Tips for poor kickers

[STR33T GUY]

Once upon a time, I was riding my mountain bike when a car hit me. My left leg was messed up good and it took years for all the pain to go away. As a result I’m not a good kicker and realistically I never will be. Most know the dangers associated with kicking high and that goes double for me. I’m also slow to get a kick off, I telegraph my kicks so badly that you could go for coffee and come back in time to block it.

 

To keep kicks in my bag of tricks, I have adopted these tactics.

 

1) I believe it’s better to be good at one thing than to be poor at many. So I practice only two kicks, the roundhouse which is my main kick and the push kick that I use as a counter to kicks thrown at me or as a feint. 2) I never kick high, almost always to the legs, mostly to the knees. 3) Because low kicks can be thrown from punching range I throw my roundhouse kicks at the end of a punching combination. This helps immensely with my telegraph problem.

 

I’ve actually managed to make the roundhouse kick to the knee a high percentage technique for me.

 

I’d sure like to read other peoples tips to help the poor kickers like me.

[steveb]

You might want to read up on Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. He also had a bad leg and became an excellent kicker, for both high and low kicks. Perhaps you could gain some info and/or inspiration from his story. I'm glad though that you have found a way to adapt.

[kickcatcher]

tip for poor kicker: punch opponent in face.

[busling]

I was and still am a slow and low kicker. During a private lesson my teacher recognised that my hip body and leg flexibility my slowing up my kicks and reducing my punching power/speed. She recommended a simple series of stretches that take about 10 minutes to complete.

 

I have been doing them 4 mornings a week for about 2 months now and have noticed a significant improvement in how high I can do my round and front kicks. My round kick can now go about one to one and half feet higher.

 

Like you I have found that mixing up hand and feet combinations keeps my opponent focued on the wrong thing and lets me land my kicks.

[shotochem]

Hey Guy,

 

There's no law saying you have to kick a lot. I am not the quickest most flexible guy. As a result it's a pretty safe bet for all that there won't be many kicks coming their way.

 

I use my kicks strategically. Defensively when someone moves in on me, at the tail end of a sweep (sweeps when learned to use effectivly, can make up for many things ), At the end of a combo when my opponent is retreating and basically just to keep them honest. If they get too confident I can and will surprise them.

 

I can kick to the head with a front kick, and the spinning back hooking kick but never with a roundhouse or a true to form back kick. The only way for me to get it up there is with a little hop and jump so its quite easy to pick up.

 

You just learn to work with what you have.

 

There is more than one way to hit your opponent.

[krunchyfrogg]

You might want to "telegraph" a kick by bringing your knee up, but only as a deception to the punches that are coming.

[VinnieDaChin]

meh, you seem to have it going on with your kicks allready. add in a front snap so you can kick people in the balls or shin (not hard at all) if you like, but really- what else do you need?

[Popkov]

to be a good kicker you need to find your center of balance, when i first tried kicking high in an offensive way i fell backwards, the best way i found to improve the kick whether high or low or to get a faster kick is to just kick straight in front of you with a straight leg and as high as you can (this may hurt at first) but it stops hurting after a few kicks, and have your arms out straight to the sides like this >------- -------<, this is find makes my legs more flexable and lower kick movements move faster.

 

(being able to do the splits helps alot also i find but you ccan stil lbe an excellent kicker without being able to do the splits)

[pineapple]

My advice to anyone with a handicap is to concentrate on what they can do and make it twice as good as the normal guy (like Bill Wallace) and knee kicks sounds like the perfect thing to do. Work on making it faster, stronger, and develop different combinations utilizing the knee kick. Perhaps you can also concentrate on thigh and calf kicks.

[1kickKO]

I myself am a big person on footwork (no I am not in TKD) in my sparring. I have tons of kicking combos I'd be willing to share if you would like, you could pm me or e-mail me at nmoccabee@yahoo.com. A few techniques I have learned over the years I will put down here:

 

Get into a normal fighting stance and drop your backhand, as you do this throw up a roundhouse with a haito(ridge hand) at the exact same time, it shold look like your leg is hanging by a string from your hand when you do this...in other words it's a roundhouse and a haito at the same time, which draws their attention to either the roundhouse, then you score with the haito, or the haito, which you then score with the roundhouse.

 

Another technique is to throw a front kick (intentionally miss and land in front of them) and as soon as your front foot lands hit them with a backfist then sweep their front leg.

 

If you'd like more again, just hit up my e-mail or pm me. Also, stretching truly does work. Yoga is a great suggestion, and as weird as it sounds, your kicks will improve 101% from this. You can also find many sites on stretching. But other than kicking(I know ya don't want to give up on it copmletely) throw in many combos with punches, throw fakes to the head or fake with your legs then go for the midsection. Remember this... when you fake high, they block high, causing an open midsection(chudan). When you fake low, they block low, causing an open high section/head section (judan). Good luck in training.