Raise your heel or not?

[ps1]

These of you who train Shotokan know that it is totally forbidden to lift your heel. They must touch the ground almost all the time. In that way you're more stable and your punches are more powerful.

This is interesting. I'm a 3rd degree black belt in shotokan. Never heard this rule. Who told you this?

[ninjanurse]

Now that things are clarifying a bit:

Kicking-The general rule is never raise the heel of the base leg.

Punching from an established Front Stance-Do not raise heel

Punching from a defensive stance/guarding stance with hands up-hip rotation and heel lift is necessary to generate power.

[bushido_man96]

In the material I have read about Muay Thai, they do lift the heel, even when kicking.

[Akikazeninja]

This nhas probably already been said but I think it is all in what style, we were

training in boxing the other day instead of taijustus and we lifte our heel but in

taijustsu we almost never lift the heel

[Jay]

In the material I have read about Muay Thai, they do lift the heel, even when kicking.

Yes in my experience this is true as well.

In JKD the kicking is a bit of a mix. We do the low style thai kicks as well as the karate/tkd higher kicks. In my experience the higher you kick the more your foot needs to be planted.

[senseikellam]

I think the reason you don't lift in a long front stance is it does make you slightly unbalanced.

You are correct about the above. In kata competition, judges expect to see a low long stance with heel flat say when doing Heian Shodan for example. But in sparring, you need to be light on your feet and quick.

With time and training everyone can modify their stances to something that works for them, but, is still excepted in competition.

[Kuma]

In Martial Mechanics by Phillip Starr, on pp. 33-37, keeping the rear foot, as the driving one, on the floor is presented as delivering more shock, even being more stable if striking a larger opponent. This contradicts Western-style boxing, as well as target work I've done in both SBD and JKD.

His is a bit of a different approach though as he's focusing more on generating shock rather than just sheer impact. The idea behind keeping the heel flat on the driving foot is because when you create that impact, you generate a reactionary force that travels back into you. If your heel is raised it doesn't do anything, but if the heel is firmly planted and your stance is stronger than your opponent's, that secondary force actually gets returned to your opponent causing greater shock.

However, in many styles that advocate raising the heel, not all of them use the driving foot in that same ideal (i.e. locking out the leg with the execution of the technique) so unless you're sticking with a stance that allows you to perform that way, it's probably better to raise the heel and turn on the ball of your foot if you're in a more conventional boxing-style stance.

[KumitePanda]

i train shotokan and we don't lift our heels but when in freestyle its a natural thing to lift them, i have also done boxing and it doesnt feel as natural.

Everyone in my dojo lifts their heels in freestyle

[brickshooter]

I think it comes down to the style. When I box, I lift my heels because I'm already in an upright stance. It is the only way to shift my weight into my punches. I literally "drop" my body weight from my shoulders into my target. Can't do that with my heels planted.

But when I'm doing Shotokan, I plant my heels. The reason is that I start with a lower base than boxing, and I'm exploding off from the ground to drive my hips into my target. Can't do that with heels up because the ankle acts a shock absorber.

The other reason I resist heels up in Karate is that I'm always petrified of eating a foot sweep being that I'm also a judoka. But I think one can get away with a heel up if one is "big." Being only 170lbs., I'm going to get run over by the 200lbs guys if I don't have a solid base to push off. Even if I miss, I won't get run over by the 200lbs guy when our bodies colide if my heels are planted.

It's the same with kicks. Karate promotes pushing off of the ground to maximize weight transfer. MT promote stepping in with the pivoting leg to maximize weight transfer right before the kick. While TKD promotes pivoting on the ball of the foot to maximize torso rotation. Personally, I don't think the heel issue matters with kicks. Because kicks are 3-7 times as strong as punches, timing is more important. So just make sure you land your kicks even if it's sloppy.

My 2 cents.