Mailbag: The intricacies of the calf kick, as explained by an expert in MMA strategy

@Jietzsche: Why do fighters so often abandon the calf kick after implementing it effectively in the first round? Alex Pereira for example in his last fight seemed to get off to a good start piling up the calf damage early, then stopped emphasising it..

Thank you for this question. I reached out to noted trainer and fight coach Eric Nicksick for an answer. The resulting conversation was super interesting for me, so I’m grateful to you for being the catalyst on that.

To hear Nicksick tell it, one thing you have to remember is that the calf kick is not necessarily the same weapon to all fighters in all fights. Some are using it offensively. Others use it defensively. Some are using it to establish or disrupt patterns early on, solely for the purposes of changing up later on.

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For example, Nicksick said, when Francis Ngannou rematched Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title, their plan was to use the calf kick as an answer to Miocic’s jab. Every time he jabbed, Ngannou’s instruction was to parry and kick the calf. This was meant as a way of slowing down Miocic’s movement while also convincing him to jab less.

“It’s kind of like, if you get zapped every time you put your hand in the cookie jar, pretty soon you stop reaching for cookies,” Nicksick explained.

But in other fights, such as Sean Strickland’s UFC middleweight title fight with Israel Adesanya, the calf kick was intended to be a form of preemptive defense. Go out there and kick Adesanya’s calf just so he’s not the only one kicking.

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That’s very different from how another fighter like Kai Kamaka uses it, Nicksick said. For him, it’s intended to enable his own movement rather than to limit the movement of an opponent.

“Sometimes it’s like a dive play in football,” Nicksick said. “We’re going to run it up the middle to remind you it’s there and set up other stuff later on. But if we’re picking up 15 yards every time and you don’t adjust, we’ll keep running it until you prove you can stop it.”

But, as Nicksick pointed out, calf kicks can also be a good way to hurt your foot. You’re talking about a dense collection of tiny bones and ligaments that can be disabled by connecting with a shin or an ankle or a knee in just the wrong way. Some fighters stop kicking the calf simply because they hurt themselves doing it. Others who have suffered foot injuries in the past are forced to use them less in training, since they’re worried that another foot injury will force them out of the fight, at which point it becomes a weapon they’re less accustomed to using in fights.

In other words, there’s a lot going on with that one technique. Such is often the case in this fascinating sport, and I’m glad I got to learn about this aspect of it today. So thanks to you for asking the question, Jietzsche, and to Nicksick for breaking it all down.