Inside Low Kick

According to Liam Harrison, you should read your opponent's patterns by throwing feints at different heights—throw a high fake to see how they react, then go low to the leg when they're not expecting it. The key is making your fake and real kicks look identical so your opponent can't distinguish between them.

Liam Harrison emphasizes that after you throw a low kick, you must 'slide-out' and step back out of range immediately—don't stay close and throw multiple kicks in succession, or your opponent will have time to counter. The quick retreat prevents them from timing their counters.

Liam Harrison explains that if your opponent's weight is on their back foot, they will always block a low kick no matter how fast you throw it. Instead, use a fake punch to the throat combined with a hook to shift their weight back to that side, creating an opening for the low kick.

Liam Harrison states that throwing a punch-cross-hook combination is one of the simplest tactics he's used throughout his career—the hook pulls the opponent's weight back onto the leg kick side, creating an opening. He notes that most opponents he's heavily kicked have fallen for this basic combination.

The Inside Low Kick is a roundhouse kick targeting the inside of the opponent's lead or rear leg, striking the inner thigh (adductor muscles) or the inner knee area. The inside low kick attacks a less commonly defended angle, as most fighters train to check low kicks coming from the outside, making the inside angle a tactical surprise.

Inside low kicks have been used in Muay Thai for generations, though they received less attention than outside low kicks in Western martial arts until recent decades. The technique gained prominence in MMA through fighters who used inside low kicks to destabilise opponents' stances and set up takedowns or other strikes.

Unified MMA: разрешён — Legal striking technique; WBC/Boxing: запрещён — All kicks prohibited in boxing; WKF: запрещён — Kicks below the waist prohibited in sport karate; Kyokushin: разрешён — Legal at full power; WT: запрещён — Kicks below the waist prohibited; WAKO: разрешён — Legal in Low Kick and K-1 formats; K: разрешён — 1/GLORY — Legal — low kicks are a core technique; IFMA: разрешён — Legal — leg kicks are highly scored in Muay Thai

Оценка опасности 6/10. High — most common KO kick; generates ~1,000N force to head (Falco et al. 2009)

Стандартная цепочка подготовки: Stance and Range → Chamber the Leg → Execute the Kick → Recover.

Стандартные контрприёмы: Check (Shin Block) — raise the shin to intercept the kick before it lands / Catch and Sweep — catch the kicking leg and sweep the standing leg / Step Inside — close distance inside the kick's effective range to smother it.

Распространённые варианты: Standard roundhouse (rear leg) (full hip rotation, shin strikes the target); Lead leg roundhouse (switch kick) (switch-step to generate power from the lead side); Low roundhouse (leg kick) (targeting the thigh to damage the opponent's base); Head kick (high roundhouse targeting the temple or jaw).

Used in Muay Thai and MMA.

Основные ошибки, на которые стоит обратить внимание: Kicking too high and hitting the groin area, which is a foul in every ruleset / Not stepping to the outside angle first, which makes the inside kick travel across the centre line — easier to block / Using the instep instead of the shin — the foot bones are fragile against the hard inner thigh / Throwing the inside low kick predictably, always from the same setup — mix it with outside low kicks.

Inside Low Kick также известен как In Rō Kikku, Tee Tad Nai, Inside Leg Kick, Inner Thigh Kick.