Trouble With My Side Kick

[Doire]

Hi,

Ive got my first grading next week. Ive only been doing karate 4 months. My side kick is proving difficult to master. When I attempt it I get pain in the hip on my standing leg. Also, I cant get my kicking leg to extend fully.

My problem is I'm not very flexible (been doing stretches the past few weeks to try and improve this) and I'm 40! I sit at a desk all day for work which no doubt affects my flexibility

Can anyone offer any advice to improve my side kick?

Thanks for any help

[TheWoodenMan]

Here is a video which breaks the move down into a few short steps,

This one is a little tricky when you first start, don't worry too much if it's not perfect.

Start off by kicking slowly, correctly and at a lower height, when you're happy with this you can go higher/faster/harder.

Key points are turning in, getting your knee up, making sure your foot is turned to the side, and that you bring it straight back (the snap) before putting it down.

In Shotokan you need to be able to do it from kiba-dachi for white/red/orange/yellow belts and from zenkutsu-dachi only for green belt and above.

Hope that helps![/url]

[Th0mas]

If you are getting a pain in your hip, be careful especially when kicking the air at speed.. None of us is getting any younger ...

I am assuming you refer to side thrust kick rather than the side flick kick, you didn't specify. Critically a common mistake is to straighten your supporting leg when trying to get height to your kick, without the necessary flexibility that will put extra strain not just on the hip joint but also your supporting knee joint. The trick is actually to bend the supporting leg, this reduces the tension caused by the torque as you twist. It is also a timing issue, but that is impossible to demonstrate with written word.

Keep the kick low, at your grade nobody is expecting you to be super effective at jodan. A good low kick is much better than a awkward high kick when grading.

[wildbourgman]

I don't know for sure about the pain except for poor mechanics but I may have a couple of ideas.

1. First stand in a natural position facing forward and do a front kick without putting the kicking leg down after snapping back.

2. Then with the same kicking leg chambered after the front kick was snapped back, perform your side kick from that position at a 90 degree angle from where the front kick was directed.

3. Bring the side kick back to the chambered position and then put it back on the ground with control.

That should get you the proper starting and ending position for you kick and hopefully the proper position helps with the pain.

Another thing you can do to force the proper position is to attempt to perform your side kick over the seat of a chair that is right in front of you. That forces you to bring the leg up and then over the chair and back down again rather than trying to sling your leg out from the side and dropping it.

To me proper mechanics can prevent pain.

[sensei8]

Great posts, all; valuable advice!!

Let me add this...

STRETCH thoroughly and properly!!

Also...

One of the biggest things I see from beginners is that they don't do the complete kick; they short-cut the kick...they leave out steps!! They also rush the kick because they're short-cutting/leaving out steps.

Here's our count...

UP

OUT

BACK

DOWN

Beginners tend to leave out the BACK part; that's, imho, a critical part to the side kick, or any kick for that matter. Balance is affected...posture is affected...power is affected...penetration is affected, so on and so forth.

There are two side kicks...SNAP...THRUST!! Both still deserve to have every elemental technical attribute from start to finish!! In Shindokan our supportive foot turns a full 180 degree away from the target in BOTH the snap and thrust side kick...it's just our way.

Good luck...train hard and train well!!

[Zaine]

sensei8 makes a great point about stretching properly. What are you doing to stretch currently?

[Kyonovice]

On a side thrust kick I tend to rotate the standing foot, helps with the opening up of the hip.

[Doire]

Thanks everyone Some great advice there! I will be sure to follow it all up.

My biggest problem was thinking I had to get the kick 100% perfect with good height and trying to get my kicking leg totally straight at point of 'contact' with the target. However as evident in the replies Im just going for my red belt so wont be expected to get it perfect!

For stretching I do the following as shown in this video.

Thanks again everyone

[Bulltahr]

This guy also does a lot of kicking tutourials as well as stretching ones.

He's pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAGlOxmYbmXMifHpB43P2XQ

[Hawkmoon]

Hi Dorie, this is all great advice, I'll add my normal comment of Breath!

It will help you relax as you work the hip and 'kick' sideways. The hips do move in that direction but there weren't doing that movement with a kick in mind, its new and very alien tot eh body in general, so breath stay relaxed and it will come.

Don't try to kick head hight, to be honest don't try to kick 'chest' (chudan) height just now, aim for belt height!

Get the movement to flow, to be natural, height comes with practice and some box splits, but no matter what it comes after time, don't rush!