Jomwo Chernyim: Lead Leg Kicking & the Secrets of a Narrow Stance
Examining how Jomwo Chernyim's upright, narrow stance facilitates kicking and defensive clinch, and how he adjusts his boxing form to suit the peculiar stance.
Jomwo Chernyim is a fighter I haven’t heard discussed before, but he has a unique, interesting style that’s worth a look. He entered his prime around the beginning of Muay Thai’s Golden Age in the early 80’s, winning the Rajadamnern 118lbs title in 1981 against Mafuang Weerapol after several failed attempts.
While he would only make two defenses of his sole major stadium title, he would go on to have a long and successful career in Bankok spanning over a decade and including wins over elite talents like Namphon Nongkeepayuth, Petchdam Lukborai, Samransak Muangsurin, Manasak Sor.Ploenchit, and Jampatong Na Nontachai.
There’s sadly little information available about Jomwo on the internet and only nine of his fights survive out of hundreds, so we’re left piecing together his style out of spare parts. He was apparently quite a popular fighter in his time, nicknamed “The Fighting Playboy” due to a habit of spending his prize money on partying and a lackadaisical outlook toward training.
His series of fights with Petchdam Lukborai seem to have been especially significant - Jomwo went 2-2 against Petchdam, knocking him out twice, both times winning a side bet of over a million baht (roughly 30k USD).
Lead-Leg Kicking
A quick look at Jomwo’s stance makes it clear that the orthodox left kick is a big weapon for him. He stands very upright and square, with his feet close together, ensuring that both legs are kept underneath him and can be quickly picked up at a moment’s notice to attack or check kicks. Figure 1 demonstrates Jomwo’s upright stance.
A wider, more set stance is preferable for heavy rear-leg kickers, as the weight can be kept on the front foot, with the back foot coiled and ready to launch into a deadly kick. But for kickers who prefer to operate with their lead leg, that sort of stance leaves the plant leg too far back for smooth kicking.
When throwing a kick, it’s the distance of the plant leg to the target that determines its range, not the kicking leg. Likewise, distribution of weight relative to the plant leg determines how quickly a kick can be initiated. With a wide stance, the rear leg is behind your center of gravity, making the weight transfer from front foot to back foot to initiate a lead-leg kick cumbersome. But with a narrow stance like Jomwo’s, the rear leg is right underneath his hips and weight transfer is quick and smooth, so the lead leg can be flicked up immediately.
The ease of weight transfer afforded by Jomwo’s stance also opens up the left kick as a counter tool. He liked to set up an extra step away from his man and let them walk onto him, flicking up the left body kick as soon as they step into kicking range. This is especially effective against punchers, who need to expose themselves to the kick in order to find range for their heavy punches. A tried and true tactic in Muay Thai for lead-leg kickers is to hang around outside and draw out the rear hand to kick the ribs underneath it.
One of the keys to an effective lead-leg switch kick is the subtlety of the switch step. The switch step initiates the kick, drawing the lead leg back and the rear leg forward to power the kick. But when you see inexperienced fighters try it on the bag, it tends to come out as an exaggerated jumping motion. If you look at the most skilled kickers in Thailand, the motion is typically small and subtle - the feet almost glide across the floor rather than lifting off, and the lead foot often ends up only slightly further back than the rear. A subtle switch step powers the kick without making it too slow and predictable.
Jomwo’s left kick took center stage in his 1977 fight against Orachunnoi Hor.Mahachai, the first Jomwo fight of which we have footage. Orachunnoi was a natural 108lber and Jomwo would fight for the Rajadamnern 112lbs title several months later so Orachunnoi may have been at a weight disadvantage. But Jomwo stranded him on the outside all fight, drawing out clumsy left hooks and kicking the body underneath them, then tying up whenever he was able to close distance.
Jomwo’s footwork and positioning was built around his lead-leg kick, designed to quickly extend the distance into kicking range while keeping his feet in position to fire off the kick. He actually has strong boxing, but as we’ll see later, his boxing offense came out of footwork and positioning designed around kicks, making for an interesting and unique style.
When opponents lead with punches, he’d often give ground with a short backstep, drawing his left leg behind his right. The backstep takes him away from the initial punch and encourages his man to step forward, while putting him in position to throw the lead leg without first switching his feet.
The backsteps are also useful for setting up kicks on the counter. When opponents kicked the lead leg or teeped the body, drawing the lead leg back very slightly made their kick fall short while simultaneously setting up his own left kick.