Kick Type
Kick Type When Josh Farro and Jeremy Davis of Paramore do that kick-type thing, is there a name for it? Can/does anyone else do it? Uhmm, yeahhh, it's called.... that kick/type thing. 0_o ...
Kick Type
Power Tae Kwon Do Kicks In Five Easy And Logical Steps
It makes no sense to let an attacker get close enough to use his hands. If he's got a knife or club, or just a fist that is fast, the best strategy is to kick low and keep him at a distance. The problem is that many Martial Arts schools do not teach the right way to use the legs.
A couple of things to remember before we get into making your kicks powerful. Practice high so you have strength and flexibility, but keep your kicks low in a fight so you don't get a leg caught. And, the best strategy is to avoid the fight altogether whenever possible.
Practice kicking over a chair. This will train you to raise your knee high. When your knee is high your foot can go straight in and deliver the goods, and not arc up and scrape the body.
Turn your hips into the action of the kick. Always turn, or tilt, your hips so that the weight of the hips is driven into the action. This will also give you a little more reach, and it will help commit the whole weight of the body into the action.
Always try to kick with the ball of the foot. I know many people like to kick with the instep, but if they miss they end up spinning around out of control. Kicking with the ball of the foot forces the artist to be an artist, and it concentrates more weight into the smaller area of the ball of the foot.
Bring the foot all the way back after kicking. Snap that foot back so that an opponent can't grab it and throw you. This also tends to leave more power in the target, consider it a type of follow through.
Practice planting your foot on your partner, then pushing him. This usually means you will alter the kick so that you can place the heel on the body of your partner, then push. This trains you to use the exact muscles that are actually used in a kick.
Kicks are your first line of defense, don't just practice these techniques a few times and forget about them, practice them hundreds of times a day for each kick. Whether you are training in Karate, or Tae Kwon Do, or Kung Fu, or whatever, a well placed kick can save your life. So practice, and look at your kicks, invest awareness, study the physics of a kick so that your kicks are effective and end the fight before it can even start.
About the Author
Al Case has examined martial arts for over more than 4O years. A writer for the magazines, he had his own column in Inside Karate for several years. You can find out how to have the most powerful punch on the planet, or how to have the strongest kicks on the planet, by picking up his free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.