How many Shotokan kicks are there?

[CombatHapkido]

I took Shotokan for almost 3 years. In the style I took we learned...

 

Front Rising

 

Front Thrusting

 

Round House

 

Back

 

Side Thrusting

 

Side Rising

 

Hook

 

Inside Crescent

 

Outside Crescent

 

and the spins

 

Spinning Back

 

Spinning Hook

 

Now someone just told me that Shotokan doesn't have all these kicks and that my teacher added kicks from other styles...

 

So my question is how many kicks is Shotokan supposed to have?

[gojoinstructor]

Traditional Shotokan styles teach mainly linear movements. Meaning, anything that goes out and comes back such as a side thrust, back kick, front kick or a stomp. Arced kicks, such as Round houses, hooks and most crescents are an addition from taekwondo or Gojo Ryu (even gojo ryu doesn't teach all these kicks in a traditional sense)

 

The good thing is that your instructor is not limiting you in your techniques. I teach Shotokan and when training for a traditional competition, I tell my students to stay with the basics (jab, reverse punch, front kick, side thrust, etc..)In class I teach everything though, Ax, scissor, and everything you mentioned.

[Killer Miller]

Traditional:

 

Side thrust.

 

Side snap.

 

Front snap.

 

Front thrust - not really taught that much because it is a dangerous kick to use.

 

Back Kick.

 

Spinning back - but not the same spinning back that most are use to seeing.

 

Inside and outside round house.

 

That's pretty much it...

 

- Killer -

[cathal]

Front Rising

 

Front Thrusting

 

Round House

 

Back

 

Side Thrusting

 

Side Rising

 

Hook

 

Inside Crescent

 

Outside Crescent

 

and the spins

 

Spinning Back

 

Spinning Hook

 

We do these as well, but mostly because they are in our katas, and kihon, for the exception of the spinning hook.

[AnonymousOne]

Front thrust

 

Front snap

 

Side thrust

 

Side snap

 

Back thrust

 

Back snap

 

Back thrust

 

Roundhouse kick

 

Crescent kick

 

Downward heel thrust

 

Jumping double front kick

 

Jumping side kick

 

Jumping front kick

 

Jumping round house kick

 

Reverse round house kick

 

Reverse jumping round house kick

 

Returning wave kick

 

Several forms of foot sweeps (the are kicks)

 

Rotating Jumping crescent kick (used as a block)

 

* Note some of these are found in advanced Kata that some may not be aware of

[Gyte]

In our Shotokan dojo the following kicks are taught:

 

mae geri keage (front snap kick)

 

mae geri kekomi (front thrust kick)

 

yoko geri keage (side snap kick)

 

yoko geri kekomi (side thrust kick)

 

mawashi geri (roundhouse kick)

 

ura mawashi geri (reverse roundhouse kick)

 

ushiro geri (back kick)

 

ushiro ura mawashi geri (backspinning reverse roundhouse kick)

 

kizami geri (cresent kick)

 

ushiro kizami geri (back cresent kick)

 

fumikomi (side stomp kick)

 

fumikiri (back stomp kick)

 

tobi mae geri (jumping font kick)

 

tobi yoko geri (jumping side kick)

 

randem tobi mae geri (jumping double font kick)

[ZakariRu]

In the JKA style of shotokan there are;

 

Front snap

 

Side snap

 

Round kick (knee in high chamber)

 

Back kick.

 

Side thrust.

 

Only ones you will ever see on a traditional shotokan rank test kihon.

 

In kata there is one Front thrust kick, nidan-geri (jump front) and a few outside-in cresent kicks.

 

There is also the Tekki kick. (returning wave)

 

There are alot of other kicks like cutting kicks (round kick that comes up at an angle like a front kick that turns READ:tkd turning kick

 

hook kicks, spinning hooks etc.)

 

Those are not part of the Shotokan testing syllabus for any org.

 

Unsu does have a front thrust kick, but i do not think i have ever seen that kick drilled specifically in the US or Japan people who do Unsu just do it in the kata.

[G95champ]

Well Shotokan is not differant than any style when it comes to what moves we use. Bottom line we use or can use any kick the human body will let us do. However with that said there are certin kicks we favor and use more often.

 

Front Snap

 

Side Snap and Side Thrust

 

Roundhouse

 

Back

 

Spinning Back

 

Thats the meat now we thorw cresants, axe, doubles, sweeping, scissors, jumping, hooks, stomps, knees, etc but we like the KISS idea.

 

Keep It Simple Stupid.

[vertigo]

Wow.. I had no clue we had this many kicks .. The only ones I had been aware of were the ones that G95 listed above... and I can hardly get these down well (kicks are not really my thing), so I'll just stick to those at the moment (and many more moments to follow ).

 

Although I wouldn't doubt it for a second that some of the other kicks listed show up later in limited circumstances.

[jarrettmeyer]

Traditional Shotokan styles teach mainly linear movements. Meaning, anything that goes out and comes back such as a side thrust, back kick, front kick or a stomp. Arced kicks, such as Round houses, hooks and most crescents are an addition from taekwondo or Gojo Ryu (even gojo ryu doesn't teach all these kicks in a traditional sense)

 

This isn't the first time that I've read that roundhouse is not a true Okinawan kick. It doesn't appear in any of our kata. But, everything I've seen tells me that as far as simplicity vs. effectiveness, mawashi geri is as good as it gets. Also, it was the first kick that I ever learned. Can someone please tell me where this style kick originated? How/why do some styles decide to incorporate some techniques and not others?