Hwang Jang Lee teaches kicks

[MasterPain]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcecSNUTXaM

The other parts are there on the same channel. For the first video skip to about 3:00. Hwang Jang Lee was known onscreen as Silver Fox or Thunderleg. One of the best kickers I've ever seen. He killed someone with a 1 round kick to the head in self defense, watching this I can see how.

I don't like the idea of jumping spinning fancy stuff for self defense, but it's good attribute development anyway.

[isshinryu5toforever]

Most of us wouldn't want to use them for self-defense, but I've seen a few TKD players in Korea that more than likely could make it work. Still no substitute for much lower, less risky kicks, but it makes story telling a whole lot more fun haha.

[bushido_man96]

Speed is the major player there. I can't view the videos now for some reason, but will later on. When it comes to kicking high, having the superior speed to make them work is the major thing, I think. I do think strategy can come into play as well to making head kicks work, but its easier to put strategies together for the ring than it is for self-defense.

[bushido_man96]

One thing that I have always enjoyed about kicking in TKD has been more the skill development involved with learning some of the kicks than necessarily the likelyhood that I would use them in self-defense.

For example, when I tested for my 3rd dan at our organization HQ school, there were several people doing the flying side kick over three people hunkered down to the floor, but several of them were actually jumping to the side of where the people where, afraid they wouldn't clear them. I was weighing about 240-250 at the time, and I took pride in the fact that I jumped OVER the obstacles and broke the boards on the first go. I also did my other 4 breaks, all kicks, on the first go, as well, where not all the other black belt testers did. So, it can be a source of pride in technical development more than anything at times.