I think a good point was brought up with sweeping. If you completely shutdown their kicks to the point where they are afraid to throw them, either with sweeps or counters, then you've closed the range that you said had the most difficulty with. So with that I remembered this which I found on another site I frequent. Now I haven't gotten this down as far as applying it, but it seems like something I could use, so I decided to share it.
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/show...hlight=counter