Front kick

[DokterVet]

When you guys front kick do you keep your hips totally square and your bottom foot facing straight ahead, or do you allow a slight twist of the hips so your bottom foot faces out a bit?

[turonaga]

square i guess. other foot all toes facing forward.

[equaninimus]

Depends. Ideally there is a pendular motion with the hips, to where they rock forward into the kick, then back as you retract teh leg. But I tend to extend the hip of the kicking leg forward for a little extra thrust.

 

As for the supporting foot, I haev always been taught to rotate it in order to assist the hip thrust, and also to avoid blowing out that knee when the kicking foot makes contact. That may just be a reflection of my hip structure, though.

[ESA-Shotokan]

Best to try and keep the hips square; try to get the feeling of pushing in with the opposite hip to the foot you are kicking with but do push forward with both hips.

 

As for the supporting foot turning slightly, this is not a major error but you will then find you can't drive yourself forward as fast.

 

Try doing the front kick and keep your balance afterwards; hold this position. Then continue to step down into a forward stance (zenkuts) and perform oitsuki punch. If your foot is turned out, you may find yourself sort of hovering there for a moment as you gather your momentum to perform the punch.

 

Instead, always work on keeping that supporting leg bent and also try (hard as it is) to not even raise your hips from the starting position - in fact, try to lower the position slightly to accommodate the action. Then kick and step forwards.

 

[Sibylla]

Straight hips, toes forward. In wado I've been told to twist the supporting foot, in Shotokan it is a no-no.

[trekmann]

I tend to slightly turn my supporting foot outwards as I kick out. It seems to aid in my balance. I have not been pulled up on it by Sensai, so it must be OK.

[equaninimus]

Straight hips, toes forward. In wado I've been told to twist the supporting foot, in Shotokan it is a no-no.

That's probably where I picked the habit up. Wado body shifting is a little more complex than that of its duller cousin.

[DokterVet]

Interesting.

 

The reason I'm asking is because recently my training has shifted from in-class katas, kicking in air kind of stuff like ESA-Shotokan suggested to lots of bag training.

 

Before I always did it toes forward but now that I'm walloping something solid I'm tending to drive forward with everything I have - occasionally giving the hip on the kicking side an extra thrust forward.

[aefibird]

Generally I tend to kick to the front square on with hip thrust forwards, toes on opposite foot forward or slightly at an angle.

 

Hey equaninimus, if you meant Shotokan by the 'duller cousin' then come and pay a visit to my dojo. Maybe the Shotokan that you did was dull, but we're not all like that!!

[italian_guy]

I allow some amount of hip rotation.

 

Both in Tai chi and Kickboxing