Should Kicks ever go higher than your own waist level?

[Sasori_Te]

The old karate masters from Okinawa never included kicks above the waist nor did thay do fancy spin kicks. These techniques only became popular ( in karate )after karate was introduced to Japan. The old masters were said to believe that to kick higher than your own waist was to destroy your base. In other words you minimize your balance by being on one foot for too long. I'm interested in some other opinions, especially from the TKD practitioners.

[major_motoko]

My Sempai and I were talking about this the other day. We said that although we enjoyed practicing spinning kicks and fancy head kicks - should we ever need to defend ourselves on the streets, we would always rely on the good old maegeri/mawashi/hiza/kin geri kicks to the mid or lower body. They are fast and effective.

 

Spinning kicks, lovely to look at, looks great in tournaments, but are they really practical?.. perhaps only if you are extremly good at them! Just MHO

 

motoko

Edited August 18, 2003 by major_motoko

[karatekid1975]

In a real fight, kicks should stay low. Eventhough I can do the fancy kicks, they are just for fun. I don't even do them sparring. I like to learn them just to say "I can do that."

[Black Dragon]

Only if the situation presented itself would I do a head kick. I land them all the time in sparring, but then again these people aren't trying to catch my leg or tackle me. I would never to a spinning heel kick though, the opening for that kind of attack is very rare and has to be very well timed, which in effect makes it useless on the street. Head high sidekicks work very well though, especially when they dont think you can kick that high.

[Tibby]

My teacher wanted us to kick high, but he taugh that the lower the kick, the more power you have. I got into Jujitsu, and really found out. So many things you can do to someone at even a waist level kicks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kumite988]

Yeah fancy kicks are too slow and leave you open for an attack. In sparring kicks to the head sometimes work and spinning side kicks maybe but thats about it. Inside a street situation I'd stick to probably sidekicks to the chests or knees and maybe frontkicks to the groin. I dont know how roundhouse would be very effective, unless its for a sweep. Maybe its just cause my isn't too powerful yet.

[Bl4cKtH0rN]

My sensei poke about lower kicks, He has spoke for do lowers kicks.

 

Exelents kicks: mae gueri kekomi, lower yoko geri, lower mawashi geri, fumikomi and yoko tobi gueri and mae tobi gueri keage when do a decisive techinique.

 

It`s in the realy situation.

 

Sorry because my orrible englishi, I`m from Brazil and I speak portuguese !

[Sasori_Te]

Thank you all for your input. I'm finding the comments very interesting.

[Goju1]

I study a very traditional Okinawan style and we do not use kicks above waist high, except in basics training. Once the youngsters try the fancy stuff and get caught, they learn quickly. There are dozens of lower kicks one can use with less risk and more damage, IMO

[karatekid1975]

My teacher wanted us to kick high, but he taugh that the lower the kick, the more power you have. I got into Jujitsu, and really found out. So many things you can do to someone at even a waist level kicks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You have a point here. We learn grappling, and one day we worked on defenses against kicks. The only ones that got through were the ones we use for sweeps (like round kick to the ankle or something similar).