In part one, we covered two finalists in the recent Sanda World Cup with interesting styles. Today we’ll look at a Vietnamese gold medalist who specializes in thwarting would-be kick-catchers, and a Belarusian boxer with a strange boxing-heavy style.
Van Tam Dinh: Beating the Kick Catch
Van Tam Dinh won Silver at last year’s world championships, losing a close fight in the finals to China’s Ou Jiaming. He avenged the loss in the finals of the world cup, finally taking home the gold at 52kg. Dinh is a well rounded fighter with capable striking and wrestling, but his most notable skill is that he can score with kicks without exposing himself to his opponent’s takedowns.
Dinh has a more compact stance than is typical among kickers in Sanda, standing relatively square and narrow. Since an amateur Sanda match is a points contest, it’s common for fighters to adopt a fencing stance, making themselves as long as possible, to maximize their effective range and allow them to hit without exposing themselves. While Dinh’s squarer stance shortens his effective range, it also affords him quicker hip and shoulder rotation, allowing him to follow opponents with quick combinations.
His stance is built more for stalking and occupying space than moving in and out at long range. Dinh works his way inside with quick punch-kick combinations, making up in ambidextrous hitting what he lacks in long straight blows.
Since Dinh is often forcing exchanges on longer fighters who prefer long-range pot-shotting, his skill in catching their kicks and converting to takedowns helps greatly. He’ll often work inside and draw a kick out of his opponent, then hit a takedown off it. But he’s usually initiating these exchanges, which opens him up to his opponent’s counters, and that’s where his skill in avoiding the kick catch comes in.
A common anti-catch tactic you’ll see in Muay Thai executed by kickers is controlling the opponent’s head. When catching a kick, it’s often beneficial to keep the opponent’s leg straight, where it remains connected to the center of mass, causing the body to follow when it is moved, and enabling a decisive sweep. Bending the leg can dissipate much of the force before it moves beyond the knee line, making it harder to move the body with it.
