Kicking tips
- Kicking tips
- Starting position
- Guard up
- Kick elements
- Taekwondo kicking
- Kicking power
- Rear leg kicks
- Initial movement
- Raise leg
- Weight shifts
- Arm position
- Pivot
- Knee
- Hip roll
- Chambering
- Leg tension
- Counter-motion
- Foot shape
- Support leg
- Speed
- Height
- Target training
- Full power at end
- Keep straight
- Grabbed kick
- Stretching
- All Pages
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Raise kicking leg and knee
For most kicks, raise the kicking knee high, vertically with the shin almost parallel to the floor and pull the knee back into a deep cocked position. From this position, any one of a variety of kicks may be executed in one smooth motion. Reasons for this are:
- All the leg bones and muscles, the ankle and knee, and hip rotation are all in a straight line on a level plane so they may all work in unison to make a more powerful kick. They all move in a straight trajectory to the target. Imagine your foot as an arrow being delivered from you own waist level to the waist level of your opponent.
- Balance is easier if the knee of the kicking leg is higher than the waist so that the weight of the leg falls toward the hip.
- Kicking from such a high position allows your opponent less time to react and the kick may be targeted at a wide variety of targets without the opponent knowing which is the primary target.
- A kick coming from the floor and up to its target may be easily blocked by the arms. Kicks thrown from a high position are harder to block since the opponent does not know the intended target. Also, kicks that move straight into their target are difficult to block, since the kick can be stopped when your opponent lowers his forearm.
- When a kick is immediately recoiled back to the high cocked position, another kick may be quickly thrown to another target without move the leg or body.
- When an opponent closes on the kicker, a high. deep cocked leg may still kick powerfully, while a kick coming from the floor would be jammed because of the close range.