Parrying and Countering the Jab for Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai and MMA 

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I learned this in fencing and it translated so beautifully to boxing that it was my signature technique in the gym for awhile.

"Skipping a rock" + keeping elbow low + vertical fist = Wing Chun concept

Bong sau for the counter off what's basically a pak sau and strike! You're all kinds of kung fu today Mike.

I like how when you're teaching that last thing, it's to a trained fighter but also one who never does that type of move before. So there's the bit of trying to understand and not being fast with it. Shows the average person that you're not alone. Even the pros take take to get something down.

As a lefthanded person I would like to point out that this works possibly even better against other handed opponents. It is a true jab then, but it really has a high percentage for me.

As a kung fu nerd, I appreciate you cribbing from our textbook. Good fighting is good fighting.

I wanted to know the difference without gloves and was scared to ask and sound like a training dodger or “in the streets” guy and then you covered it. Love you two together. Great video.

This right here is something I have never been taught properly but having a sword fighting background comes in natural through the use of somewhat similar setting up to counter stuff. Especially the sword and shield combo has taught me a lot of this. Yes, the shield is an assault weapon, not a defensive item. Its defensive item that packs a mean punch.

As a southpaw, like 90% of my sparring is clogging up the jab lane, so any information to improve my parries is greatly appreciated.

Intercepting cross/jab, swivel jab, and elbow parry. Quite a lot of advanced stuffs packed into fourteen minutes.

as a southpaw this is one of my favorite techniques i liken the movement to skipping a rock. just a quick bounce

12:33 A yielding parry into prime, in fencing.

Southpaw here. I originally learnt this in kung fu and spam it relentlessly in muay thai. Few people have an answer for it. I even use it offensively to clear the guard. Another neat thing to do with it is use the parry to pull into a roundhouse kick.

@12:55 I practice this Jab Counter all the time on the Heavy Bag, but never had a Counter for it. Thank you very much Good Sir 🙏

Liked the video. There are lots of cool techniques like the elbow block (often employed by fighters using cross guard like Archie Moore, George Foreman, etc.) in boxing when you explore all the old guards and transitioning from one to the other.

I saw the title and as I was opening this video, I thought "no one gets a free swing" and then it was the first line of the video. Awesome. Love all the kung fu nerd-ery in this video! I like the shovel hook to just under the ribs after the parry (in wing chun they do it with a low palm strike). I also like stepping into an elbow (over or under the opponent's arm) with the parrying side, almost like a check hook. If you're deep enough already, you can also throw that arrow punch as a spearing elbow and its nasty. (That's another bit of kung fu nerd-ery.) Since you brought up bong sau...I'll also add that in wing chun, you often try to punch such that the line your punch travels is also effectively a parry. That's one of the reasons the arms on the wooden dummy are spaced the way they're spaced. You see it in all the pretty wing chun demos when the counter strikes scrapes over the forearm/elbow of the incoming punch.

For all your striking instruction videos, You should really also show how to do it/what it'd look like for a short person versus a tall person with LONG reach.

I love the parry and punish! I do it all the time. I'ma work that bong Sao defense now too

Mike were you in Tyler, Tx yesterday? If not a guy at a local martial arts gym is doing a killer impression of you.

It’s like a 16th note in music. Parry-hit is like the “1-e” of “1-e-an-a” instead of the usual 8th note rythm of block-punch “1-an” 😊

Been watching this channel for over five years

Wing Chun Mike ; ) Like the techniques, feel like WC applied in context is where it is properly understood (I’ve done it for 18 years and lean far more towards practical and testing feedback). Interesting stuff.

That's very similar to what my grandfather taught me. Except in the way I was taught to punch into their punch with a defending fist. Start with the fist vertical by the head, then punch forward but lower the fist so it impacts horizontal. It's sort of like a straight punch mizmxed with the arc of a hammer fist but more subtle. By doing this you impact, catch & deflect their punch with your forearm bone (ulna). Drive your ulna across their forearm like a saw & at the same time opening them up to your counter punch.

