advice needed

[kid lock]

It seems that the higher I throw my kick, the less the power. Can anybody relate to this or offer some advice to the novice kicker?

[kid lock]

What a forum, I guess I can kick better than anybody in here. All these views and your supposed to be kickboxers? Great advice!

[Szczepankiewicz]

Well, I'm no kickboxer, but it would seem that you have the most power in a kick when it is at hip level. I believe that the straight back kick is probably the most powerful kick. You are balanced with a good base and you're using your upper body as a counter-lever. When you extend your leg you are using the quadricep group and the glutes, the two largest muscle groups in your body. It takes a fair amount of flexibility to get your legs higher than your waist, AND it seems that your range of motion for the muscle groups becomes limited do to your basic body mechanics. Basically like trying to throw a puch straight backwards and expecting to get the same power as a hook or upper cut. Body just ain't designed to do that stuff...


But that's just my off the cuff opinion.

And you're whiny assed opinion would be.... ?



SZ

[mushinmaster]

Don't throw high kicks.

While the back kick may be the most powerful, it is not the most practical. The low thai kick is the most powerful and practical kick I know of. Power def increases as hieght decreases - when you kick high, you should still have power, just use the same mechanics as you do for a low kick.

If you can't roll your hip over the kick, and swing your leg out, snapping and swinging through, it will be dificult to get power off it. Flexibility is a major factor in the power of high kicks. So is being loose. Just practice them in the air for a while to the motion is fluid and lose, work on your flexibility, and then go to the pads.

You just lose a lot of leverage on high kicks that you have when you execute low kicks, but with suffiecient speed it shouldn't be that big of a difference...

[jubaji]

Re: advice needed

Originally posted by kid lock
It seems that the higher I throw my kick, the less the power. Can anybody relate to this or offer some advice to the novice kicker?

so don't do that.

[PentjackSilat]

try this

Get infront of a banana bag and kick it as hard as you can at leg level. Then kick it as hard as you can at head level. The lower one was stronger huh? Now punch it as hard as you can at head level. Then punch it as hard as you can at foot level. The higher one was stronger huh? I know this illustration is a little sarcastic, but it has a point. Kicking someone in the head is about as intelligent as punching them in the foot. Legs are designed to stay near the ground, and hands are designed to stay higher. Use them for what they are designed to do. You will never be able to kick someone in the head as hard as you can hit them in the head, and vice-versa, because that is how the body is mechanically designed. I have tried too, but it doesn't work.

[kid lock]

You guys have very good points! The reason I was asking for power in my high kicks is because I'm looking for a good high "unexpected" right kick. Thanks for the advice

[mushinmaster]

an "unexpected" low round kick may be even more unexpected and damaging than a high one

...if billy bob can't walk, he can't fight too well

[Bau]

while you wont be able to have equal power with high and low kicks...

You dont really have to hit anyone that hard to KO them with a high kick.... timing and prescision.....a well placed kick to the head is enough to make anyone dizzy...
Sure leg kicks are very powerful...BUT...takes alot more power strikes to take out the legs than it does to take the head..theres no brain to rattle around in the leg!!

high kicks..just keep practicing them...the more you do it ..the better you'll get.. not the most effective kick to use ALL THE TIME...but works incredibly well after killing the legs for a round or two....then throw the high one...BOOM!

personally I like to throw high kicks....cos I can

[Nthman]

Chamber the knee high and make sure you turn your hips over..I sometimes see people doing a sorrt of "cresent" kick where they just swing the leg around, but what works best for me and seems to generate the most power is to bring the knee up fairly straight sort of like doing a front kick then turn the hips over until you are sideways..I hope that makes sense. The hips are where the power comes from so I sort of imagine I am twisting around someone.


Of course techniques and opinions vary but this is how I do it.

[mushinmaster]

Originally posted by Bau

You dont really have to hit anyone that hard to KO them with a high kick.... timing and prescision.....a well placed kick to the head is enough to make anyone dizzy...
Sure leg kicks are very powerful...BUT...takes alot more power strikes to take out the legs than it does to take the head..theres no brain to rattle around in the leg!!

not the most effective kick to use ALL THE TIME...but works incredibly well after killing the legs for a round or two....then throw the high one...BOOM!

personally I like to throw high kicks....cos I can

My insturctor demonstrated a thai kick to my thigh once. He just went through the motions, and I couldn't walk straight for the rest of the night. It doesn't take much, bro, trust me, I've felt their wrath, and I hope I never catch one full blast.

Sure, after one or two rounds, if you are in a ring. Kicking above the waist on the street is almost sure suicide.

I can kick well over 7' high, but I don't, b/c its suicide on the street.

[Bau]

I too have felt the wrath of many low kicks my friend...some pretty hard ones..but I've been blessed with very strong thick legs!...so...

Tell me this....how many times have you seen a guy take one power kick to the leg and fall...and how many times have you seen a guy take one power kick to the head and fall?...

Not saying you cant be knocked down with a leg kick but...you'll have to take quite a few of them to fall....
Way easier KO with the high one...

Yes and of course a high kick is stupid to do in the street...I would never throw one.... kicking in general in the street is risky altogether...

but then again... I dont fight in the street...

[mushinmaster]

yeah dude, i train for the street and not the ring - big difference there.

while they don't get ko'd, i haven't seen to many people walk away from a good thai kick, usually they hobble

[MercuryTurrent]

hey mush, why are high kicks suicice on the street? far as i see, they're great. especially a quick spinning cresent!

[PentjackSilat]

They can work. But I have noticed that they are way too telegraphed. It takes a lot of time to get your foot all the way up to their head, and that gives them that much more time to stop it. It also leaves your groin exposed.

And turning your back to your opponent with a spinning kick is something I would never ever do. When I see someone turn their back I rush in and tie them up and start kneeing them in the spine and kidneys.

In my last fight my opponent walked out of his corner and threw a spinning kick. Ofcourse he never completed it because I rushed in, picked him up, and slammed him down.

I admit that spinning kicks have a lot more power than any other kick. But I think they need to be used as a finishing blow, the same as head kicks.

The stupid thing that my last opponent did was open up with a spinning kick. If he had hit me with something a little more secure, and had gotten me a little dazed, then would be the perfect time for a high kick or a spinning kick. But to just throw it at someone is suicide.

If your leg gets parried to the outside and you back is to your opponent is also a good time to throw a spinning kick, simply because that is the only thing you can throw.

Every tool has it's place in the toolshed. To use a jack-hammer when you only need to start the opening with an awl is grandstanding.

Ofcourse I am sure there are people out there who'll say that I'll never see their double jumping half moon spinning crescent toe to heel hook kick coming. But I haven't met that person yet.

So until then, I never use head or spinning kicks where they are not absolutely needed.