How do I get my kicks faster?

[ninjanurse]

Repetition is the mother of skill.

[Benoitt]

I have a teacher that won many championship over and over and he used a simple method to have very fast kick: he took a bicycle trip and wrap it on his ankles. He was practicing over 1000 kicks with it every day. Guess how fast you can become that way

[lparnes]

Kicking under water or with band is this best I think.

[Bushido Brown]

I've only been studying Shudokan Karate for three weeks, so take this as you will...

Our sensei has students (even advanced students) regularly train moves in slow motion. For the beginning students, this has much to do with simply learning the basic kinematics of the move (say a roundhouse kick). However, the other stated purpose of doing moves slowly is to teach students to perform the move with their muscle loose, and to only tense them near the point of impact. It teaches you not fight against flexor muscles and the like as that will slow your movements.

Perhaps this is utterly basic martial art, and I apologize if this is the case. Advice from a noob

[wildman1717]

Weights, plyometrics, and flexibility training are your best bets. Staying relax helps too, helps explosiveness and help keep you from telegraghing your kicks.

[Smoke]

Repetition.

Relax, meaning loosen up. Immediately trying to accomplish the highest and fastest kick possible will extend past your comfort zone and cause you to tighten up.

Explosive exercises. Look into the jump squat.

[Kuma]

As a 2nd dan, you've probably already done a fair amount of repetitions so I would recommend strengthening exercises like slow kicks and kicking with resistance bands.

[bushido_man96]

I've also heard others tout the use of slow kicking to improve. In a series of books I've been reading by Shawn Kovacich, he recommended the same things. In my old TKD school, we used to do what we called "concentration side kicks" a lot. What we would do, is all grab a spot on the wall, and at the instructors count, we would chamber, then execute in a slow motion, hold, and rechamber the kick, doing many reps before finally setting it down. Its a good exercise, and builds those hip flexor and outside adductor or abductor muscles up.

[Kuma]

I've been doing a lot of slow squat kicks which seem to be doing a lot of good.