Ayyy that's the same principle of the elbow block on the philly shell. I was always taught that same defense if your opponent was trying to counter you off your jab. Really cool to see the Philly shell's kung fu ancestry explained.

i use this with a vertical fist, and is great ¡

Mike the kung-fu wizard, hitting them one inch and arrow punches, and bong saus, and tigers and bears, oh my!

Filmed this at the perfect time of the day.

Jon jones does the similar thing , elbows you to oblivion. thanks for the tips Mike they are great

The savate guys I trained with in France caught me, then taught me this down parry to same hand counter. Except, we parried and countered back with the jab. Both definitely work, and it sucks getting hit with it.

Perfect timing. I have my first light contact kickboxing match in 2 days. I love this counter.

Those black revgears might be the sweetest gloves I've ever seen brah

The aikido class joke was so funny And the dumb teacher expected answer was funny and relatable

There's a technique I learned a long time ago where you perry a strike down with one hand and the same hand comes back up to strike under the chin, I always liked the idea of defending with a hand and then attacking with the same hand when they're not expecting it.

Anyone else shadow boxing in their bedroom while watching this trying to learn it? Lmao

I like doing parries. At my first mma gym, I did some sparring with a girl beginner and I only used 1 arm to defend(part of the exercise) and I used a lot of wingchun parries and bon-sao. But as it went on, she kept learning how to get around my 1 hand, and eventually had me using both hands to defend, as well as, my arms were getting tired cuz we did this for a while.

Icy mike is my hero for using the bong sao in a practical way.

Thank you for your tips if baiting the jab. This will greatly improve my sparring. :)

Oh Mike you speak my language brother love it!

Every time Icey Mike accidentally teaches JKD I am filled with joy, haha.

Her nodding in the begging is hilarious! I rewatched it 15 times. And her movements are crisp. Great video! I'm wondering though, why is she rotating the fist in her jab so much? She obviously knows what she's doing, so there must be a good reason.

In karate there is an alternative which is more suited for low guards/if you are smaller/jabs against the forehead. the big difference is that the parry is from the inside with the elbow/shoulder and the movement is more unified. Its one of the first movements you are taught, its in the beginning of the first katas if i remember correctly Seth used it in a video maybe in your gym after Jesse gave him some traditional karate tips

Can you demonstrate/try my weird style of raising my jab arm and blocking/framing the cross with the elbow?

Yessir! I've seen you do this SOOO many times in your videos and even streetbeefs! Finally you're talking about it! LOL

I love the counter to the counter. I've been doing it by accident for a long time but I noticed a couple little things you're doing that I'm gonna try to add

A really good counter to this parry is faking that jab halfway and go for a hook instead then a cross the the body. I learned it when my opponents get too repetitive with it. 😁👌

Thanks Mike 👍

Very interesting!! A style I've trained make use of a very similar move, at times from a near identical stance (even with the pinkies out). However it is mostly done with the other foot leading (so same foot as arm) and then closing in a bit with that leading foot when counter to adjust the dibstance and "umph". The style also train with swords and many of the movemets are basically the same, and yes this move is used with swords also. So it was very interesting to see in the comments that both classical fencing and sword and shield (HEMA?), both being single handed weapons, use this as well when the sword my style use is primarly two handed. Keep up the good work!

Best opening out of every video on the Hard2Hurt channel😆

Them gloves definitely caught my eye 😮

@10:56 As someone who thought they invented this punch, I approve of the name Arrow Punch...ironically Green Arrow is what I'm currently watching on Netflix 😆

It gets super fun when you can parry with your arm fence to the inside and steal the inside gates and force opponents arm out of your center.

I also like to do the same thing with high guard or generali someone who dont tuck his elbow in. Just push it down and strait it to his face, to open one or 2 more punches after that.

