Below the Belt

After years of being asked, "Don't you guys ever kick?" renowned grappling expert Mark Hatmaker finally unleashes his vast arsenal of low kicks for MMA and self-defense in this comprehensive video.

Hatmaker will show you the formidable Thai kicks from the rear leg and switch kicks that are well known to most fighters, but if you think they represent the full array of possible kicks, you're about to get an education.

Stressing the high-percentage kicks that will work almost every time, Hatmaker demonstrates kicks from the outside range and the clinch; the brutal "Ax Murderer" series; back kicks to get out of a rear-clinch situation; cut-kicking; painful and surprising point kicks; and defenses against any kick imaginable. For the complete fighter, he launches into an exhaustive display of kicking combinations followed by kicking and upper-body tool combinations that show you how to mesh Western boxing strikes with kicking attacks to the thighs, shins, and ankles. To burn it all in, he gives you kicking chain drills, kicking conditioning drills, and leg conditioning drills that rely on sparring contact, not kicking trees because "the Thais don't do it, and neither should you."

Simply put, Hatmaker proves that if you want to be on top of your game, you have to go low.