Front kick

[Orillion]

Well, what I generally do to strengthen legs is simply sit still in a Horse Stance. You can do other techniques while you're there, of course. Alternate hands on thing like punches, blocks, etc. While you're doing that, try to keep as deep of a stance as possible. I find that over time that helps my legs strengthen up quite a bit.

[tenshinka]

Hello Orillion, and welcome to KaraeForums.com.

In addition to the way we train our kicks, in the Tang Soo Do I have taught in the past we have a drill that is taught to new students, before and regular forms called Sam Ship Soo (30 Hands) in which the student stands in a horse stance, and executes 30 hand techniques (all of the basic strikes and blocks). It ends in a Sam jin (Sanchin), dynamic tension stance, forcing isotonic tension in the legs and arms.

Works good for developing initial leg strength, if practiced enough, properly.

Thanks for the post!!

[Tiger1962]

Thanks for all the great posts regarding my issue.

I will try various of your workout idea and I will continue to work my front kick .

Personally speaking, I've found that using the leg lift machine at my local gym has strengthened my quads and calfs considerably. Just a suggestion to add to the others.

[Vladko]

Yep do front kicks laying down, even sitting in the chair to work those muscles that extend the kick.

[FitOrDie]

It sounds like a flexibility issue, but you might also want to strengthen your hip flexors (one of the most overlooked, and important muscle groups). Leg lifts, sit-ups, glute-ham sit-ups (a.k.a. roman sit-ups), ab wheel rollouts, will all help with that, in that order of difficulty. Be sure to actively extend (push out) your leg (or flex your quads) to activate ALL your hip flexors.

Concerning flexibility, look into "contract-relax stretching" to increase flexibility quickly. It's the only thing out there that has been proven to work quickly, I think.

[Traymond]

A while back I had a sparring accident...well the guy was mad at me and he came with a thrusting kick and "accidently" hit me in the hamstring ripping the tendon, around the hamstring.

Well regardless to say I couldn't extend my leg as well after that, it took about four months before I had my hamstring back to full strenght again.

I did calf raises, swam, jogged, elliptical, and leg raises for four months straight daily. And then I was back to full strength. But even on the colder months of the year I feel the pain shoot through my whole leg...and I still have choice words for that guy...

[Kuma]

I had the same problem. I got good results with doing VERY slow front kicks for conditioning purposes. I also would execute the kick and hold it out at maximum extension as high as I could off the ground for a count of 5-10 then bring it back and repeat for reps.

[joesteph]

In the January 2004 issue of Black Belt Magazine, online at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ONsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9-IA3&dq=Black+Belt&lr=&source=gbs_toc_pages&cad=0_1#PPA7,M1

there's an article on p. 86 titled "The Punishing Leg: 3 Fast and Furious Kicking Techniques from Yamaki-Ryu Karate" by Mark Cheng. It seems that Yamaki believes that the front kick is the number one kick, and the article (with photos) goes into how, from a single chambered position, the kick can be delivered to the face, solar plexus, or knees, and all with power. (The roundhouse and side kicks are also included in the article.)

I think that it's more a matter of flexibility than muscle to execute the front kick the way it's demonstrated, but to do it from the single chambered position shown, so that the opponent doesn't know where it's going until it's delivered, is a strong plus.

[bushido_man96]

Using the same chamber position can be a good way to confuse an opponent. I also like how he used the same high chamber for both a low or a high kick. If the chamber is going to the same spot, then you can choose where you put the kick, as opposed to chambering only low, where they can be pretty sure that you are going to kick low.

[Shotokan-kez]

I have a similar problem. I can execute an excellent front kick, but only if im doing it fast. I cannot do it slowly because as i extend it out i get pain in the back of my leg. Some great advice here that i will certainly be trying, i hope some of it works for you too.