Checking Kicks
The defensive habit that a boxing background does not give you.
Checking Kicks
Video · 9:00 · coming soon
In this lesson
- Check a low kick with the shin rather than absorbing it on the thigh
- Keep balance and hands during the check
- Punish the kick that misses
Coaching cue — Lift the knee and turn the shin outward. Do not step away — you will not be fast enough.
Why boxers get chopped down
A boxer's lead leg carries weight, points forward, and has no defensive habit attached to it. To a kicker it is a stationary target that cannot be moved in time.
Low kicks accumulate. The first one is nothing. The tenth one changes how you stand, and once your stance changes, everything built on it changes too.
The check
- Lift the lead knee toward your own chest. This is the whole movement — you are not stepping anywhere.
- Turn the shin outward so the hard edge of the bone meets their kick.
- Point the knee slightly at them, so the shin angles across the incoming line.
- Hands stay up. Almost everybody drops their hands when they lift a leg, which is precisely why kicks are thrown to set up punches.
- Return the foot to exactly where it came from.
Timing
You cannot check a kick you have not started checking. By the time a low kick is visible it is roughly a tenth of a second from landing, which is not enough time to decide.
The answer is the same as counter-punching: you check on expectation, not on sight. If they have thrown two low kicks after their jab, the third jab is a reason to check whether or not the kick comes. Checking nothing costs you almost nothing.
A missed check is cheap. An unchecked kick is expensive. The maths only points one way.
The counter
A kick is a commitment on one leg. Whoever just kicked is, for a moment, standing on one foot with their hips turned.
- Check, then cross. They are recovering their leg and cannot move.
- Check, then step in. A kicker who has just missed is at the wrong range to defend an entry.
Drill it
Two rounds of checking only, with a partner throwing light low kicks on a predictable rhythm, then unpredictably. Two rounds where you must check and immediately throw a cross. Then two rounds where they mix low kicks with jabs, and you check every time you see the setup — including the times the kick never comes.