Help with Machine gun kicks

[elila]

Well i have a problem with balance sometimes when i do a few kicks and rechamber i push myself off balance why??

You could be leaning to far forward/backward/sideways, the leg your standing on may be a little wobbly. The only way to fix this is through practice. When I first started, I could only do a very low sidekick, and not hold it for very long. Through practice, I was able to kick higher and hold it. People could come by and correct the way I was standing or say, "Oh, then try it this way." But really, you just have to practice and see what works for you. As for kicking combinations, I still have a little trouble. But if you practice each kick one at a time and then all together over and over again, eventually you'll have it down.

I and someone else both mentioned that you need to start out with combinations that make more sense. As in, when you rechamber with the least amount of movement so that you don't fall over, and are able to move on to the next kick. Not sure if that makes any sense through text- it's a little hard to explain.

[EternalRage]

Well i have a problem with balance sometimes when i do a few kicks and rechamber i push myself off balance why??

Well if you are trying to counterbalance the extension from say, a roundhouse kick and then you try to do a front kick without dropping your foot, your body may still be trying to counterbalance for a roundhouse instead of the front kick. All these different kicks utilize hip in different ways and you cannot mix and match different counterbalancing. That's why its important to be good at the individual kicks before you try machine gun kicks so your body knows which way to counterbalance naturally so you don't teeter around.

[ranger1100ky]

Something interesting I want to contribute too here...

Kicking is a beautiful way to injure your hips, if you do it wrongly. Double that for rapid fire kicking where you're changing the kicks around.

There are NO shortcuts to good kicking skills... I'm talking lots of work on the bar... and I mean 'slow' kicking, to make sure you get your natural body mechanics down PAT.

If you try, say a front, round, hook, side combination... just as has already been said... you're also having to adjust your HIPS to execute each individual kick.

A combination, is, after all, single techniques merely thrown one after another.

How serious a subject, is body mechanics in kicking?

Figure it this way... when I was younger... I did okay.. could even throw acceptable kicks. (save for the twist kick, which is still NOT part of my arsenal)

I started having serious problems with my right leg side kick... I'd throw it, and something in my hip, right at the crease of my leg, would SNAP, just like someone doubling over a leather belt, and snapping it.

The cause of the problem, was me, not paying close enough attention to my body mechanics, and the fine details of throwing a GOOD kick.

Oh sure... I wanted a high kick... a fast kick... an effective kick...

I forgot to add 'non-injurious' to the mix.

This 'pain' I had in doing that kick, after a few instructors and I worked on it and couldn't pin the cause down (because the cause was SO subtle, you had to 'feel it' to find it, because there were no major visual cues that 'jumped out')

I wound up hanging up the do-bok, figuring something was messed up medically.

Well... here it is... years later... and I did some chair work... just held the back of a chair and throw nothing but SLOW side kicks...

I had the answer to that problem in no time flat... my hips weren't properly aligned for a safe and pain free kick... I was 'dropping my butt' while trying to compensate for my left leg being a weaker leg to stand on, than my right leg was.

Pay attention to your fundamentals... and start slow with the multiple kicks... and while experimenting... do NOT go 'full power' Just go easy and 'get the flow' of the combination you want to perfect...

Once you know how it's supposed to feel 'doing it right'... you'll be better able to pour in the power and speed without hurting yourself.

[Sam]

i would say if you're talking about machine gun kicking in sequence of the same kick - mostly bout stopping and starting power in the appropriate leg muscles....

but other than that iagree with whats been said in general.