Tag Archives: kick boxing strength training

The Truth About Classical Karate Kicks

What Do You Do if Somebody Grabs Your Kick!

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I received a great email,
the question it asked was about kicks.
What do you do when somebody grabs your leg?

Now this is sort of funny,
because kicks,
and kicking exercises
have degraded so much,
this is a valid question.
It didn’t used to be valid.
I’ll be speaking specifically of the side thrust kick here.

kick boxing training manualflykickBack in Kenpo,
back in 1967,
we would just twist the hips and pull the kick back.
It required a certain flexibility of leg,
but it was easy.
You got used to pulling with the hips,
and we didn’t know we were training
with a sort of ‘whole body’ technique,
or what I call CBM,
Coordinated Body Motion,
using the whole body as one unit.

another technique we practiced
was to do a shoulder roll away,
because the catcher couldn’t
hang on to the whole body weight.

Now Kenpo is a good art,
lots of fun,
but there are some problems with it.
In combining several types of arts,
they mixed concepts,
so consider how we used to handle a caught leg
a caught side thrust kick,
in the Kang Duk Won.

Near every class
for over three years,
we did something called plant and push.
We did it with a front heel thrust,
and with a side thrust kick.
With plant and push
you and your partner start in the horse stance.
You shuffle forward,
‘popping’ really,
exploding from the tan tien.
Both feet start motion at the same time,
the front leg plants on the partner’s waist,
and the back foot replaces the front foot,
they both land at the same time.
Doing it this way causes the tan tien to explode,
to ‘pop’ with energy.

you aren’t kicking,
you are placing your foot,
and then you push.
You only push a couple of inches,
but that is the exact area
of muscle and energy needed
to develop the power in a kick.
You push the person’s whole body,
and he gives way,
just enough
so you have to use your power.

after three or four years of doing this exercise,
an interesting thing happened.
We could kick,
and if somebody grabbed the thrust kick,
we would hop slightly,
jamming weight down the support leg,
and extending the caught leg,
and we could plant and push the fellow away.
Could do a lot of damage,

This is a true ‘chi power’ kick,
a complete CBM training method.
We stomp to create more energy and thrust the hips,
the reverse of kenpo,
but the same whole body principle.

The thing is that this exercise
is the type that many people look down on,
because they think it can’t be used,
and they don’t realize
how much power accumulates,
and how the person changes over time.
People simply don’t practice this exercise,
to tell the truth,
I never saw it outside of our school.

When they kick today,
they use the kicks from Muy Thai,
and they slop through,
no focus.
They use the legs for bashers,
and they don’t develop pin point accuracy.

We would practice our kicks religiously,
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of kicks per kick per side.
We got to the point where we used the ball of the foot
like a balpeen hammer,
right in the center of the chest.
Knocked the F out of anybody,
and we were so fast that people couldn’t catch our kicks.
When I got my black belt
I could kick ANYBODY that was a lower belt.
No problem.
But I couldn’t kick other black belts,
and that was where we would get into catching kicks,
and the worth of the plant and push exercise.

you have to do it for years.
You can’t be one of these guys
that thinks hitting the bag can be done
with any part of the foot,
and slop doesn’t matter
as long as you kick hard.

You have to focus,
use awareness,
use the ball of the foot,
snap the leg back,
no pause in the cocking position
(when the leg is next to the hip)
sink the weight at impact,
use the whole body
so that the body is like whip.
Takes a lot of work.
But that is the value of the true art.

The world,
wants the glitter and bauble
the bruises and blood
of the octagon.
They want image,
not art.
But that’s okay.
Everybody has their choices.

hope this helps.
You will find me talking about Plant and Push
every once in a while.
I’ll bet it is in the Power Kicks course,
which is the freebie
attached to the Matrix Karate course.


‘nuff said,
have yourself a GREAT weekend!
Lots of work outs,
lots of party,
and be safe.