Eric Hyer On Legkick Pad and Mitts
By Mike LNg
Eric Hyer Drilling mitts
Eric Hyer is a name that’s been around the USA Muay Thai scene since Muay Thai was becoming a bigger entity in the United States. Eric was a Ray Longo student when he began fighting and training at the age of 16. Eventually, he got the invite to train at the newly minted Fairtex USA training facility in Arizona. From there he went on to fight and train in both Thailand and Hong Kong. When Eric eventually made the return to New York he quickly became busy closely working with MMA standouts like Matt Serra and Al Iaquinta.
Eric shared this clip with me a bit ago with him working boxing mitts and the infamous leg kick pad (a good training tool for any padman). What stood out to me were a few things. First the student in this video is a Div I wrestler who is, unlike lifelong Muay Thai students, newer to many of the techniques in Muay Thai. Yet he looks relatively sharp and accurate working with Eric.
The other important thing that was noteworthy is this video could well serve as template of how to be a good pad man. Eric is neither static nor soft with the pads. Instead he catches the punches giving it the right amount of resistance with each catch. And he catches the punches while at the same time making his student aware of defense. I like the leg kick shield too because it provides a continuity in techniques. The student doesn’t have to wait for the padman to adjust his position to accommodate the low kicks to the legs.
The padman is important, maybe even more important in developing a fighter than sparring. A good padman sharpens up your timing, technique and fight awareness. Just by the same token a bad padman can nearly ruin an otherwise talented fighter by creating bad timing and bad habits.
Here’s Eric being the fighter’s best friend (a good padman) below.
The Science of 8 Limbs 
Good input and thought…Now this gives me a newer insight of what being a good padman is about! Thanks Mike!
No problem. Eric is the goods. It helps me too!
that leg kick pad is great…i checked around online for one and couldn’t find anything but i did however stumble upon this…
probably an easy fix. any idea where they might be selling these?
As far as I know the pad is a TP3 and only sold by Fairtex which kind of surprises me because they are such good and versatile tools.
The only thing I’ve ever seen come close is a belly pad leg kick pad combo:
http://fighterxfashion.com/standupfighter-leg-kick-trainer/
But to be fair I couldn’t vouch for its quality because I’ve never tried it.
Jake, that Stand Up Fighter leg guard is okay looking. I prefer Fairtex because it allows you to move more and won’t restrict your movements if you throw knees or kicks and allow you to adjust it for the fighter to kick it.