Considered the pentathlon of combat sports, the short history ofMMA has been marked by constant changes caused by the arrival ofnew techniques to the game. After Royce Graciessubmissions, Marco Ruas legkicks, MarkColemans ground-and-pound, LyotoMachidas karate and Jon Joneselbows, the calf kick is fighters new nightmare.

Speaking to Sherdog, Dr. Rickson Moraes, official orthopedist ofmany Brazilian UFC fighters such as Jose Aldo andRonaldoSouza, attempted to explain the reasons why this kick can causeso much damage with only two or three successful attacks. Thatarea around the head of the fibula [the smaller, outer bone of thelower leg] lacks muscle protection, so the whole structure ends upsuffering with that lateral kick. In that area, besides the fibulabone head, there are ligaments, the short and long fibular tendonsand the fibular nerve. Actually there are so many structuresexposed, without a natural protective envelope like other partsof the leg, that from a scientific point of view it's hard to sayexactly which specific one causes such a strong acute pain, saidDr. Moraes, who is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, named forRicksonGracie.

A disciple of Fabio Noguchi, Kubis learned that kick with hismaster, who came up in the first generation of the legendary ChuteBoxe. I brought this technique to ATT in 2009. Noguchi has alwaysdone that kick in muay Thai and I was sure it could work in MMA. Iremember that when I arrived most people didnt believe in thetechnique until the day WilsonGouveia, fighting in Canada for Maximum Fighting Championship,knocked out his opponent in the first round. Since then more andmore people started to train for that. Today in our striking class,every Wednesday and Friday, I have around 40 professional fighterstraining that kick: names like AmandaNunes, Junior dosSantos, Thiago Marreta, SantiagoPonzinibbio, JoannaJedrzejczyk, JussierFormiga, PedroMunhoz, NinaAnsaroff, Dhiego Limaand DouglasLima, Kubis revealed.

I remember clearly that I went to train with Carneiro in 2008 andhe insisted that I use it. By that time he was the trainer ofAmandaNunes, who was one of the first to use it in MMA, long beforeit started to be in fashion in the MMA world like it is now, saidMinotauro. ATT fighters Nunes and NinaAnsaroff, who met each other training at MMA Masters, confirmedNogueiras statement on their social media.

Carneiro revealed that he started to do this technique in Thailandwhile working on a movie with Jean Claude Van Damme. We went tofilm The Quest there and stayed there three months. Since Im acapoeira fighter I started to throw that kick at the front leg inorder to take out the base of my muay Thai sparring opponents andit worked, so I brought it to MMA.

According to karate master Vinicio Antony, former head coach ofLyotoMachida and VitorBelfort and author of the book The Hidden Art of Karate, thecalf kick used by both Brazilian MMA trainers was already practicedin kung fu a long time ago. It was used by kung fu and imported bykarate with the name of harai geri. That technique was evolved bymonks with the goal of causing minimum damage to the opponent,because they believed that the more damage they caused, the morethey would suffer in their next incarnation (karma). So they alwayslooked for the acupressure points that today are even used inacupuncture in order to cause an acute pain without causing toomuch damage. Of course it also brings a psychological impact andthe fighter who doesnt have a big heart gets discouraged afterfeeling that strong pain, explained Antony.

Rizzo, for example, likes to raise the leg a little bit whileturning the knee outward. That way the kick hits the shin and isneutralized, explains the Rock.

Carneiro, on the other hand, advises avoiding the impact. MuayThai people think that by blocking you will lessen the shock, butthat makes it worse, says Carneiro, giving a practical example.We have a fighter called FrankCarrillo, who faced Mike Rio in2014. Mikes trainer told him to block using the shin and the kidended up breaking his leg. The right thing to do is take the legout [of the way]. But to do that the fighter needs to be very welltrained. We use a couple of drills with our fighters here. But nodoubt the best defense is to avoid the shock.

According to Antony, karate also has a defense technique for haraigeri. We call it namiashi. It consists of rotating the hip atthe same time you lift your foot and turn it outward. That way thekick passes by, doesnt hit and at the same time, it allows me tocounter attack my opponent.

ATT trainer Kubis believes that choice of defense technique dependson his athletes style: We have four different techniques todefend the calf Kick, with or without contact, and we fit it in thestyle of our fighters. The most important thing is make itwork.

Whether this mysterious rib kick will become as famous as thecalf kick, only time will tell. The only certainty we have is thatthe degree of unpredictability of this big tool box called MMA isdirectly proportional to its enormous size.

Read more here:
Dossier: Anatomy of the Calf Kick - Sherdog.com