Proper side kick

[zudo]

Hi, I come from a taekwondo bacground, and recently joined karate. Today we did sidekics in class, and the instructor told me to keep my body straight, I looked at pictures on the internet, and I don't think I was leaning back anymore than them... So I was wonderin what is the proper way to do a side kick, a video would be great, thanks.

[Sohan]

This guy had a pretty good side kick:

http://www.templewingchun.com/BruceLee.jpg

Try https://www.fightauthority.com if you are looking for good clips to download. Good luck!

Respectfully,

Sohan

[danbong]

What style of karate are you taking and what kind of side kick was it. In most karate systems there are two kinds of side kicks, snap or thrust. In the snap side kick, the upper body is supposed to be kept vertical.

Perhaps the best thing to do is ask the instructor to show you how it should be done and for him to also try to show you how he saw you doing it.

[Jay]

Most people lean back to get height on their kicks me also. However the more weight you keep over the kick the more powerful it is. Aim a little lower high kicks never work in real fights. Abdonmen or rib height is perfect. Look at the burce lee picture se how he is leaning into the kick with his upper body.

[zudo]

Were doing kempo karate, I know their is something more specific under that, but I forgot it. Thanks for the pic and link, I'm talking soley technique wise btw, for like, kicking a target

[GOM]

Aim a little lower high kicks never work in real fights. Abdonmen or rib height is perfect. .

I don't think a kick to the body is any better than a kick to the face in terms of self defense. There is a high chance your attacker will grab your foot/leg if you kick any higher than groin height.

Just a side note, I find side snap kick to be totally useless. It is not a natural kick and has no value - ie. useless in a self defense situation, and a waste of time in kumite. The only place you see it is in kata, and when karate was inroduced into Japanese schools as a means of fitness, they changed side kick from a thrusting kick to the knee, to a snap kick to the body. This was meant for flexibilty and safety for school children and the wider community.

[Oracle]

Very few people do a side kick properly. I agree with the person about the front snap quick being less than effective in real life situations.

For a proper side kick the chamber has to be correct. Most schools just have their students lift up their leg and thats a side kick.

A properly chambered side kick (knee acrosss your body, thrust out) can drive people out of the ring everytime.

Side/Ax , Side Hook is even more effective once you get proper control of your legs.

[zudo]

oracle, can you illustrate how to chamber a side kick correctly? in more detail? thanks

[innocui]

snap your opposite hip into it, shape your foot correctly and go for the knees(only if your have to...seriously, the damge it causes isn't funny, even if they hit you first) or the ribs

[kyop]

GOM:

I primarily use a korean thrust side-kick but don't sell snap kicks short. I've seen some japanese style fighters that have lethal side kicks. They seem intuitively easy to block but when you have the timing and power from 10 or more years of doing it over and over and over, trust me, you can jam it and it will still hurt you.

The issue of staying vertical is based on "What do you do for an encore?" At higher levels, you're not going to one-technique a lot of fighters. When your leaning back as you side kick you're a one-trick pony. If you have enough strength and flexibility to stay near vertical, you can come off the kick rapidly with a strong hand technique.

I love karate studio ads in the yellow pages where the person is doing a side kick head-high but their head is at ankle level. God help you when someone gets a hold of that foot and plows the north 40 with you. But why get your hands dirty when you can kick out the supporting leg and do an Irish jig on their head?

I've always loved high kicks but low kicks are so darn effective. When you get side kicked on top of the quad and become a uni-ped, you can appreciate how a fighter can get lazy from taking that free candy.

In a real fight, people just don't understand after you do this and try to explain how courteous you were for not blowing out their knee.

Ingrates!