by Thomas Kurz
Kicking in a no-holds-barred fight is risky, the higher the kicks, the riskier. From the previous article, Where from Are the High Roundhouse Kicks in Karate, you know how typical applications of kicks in Okinawan te removed risk from kicking. But how about other, more popular, punch-and-kick martial arts and sports? You know, all those that teach high kicks? What about you if you do one of those popular arts or sports and your skills are centered on high kicks? How should you practice to remove nearly as much risk from your high kicks as Okinawan te removed from its low kicks?
Your popular martial art or sport does not teach combining grips with striking — the crucial skills needed for the no-nonsense self-defense tactics of Okinawan te — because these skills do not fit with fundamental techniques of your art or sport, so what can you do? Here is what:
First, get rid of bad habits and acquire good habits.
— Don’t throw kicks, no matter whether high or low, without an effective preparation, i.e., tactical setup of the opponent. An opponent is not set up well if he has the freedom to counter you. Duh. See examples in the video below.
— Do practice effective setups for your kicks, i.e., kick only after your punches or strikes send your opponent reeling in disarray, incapable of defending himself long enough for you to land your kick.
Now, specifics:
Practice with a sparring partner, in heavy boxing gloves, so you don’t bruise your partner. Keep moving off the partner’s center line and throw series of punches at her/his guard, that is the hands, forearms, and arms. Do not reach for vital targets until the partner’s guard is disordered and her/his gaze is off of you. Do not kick until the partner is reeling, busy with just keeping her/his balance. BTW, if you punch correctly, the punches will “pull” your leg into a kick. See a demo of this concept in the below video.
Learn to throw a kick only after your punches send your opponent reeling
Practice this kind of drills until, figuratively speaking, your fists and your eyes send your kicks into the best openings, as if by themselves, without your conscious decisions. Such reflexive actions, as in the above example the kicks triggered by a trustworthy feedback from fists and eyes, are unlikely to fail because they are not slowed down by thinking about them.
If you know drills for different but still tactically sound setups of kicks, post their description in comments to this post.
To obtain the flexibility and the know-how needed for throwing high kicks without any warm-up, see publications listed below.
To help prepare my students for high kicks, i have them practice kicks to the body in a slow (maybe a third or half speed) and controlled manner. And holding the kick for a second or 2 when at full extension. Then we gradually increase the height, ensuring we still keep the control and the light touch.
You describe a way of teaching techniques of high kicks. The post and my request are about drills for tactically sound setups of high kicks.
The setups I will describe are a couple of setups I have successfully used in different events over the years. Though I no longer compete (25 years competitive, thanks to information such as that of Stadion Publishing), I still remember their effectiveness. In thinking about them, I realize they share a rear foot “step through” – though on one of these setups, the “step through” (the stepping with one’s rear foot through the frontal or coronal plane of one’s lead foot) is at more of an angle (“step the angle,” as Coach Pat Miletich used to say abut stepping at 45 degrees).
Setup 1: Throwing solid 1-2s at your opponent’s high section (or head), force them to cover up momentarily (guard in front of their face). Then: throw a lead hook to their guard/fists to punch/pull the guard away and IMMEDIATELY perform a rear foot step-through AS you throw a SOLID “cross” (though it’d technically no longer be a “cross”, it’d be a lead hand straight, as you’ve changed leads due to your step-through). This will due to its FORCEFUL nature (in all likelihood) create a space between their guard and head, which you capitalize on by throwing your (now) rear foot’s outside-to-in Axe Kick (“Andari Chagui” in my forming Dojang). As there is now a distanced guard, and the trajectory is now clear between your rear foot’s heel (medial calcaneus) and their temple (or head) it should be straightforward to score on the head and often ends in a KO or TKO (or at least a dazed opponent which you can then continue to follow-up on). This is my favorite, it uses an Axe (or crescent) kick – a kick which I grew up being told ” would never work.” (by non-TKDists). 😀
2nd SetUp: Exchange with your opponent, and, after having ” stepped the angle” (stepped through with your rear foot) shallowly as you change levels and punch at their midsection (floating ribs, spleen, or even just their guard) a couple of times, on the third time: Step DEEP (to their outside, or dead side) to get into their blind spot, and chamber your (now rear) foot’s Knee HIGH and throw the round kick high. Don’t be surprised when your opponent slightly lowers their guard as they turn their body to face you – thus allowing the Round Kick (Dolyo Chagui) to score cleanly on their face/head/high section. DO be careful using this against intermediates – “I’m sorry” does not heal broken noses, and surgical fixes are not cheap. 🙁 You may level change if you wish (to enhance the baiting effect, eg, vs an advanced player, but it’s not ordinarily necessary. May they serve you, reader – you are at a valuable site for useful information..! Thank you Mr. Kurz – an avid fan after more than 3 decades, MC, DC 🙂
Thanks! I am sure many TKD fighters and karateka will include your drills in their practice. A video of the drills would be a great help.
