another example would be edson Barboza’s flying knee ko of beneil dariush.



This ko stands out to me because barboza was able to use dariush’s own jab against him. Throughout the fight Dariush would use his jab to set up his double leg takedown. Getting his opponent to defend up high before attacking down low.
However Dariush would use this jab to double leg combo a bit too much to the point where his jab telegraphed his own intentions. Rather than use his jab to set up multiple different weapons to keep his opponent guessing he would only use his jab to level change into a takedown. And edson brilliantly caught on to this, countering dariush's level change after his jab with a beautifully setup flying knee.

The lesson to take from this is to find a telegraph in your opponents own actions to counter them as they come into attack.

Countering them as they attack with a flying attack of your own takes lots of skill and practice and if all the prerequisite elements aren't there your attack will miss and can potentially leave you exposed.
Here are some examples of how a flying attack can leave you exposed for a counter.
The first example is from Jon Jones' fight with Shogun rua.
And while Jon did not pay much of anything; his flying knee attempt at the beginning of the fight was evaded by Shogun and Shogun countered with a bodylock.



In this example with Jorge masvidal and kamaru Usman however masvidal attempts a flying knee and is countered by Usman with a bodylock into a takedown.



The reason both men were countered so easily was because they chased after their opponent with the flying attack itself rather than weaving a trap and letting their opponent come to them first.

In this example with Tyson nam and ode Osborne, nam counters Osbornes attempt at a flying attack with a brutal counter of his own.



In this example while Nam was following Osbourne closely throughout the fight when Osbourne did attempt his flying attack, Nam was not currently advancing with an attack or sudden movement, leaving him right in position to evade and counter.

So what should you do if your opponent is not being so friendly in offering you an opportunity to counter their advance with a flying attack?
The next set up you can use for your flying attacks is to limit their escape options.
This is most commonly done by cutting the ring and pinning them against the ropes or cage.

Cutting off the ring is often a misunderstood thing in combat sports as many fighters simply follow their opponent by always remaining directly in front of them rather than cutting them off. Cutting off your opponent in combat sports is much like a linebacker in American football cutting off the guy with the ball. The linebacker doesn't chase after the guy with the ball but he rather follows the guy with the ball only laterally limiting his options to cut angles and move forwards. I'll get into cutting the ring in more detail in another breakdown. But the way this plays into jumping and flying attacks is by limiting your opponents escape options. This pins your opponent down, keeping them right in front of you making it much easier to jump right at them.

An example of this can be seen with bonfim and mckinney.



Bonfim is aggressively pinning McKinney to the cage, striking him at will. McKinney, who is clearly in trouble during this sequence, has very limited options of what to do. He has no were to go and especially against flying attacks he cannot move backwards which is the most common defense against them.
You will notice that when bonfim goes into a flying knee McKinney actually moves forwards into the knee. I think this is because he had nowhere left to go and saw Bonfim's jump as a reckless attack and a chance to mix things up with grappling. As seen in the examples with Jorge masvidal and Jon Jones a missed flying knee can leave you very open to a body lock. However this can sometimes be very costly as seen in this example. The lesson is that sometimes when pinned down and with nowhere left to go your competitor may see moving forward as the next best option, making way for your own attack.

Another example of this setup is between Mathew semilsberger and Alex morono.



Semilsberger can be seen pressuring Morono aggressively, limiting his escape options and then capitalizing with a flying knee.


We've gone over flying knees in depth now, but what about flying kicks? Well flying kicks are an iconic sight in martial arts films of all kinds. However they have limited applications in real life combat. A common myth in martial arts is that flying kicks were invented by the samurai to knock their enemies off of their horses, however this is very much just a myth.
As seen in this video by YouTuber Ramsey Dewey, Ramsey not only debunks the myth but also talks about how
to set up flying kicks.

 

[the combat analyst]

You may have seen however Fabricio Werdum open up his fight with Travis Browne with a flying sidekick that does land as seen in this clip below.



However in the vast majority cases of this your opponent will see it coming a mile away.
Even in this example with Daniel Cormier of all people you see him attempt a jumping roundhouse kick that his opponent clearly sees coming.



There is a time and a place for almost anything in combat sports I say. And while that can be true for flying side kicks and jumping roundhouses I think the most effective jumping or flying kicks are the crane kick and the jumping switch kick. These kicks specifically work better than the others because there is not only a feint integrated into the kick to deceive your opponent but the kick also does not leave you in a bad position if it is missed.

The crane kick as you may have guessed is the one from the karate kid movie. It is basically a jumping front kick that first starts with raising your opposite leg as if you're going to kick them using the momentum to spring into a jumping front kick with your standing leg.
The most famous example of this in combat sports is lyoto machida’s ko of Randy couture as seen below.



This is a perfect example of a crane kick working perfectly.
Another example is Alistair Overeem's ko of Andrei arlovski.



In that example you even see Andrei Arlovski raise his leg to check the fake kick from overeem. And on top of that, Overeem uses his flying attack to set up another attack, something we'll get into later.

The next flying kick I want to talk about is the jumping switch kick. Much like the crane kick this kick revolves around a feint from your non kicking leg and then using the momentum to spring into a variation of a roundhouse kick.
Here is an example with Paige Vanzant.



This kick is especially effective because it can be blended in with an actual kick from your opposite leg adding a real threat for your opponent to defend.
In this example from Muay Thai you not only see the fighter executing the kick, but you also see his opponent lift his lead leg to check the potential kick kick from the fighter's right leg.



However the first kick was merely a distraction meant to create an opening for the winning fighters' real attack.

The next tactic I want to get into is using flying attacks to actually set up another follow up attack. As rare as flying attacks are they are normally considered the end all be all most of the time when they are used. Meaning there is no set up before the attack and the attack itself is not used to set up a follow up attack.
However I want to cover some examples of using flying attacks to actually set traps for the opponent, utilizing the flying attack to set up a follow up attack.
I talked earlier about how when Alistair Overeem knocked out Andrei Arlovski he used a crane kick to set up a follow up hook to finish the fight and that is just one perfect example of how following up your flying attack with another can reap many benefits.

Another example I'll feature below is with derrick lewis.



Lewis throws a flying knee at his opponent that just barely misses the target, but while most fighters would be out of options derrick decides to follow up knee with a devastating right hook dropping his opponent to the canvas.

So what do you guys think, let me know in the comments. Do you consider flying attacks effective, and what are some of your favorite ways to use flying attacks?
Also what kind of breakdowns d
o you guys want to see from me in the future?