long legs

[bannana]

My legs are pretty long in proportion to my height ( I am 5 foot 9). Will this affect my footwork speed/stability in fighting? Thanks.

[Uechi Kid]

My Sensei is about six foot tall with extra long legs and arms. He is also very lean. It works to his advantage. When he does kata the long lean look makes him look very graceful. In sparing he has an advantage with his extra reach.

You will do just find.

[Aodhan]

My legs are pretty long in proportion to my height ( I am 5 foot 9). Will this affect my footwork speed/stability in fighting? Thanks.

Shouldn't affect speed too much, look at Stephen Lopez. You will, however, probably need to work on disguising foot techniques a little more than a shorter legged person, simply because of the fact that the longer the limb, the more time the end of the limb takes to go from point to point.

Aodhan

[boxeador]

Won't make you any slower. Might make you a little more off balanced then the average person but training will make up for it. Long legs are a great advantage be glad you have them.

[parkerlineage]

My legs are long for my body, and my full height is long for a normal person (6'6"). I can't say I've ever wished they weren't - I can kick anybody from anywhere (I just recently developed a kick that I'm sure isn't an original, but nobody else in my studio uses it, that takes me about three of my own stance-lengths), and it looks pretty cool with kata, too.

Don't sweat it; be thankful;

Parkerlineage

[Sam]

no we get loads of long legged people in tkd and they have no problems at all - if anything it can be an advantage

[ivette_green]

I have heard that when doing karate or any okinawan based martial arts it is better to be shorter, because the people who developed the style were shorter than most of us are. That's just what I heard though, I'm not bringing down the tall people.

[Aodhan]

I have heard that when doing karate or any okinawan based martial arts it is better to be shorter, because the people who developed the style were shorter than most of us are. That's just what I heard though, I'm not bringing down the tall people.

There's all kinds of myths and legends about the start of various martial arts. A kick is a kick, it's the same technique for a long legged person as it is for a short legged person.

It's all in how you apply that kick

Aodhan

[Sam]

yeah - its all about how you adapt the techniques to your physique - personally being long in the leg im not going ot engage in techniques that involve low centres of gravity.... etc.

[dtstiachi]

In TCC, I have found that having long legs can be to my disadvantage, (especially when doing stretches in warmups) My friend who practices TKD says having long legs means he can kick from a farther distance, so for him it is an advantage, for me a disadvantage.