In my opinion, what has been stated and shown by Mr. Thomas Kurz is exhaustive and very well centered in what is the most important point on how to make high kicks works, in self-defense as well as in combat sports. What they are?
1) skills required to kick high
2) tactical set-up, opening opponent guard
3) timing
In my opinion and experience, kick high is difficult only if you are not prepared to do it. Skills to kick high need training and dedication. To develop special and lasting abilities, I followed Mr. Kurz teachings, reading his books and watching videos, complementary to improve my karate studies. This seems to work very well till now, at my 52 y.o. I perform regularly my high kicks with NO WARM UP, and sometime do full front and side splits. This covers point 1;
For tactical set up, my advice is to observe how the opponent moves around, keep the right distance to allow your own best way to express the kick in which you train. Normally, opponents cover face with high guard, so it is important 1) to find a way to lower guard 2) distract his attention in many ways to your desired target, his head. Finally, if you covered the previous 2 point above, it is correct timing that can result in a successful knock-out by high kicking the opponent’s head. These are, for me, the 3 main points, to adjust with minor but equally important set-ups, depending on variables, such as placement of body, environment around, enough visibility, etc.
I advise all instructors to learn how to kick first, by Thomas Kurz’s products; because without abilities, there aren’t possibilities, and the web is full of people stating high kicks do not work in self-defense, simply because THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO KICK HIGH.
How about this drill:
Seriously, you give quite a lot of superb information!
This setup is good, as long as the ground allows for sure footing while throwing those set-up kicks. I prefer to keep both feet on the ground while moving around the opponent. Nevertheless, you got the essence of a tactical setup: stay in control while destabilizing and disorganizing your opponent.
this thought is also useful:
You show a technique, not a tactical setup drill for the technique. This much is clear to competent instructors. Now, for those who are not instructors but have normal IQ and fighting experience: Specifically, you show a lesson on how to kick through a high guard, but not how to set the opponent up so the high guard is the opponent’s only option.
evidently I did not understand the concept (fault of my bad English)
You show a practice of a final KO kick, but not of a setup that makes a counter to the kick difficult. Did you read the post?
In my Kyokushin Tournament days (1986 – 1996) my favoured set up for a high roundhouse kick was to fire a couple of punches high chest (we didn’t punch to the head in tournaments), following it with a mae geri kick to the stomach. Causing the opponent to drop their guard reflexively. In the same movement as I retracted from the mid kick, I turned my hip in and followed up with a roundhouse to the head using the same foot.
This was unexpected, and it was a technique I had practiced quite a bit. (I didn’t use it often, the surprise factor was important). It didn’t have a great deal of power as it was not launched from the ground, but the surprise and the power it did generate was usually enough to put the opponent off his stride and I could take control, following up with other combinations.
Your setup, or a combination, like the setups described by Dr. Castaneda, fits the principle of attacking an opponent’s guard (periphery) with weapons least committing while allowing most mobility, until the opponent is “reeling in disarray” and so cannot protect her/his center where the vital targets, such as the head, neck, etc., are.
The guard guards the vital targets, but the guard itself is unguarded, duh… So, attacking the guard is much less risky than attacking the vital targets, yet strong attacks on the guard off-balance your opponent physically and mentally, thus rendering the opponent incapable of defending himself effectively.
Weapons more massive, or sharper, than a hand, such as clubs or blades, applied to just peripheral targets, i.e., the guard, can do enough damage to disable an opponent, as shown on Self-Defense: Tools of Attack–Club, Hatchet, Blackjack, Knife, Straight Razor.
How about this vid? Looks like tactically sound setups for kicks.
It is.