00:00Rod Tang has made a name for himself with his aggressive fighting style in Muay Thai.
00:05He has had multiple title reigns in various organizations and is currently one of the
00:10most popular athletes in one championship. One thing that has allowed Rod Tang to be
00:16successful in Muay Thai is his unique fighting style, which he calls Iron. In this episode of
00:23Top 5, we will break down what Rod Tang's style is all about. So let's get into it.
00:29Coming from the famous camp of Bwakao, Rod Tang is a very technical striker,
00:34and his style is heavily influenced by his coach, who is a legend in Muay Thai.
00:40If you are a fan of Rod Tang, then you probably know that his nickname is the Iron Man,
00:45and he actually took this nickname literally even going as far as turning his back and walking away
00:50from his opponent when he knows he has hurt them, just like how iron is known to rust when exposed
00:55to water. And that is why he came up with the name of his style, Iron. And the first thing that
01:01we can see in Rod Tang's style is his boxing skills. We can see that he throws a lot of punches,
01:08and he throws them very fast. His boxing technique is great, and because he has such good boxing skills,
01:14he is able to throw combinations very easily and catch his opponents off guard. In fact,
01:20you could say that his boxing is so good that it kind of resembles a boxer who only fights in the
01:25standing realm. This is an example of one of his amazing boxing combinations, where he was throwing
01:32fast punches while moving around his opponent. And these are the kind of skills that got him the
01:37championship belt in one FC. Another important aspect of Rod Tang's style is his ability to change
01:44stances quickly. For example, here he is fighting someone who is more experienced than him, and that
01:50shows as he gets taken down. But after he gets back to his feet, he switches to southpaw stance very
01:56fluidly and starts dominating with his left hand. This is a very useful skill because he can switch to
02:02his southpaw stance both offensively and defensively, depending on the situation of the fight. Switching to
02:09southpaw can definitely surprise your opponent and disrupt their rhythm, and Rod Tang uses it very
02:15well in his fights. There are some fighters who prefer to stand at the southpaw stance throughout
02:20the whole fight, but Rod Tang changes his stance based on what he needs at that time. This is a good
02:26strategy because it makes him less predictable. Now this ability to switch stances comes down to two
02:33factors. The first one is having the right footwork, and the second one is proper training. In order to
02:39have good footwork, you need to start with having good balance. You need to work on your stance and
02:45position yourself correctly so you can attack and defend properly. And if you want to learn how to
02:51improve your footwork, you can do that through plyometric training. There are many exercises that
02:57you can do for this type of training, and they usually involve jumping. So start with doing things like
03:03squat jumps, lateral jumps, and speed skaters to improve your footwork. Then once you have improved
03:09your footwork, you can work on switching your stance. And there are drills that you can do like cone
03:14drills and mirror drills. Cone drills allow you to work on footwork patterns without having an opponent,
03:21and the mirror drill allows you to practice switching stances with a partner. These are just
03:26examples of the drills that you can do to practice stance switching. Of course, Rod Tang being the athlete
03:32that he is, he does way more than just these drills to improve his stance switching. Now let's move on to the
03:38second aspect, which is training. To be able to switch your stance quickly, you need to be well
03:43trained in both orthodox and southpaw stances. You should be able to attack and defend from both
03:50stances because if you don't, your opponent will be able to take advantage of it. One thing that Rod
03:56Tang emphasizes on is working on switching his stance in between rounds. So during the fight,
04:02he is always aware of his stance and how to use it to his advantage. That's why you see him switch his
04:08stance during the fight and also get back to his original stance very quickly. The next thing that
04:13we can see in Rod Tang's style is his aggressive fighting style. It's not uncommon to see him swinging
04:19wildly and letting his hands go, throwing everything he has at his opponent, and that's probably one of
04:26the reasons why he has so many finishes under his belt. Most of the time when he does this,
04:32he lands his strikes because he lets his hands go in combinations. Rod Tang seems to be fearless in
04:38his fights. He always goes forward and looks for the knockout, even though he may be risking himself by
04:43exposing his chin in the process, but that's how he fights. He has a never-give-up mentality,
04:49and that's what pushes him to be aggressive. However, being aggressive isn't necessarily a
04:54fighting style. It's more like an attitude or mentality that you bring into the fight.
04:59For example, Rod Tang can be very aggressive and throw wild punches at his opponent, but he still
05:05needs to have proper technique and timing to land those punches. On the other hand, he can also be more
05:11tactical and strategic by studying his opponent, looking for openings and picking their level of
05:17fatigue before going in for the kill. So it's not enough to just be aggressive. You also need to be
05:24smart and know when to strike and when to be patient. If you want to incorporate aggression into
05:30your fighting style, you need to have confidence in your striking abilities. So if you want to become
05:36more aggressive, you should work on your power, accuracy, and timing. Start by improving your power
05:42by doing things like resistance band punching and heavy bag work. From there, you can focus on your
05:48accuracy by doing things like shadow boxing and pad work. And finally, you can work on your timing by
05:54doing things like speed bag work and reaction ball training. Once you have worked on all three aspects
06:00of striking, you should be able to incorporate aggression into your fighting style. The last
06:06thing that we can see in Rod Tang's style is his ability to utilize the ropes. Many fighters sometimes
06:12forget about the ropes and the things that they can do with it. However, Rod Tang uses the ropes very
06:18effectively, whether it's to keep his opponent at a distance or tie them up or to gain leverage.
06:23He is not afraid to use it. For example, here he is using the ropes to keep his opponent away from him
06:31while he regains his composure. Also, here he is using the ropes to tie up his opponent and land knees
06:38to his opponent. And this is a very effective way to damage your opponent because it's very hard for
06:44them to defend themselves when they are tied up. Now the question is, how can you use the ropes
06:50effectively? First, you need to know what you can do with the ropes, and secondly, you need to train
06:57it. Some things that you can do with the ropes are keeping your opponent at a distance with the
07:02help of the ropes, holding the ropes to tie up your opponent, bouncing on the ropes to make it harder
07:07for your opponent to hit you, and using the ropes to support yourself while you throw knees and elbows.
07:14Now to train it, you can do things like rope drills and sparring with someone who holds the ropes.
07:20With the rope drills, you can work on things like jumping rope, skipping rope, bouncing on the ropes,
07:27holding the ropes, and tying up your opponent. And with sparring with someone who holds the ropes,
07:33you can work on things like keeping distance with the help of the ropes holding the ropes to tie up
07:38your opponent, landing knees and elbows while holding the ropes, and also bouncing on the ropes to make
07:44it harder for your opponent to hit you. So those are the main elements of Rod Tang's fighting style,
07:50his boxing, his ability to switch stances quickly, and his aggressive fighting style combined with his
07:56ability to use the ropes. Now you might notice that there are other things that we haven't mentioned,
08:02such as his elbow game, knee game, and also clinch work. Well, those are not part of his style.
08:09Those are techniques that he uses in the fight. So yeah, Rod Tang is a very complete fighter,
08:14and his style is constantly evolving. Thank you guys for watching till the end,
08:19and if you like this video, please leave a like and subscribe. Also, if you want to learn Muay Thai
08:24from scratch, so that's going to be it for this episode. Thank you guys for watching.
08:29Don't forget to leave a like and subscribe, and I'll see you guys next time.
08:33Don't forget to leave a like and subscribe to my channel.
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