Absorbing low kicks and minimize the pain

[bushido_man96]

Man, must have been one hard kick?

Man, it was nasty. Makes you cringe, because after the kick, you see the leg break, and then he goes to set it down, and puts his weight on it.....eeeewwwwww!!!!

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPctXPp8VDA&mode=related&search=

[Leopard claw]

The guy looked like he was in pain non-stop after that kick and I'm sure he was. Not a great way to have your leg taken out. Ouch!

[bushido_man96]

The guy looked like he was in pain non-stop after that kick and I'm sure he was. Not a great way to have your leg taken out. Ouch!

Yeah, it was just nasty watching his lower leg just flop around like it was.

[Adonis]

Yeah that guy got messed up pretty bad

[Justfulwardog]

The way I took his question, is that he was asking about kicks to the calves, not the thigh. He said he knew how to deal with kicks to the thigh, but didn't know a great defense for protecting the calf, like the shin block.

I only fought one fight where the guy kicked me in the calf. I raised my lead leg in a shin block, he kicked under it and got my supporting leg calf. It hurt like hell. I kept advancing, trying not to show the pain, but I could barely use my leg afterwards. Luckily for me the ref warned him on it, cause it was against the rules of this paticular fight. I never faced another guy that tried to kick my calves, so I never focused on training for it.

I am afraid I am unsure of what would be the best defense for such a strike, as well. True, as he said, it is a hard kick for them to land, but when they do, it makes a big impact.

I guess like any apponent, I would just have to see if he is trying techniques that are targeting my calve. Then I would have to analyse his openings, while he is striking at me, and pick his weaknesses apart.

Everytime anyone attacks they are leaving themselves open in some way, shape, or form. They can minimize the openings, but they are always there. So my best advise would be to find there openings while they are in the midst of there attack, and exploit them.

When you perform such an attack you would have to really reach with your leg, and bend pretty low with your supporting leg, so I would think about exploiting the fact that they are slow to recover to an onguard position.

I bet if you tag them just once while they are in such a low position, it will deter them from lowering themselves much more. Remember, in most cases it is better to lean into a punch, like to the ribs, than to pull away. When you pull back you expose the ribs and solar plexus nicely for your apponent. Likewise, I would think it better to do a jump round kick to there head, while they are dipping so low, than to retreat. That just fuels them to keep trying. If they see you are not laying down for it, they will think twice about such an attack.

These are just thoughts, maybe you can try them out and see how they work for you.

[baronbvp]

Wow.

I can't afford for that to happen.

Note to self...shin block good.

[some0ne]

I've seen one Muay Thai gym and 3 Knockdown style karate dojo(2 Kyokushin and one Enshin)that would actually do drills where you would leg kick eachother in the thigh to get conditioned. Did I agree with this kind of training? Not really. I think it's ok to do a little bit but not excessively.

Drag'n is right when he's talking about "checking" the kicks with your shin instead or like others have said try to avoid the kicks. What I do a lot if someone throws a kick towards my lead leg is just slide my leg back. I usually end up in some sort of a modified cat stance when I do this and I'll counter back right away with a tiip or a "cutting" leg kick with the same leg.

Years ago I had a female cop who had her daughter enrolled in my karate class tell me how she endured conditioning in her former Enshin dojo where she would walk by a line of students kicking her over and over in her legs. She got to Sandan and seemed to know what she was talking about but she also told me she has nerve damage in her legs, now. I'm not saying every Enshin dojo does this, I'm just saying what she told me and this was at Vernon Owen's dojo(he's not Enshin anymore).

[bushido_man96]

She got to Sandan and seemed to know what she was talking about but she also told me she has nerve damage in her legs, now. I'm not saying every Enshin dojo does this, I'm just saying what she told me and this was at Vernon Owen's dojo(he's not Enshin anymore).

Ooooh, that doesn't sound good at all. Does she recon it is from all the leg kicks?