Daaang Mike's teaching wing chun now

I love this move, one of my favourites

Just got my S5's, in large part due to your review

I always think of a fluffy that jumps right back on 👍

Oh lord, Mike has become a kung fu guy. Next will we see some tai chi? (That'll be quite epic + a wee bit of lol)

I love elbow blocks, I swear it's the best thing out of wing chun

LOOL! That Aikido class joke had me laughing out loud! :D

Dude I love this video

Thanks very much, both of you!

Hit a few dudes in today's session with this. Thanks Mike!

Very nice technique! there is a very small obscure channel (like mine) called Dangerous Waters MMA where the teacher goes through many types of blocking and this is one of then, but you dived in deeper. I remember the guy saying it should feel like skipping rocks. The channel has great excercises for judo combinations, by the way. Also that elbow counter can be found in Heian Sandan, the 3rd heian from Karate, the technique is called Empi Uke,there are many bunkai interpretations for that movement. Thanks for the video! Great stuff.

So very rarely do we see the guard-hand become the offensive hand, especially in one motion. Perfect Mike, OSU

Interesting to see that everything converges back to Wing Chun in the end.

Wow such a phenomenal explanation! I love punishing good behaviors when I grapple. That’s a great way to describe it. Just gaslight them!

This reminds me of a wing tsun technique - the only difference is the high elbow position.

Parrying is underutilized and fun to do

that counter seems like it needs a nice heel to the solar plexus to finish it. Almost looks like the set up for a spinning back kick type maneuver.

Woah. I know Kung Fu....... Thanks Mike, that is very cool. Seems like it would be really cool with the Philly Shell. And in Muay Thai you could maybe step in after that chicken wing block since they might be overwhelmed?

Really enjoyed this Mike! Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Hahaha 3:34 I call it the Moose 🫎

You're vids are great. I appreciate you guys.

Mike = appetising target. Got it! 😅

thanks so much for this technique ¡¡¡

I was wondering how I can implement this move for my competition. I don't wanna lay back and wait for the counter shot to come. It's only a 2 minute round. One round. I like that concept of simply moving forward to force the opponent to create the situation you are looking for

Makes perfect sense. Magicians call it "forcing". When they say "pick a card. Any card." They already know the card yer gonna pick and the rest of the trick follows. Same principle, right?

What a sneaky Wing Chun video

I feel like you could do some sort of elbow lock to counter the counter.

Thanks for another great video, and the extra credit at the end!

Great vid

Nice.😮

But if the face is inviting, wide-open body is at least as inviting, too. Matte black gloves look great. Coincidentally I've just ordered a pair of Messengers from Pakistan in matte black today. Hope they arrive!

7:20 You've pranked her with that before, haven't you?

I've noticed most parry drill videos have them counter after the parry I've been wondering why since it's not really much harder to parry and counter at the same time

Just came here to say, we miss Jay. Love the content still. Just miss watching you punch him.

12:26 Wing Chun defense, not boxing, I think.

Very cool. Thank you

Could you do a flicker jab off the parry?

That defense is a Wing Chun move.

I love this. Saw it on human weapon and started spamming it. Never seen the counter though that's awesome. Mike do you have a video explaining the false lead?

I'm about to turn 48 years old, and I'm 220lbs, this is my go-to move against my fellow students who are in their twenties and much "leaner" therefore much faster than me lol I land all the time lol I have actually developed a similar technique for when I check a kick I can launch a snap kick right into their side without putting my foot down which would be the Kik equivalent of this move.

YUSS! Stuff to learn!!

This show boxing is not base of reality but kung fu is.

Ok, now aikido goes on :) ;)

Wow wing chun technique

Always a good vid :)

This is so cool.

I hate it when people do this to me in muay thai lol. It's so weird when people just stand there, stare at you and wait for the jab to come. So, basically I just start kicking them in the legs.