Most effective kick!

[maskedman]

Before I go on perhaps Admin would like to set up a SD section on this forum!

Now what do you think is a effective kick for live altercation! I personally think kicks to the knee are best and forget the roundhouse to the head etc!

*bows respectfully*

[Shorin Ryu Sensei]

The most effective techniques. kick, punch or otherwise, is that one that works for you in a given situation.

One fight it might be the front snap kick to the abdomin, the next fight it might be the roundhouse to the groin or side of the knee. Perhaps.. because of your attackers position, it might be the side kick the next time.

Everybody has favorite techniques that seem to work more often than others do. Myself, a front leg roundhouse to the groin or knee is nearly always on the money, but I don't overuse it in the dojo because my students will learn to expect it.

[random]

The most effective kick is the one that knocks then out, or finishes the situation by encouraging them to change their minds. My MA is fluid and not restricted by what I think is the best technique for me, I have no favourite technique that I will always try to throw first, the one I am throwing is my favourite technique, right up until I throw another, that is if I have to.

[darkstar]

whilst i agree with what's already written to some extent, some kicks are proven to constantly be more effective than others.

i believe we should look to what works in combat, time after time, and discard the other kicks that either don't get used (there is a reason this is so) or always fail (i.e. do no damage) when tried.

discard the ineffective and master the good ones. a barrage of effecitive techniques has got to be better than a barrage of mediocre ones with one really good one in there?

...like a good DJ, smallish record bag, but every tune a killer no fillers.

[random]

I don’t think it as much ignoring kicks that don’t work, or only practising kicks that have been proven to work, for there are many different situations. What is important is how one practices kicks, take the crescent kick for example for a long time, and I hope it hasn’t happened for a long time, a crescent kick was practiced as a defence against a knife attack, you often saw it at demonstrations, of course what we now know is that is you use this technique you better had size 40 feet and very long legs, because in a real situation it doesn’t work, or at least can be dangerous, and so when would you use a crescent kick? Who knows? But still practice it with the full intent you would any other technique, so that you don’t have a weak kick, and practice on both legs, I have seen lots of people away from the dojo practicing their favourite kick and no other. If it came down to it and a situation arose, if the conditions were not ideal for their favourite kick, they would have nothing else.

I think that if one has practiced long enough and hard enough there will be a natural selection of what kick to use and when, but if you haven’t practiced them all then one is narrowing ones selection.

[jadedragon]

In my dojo I was tought to use the crescent kick for knife attacks, what other kick would be better suited for that sort of situation if someone is charging you with a knife?

for certain situations there is always a technique that is best suited for it, I do like to blow out the knees and then go to the grion so the attacker practicaly hands you his head and throat which are a couple of my favorite targets.

[random]

If someone is charging you with a knife...run away.

I suppose any kick in any situation that is above the waist is asking for trouble, unless it is a big flash finish on an already very weakened opponent. Which is unlikely. I forget the name of the cheesy film, but if a man can’t stand he can’t fight, attacking knees ankles has to be a good tactic in any SD situation, as long as you can get to them. One thing I think we do neglect is knees, in close a good knee somewhere soft can be quite devastating, but who would want to take a foot off the floor, unless, as I said, you have trained long and hard and a well versed and confident in your own technique it doesn’t matter what you throw.

[AngelaG]

I someone pulls a knife on you at a distance you can get a crescent kick in to knock it away then you are also at a distance to be able to run away from it. If you must deal with a knife you have to realise that you will most probably get cut, so the best thing is to sacrifice less dangerous areas to the knife edge. You really don't want to risk getting your inside leg slashed open.

A crescent kick is much better for up close and personal - taking their ankle/knee out.

[pasmith]

"what other kick would be better suited for that sort of situation if someone is charging you with a knife?"

AAArrrggghh...I'm sorry but you have been sold some very dodgy advice there. How about not kicking at all?
Feet are generally for mobility and are best kept on the ground. There are tried and tested strategies for knife defence that don't rely on silly crescent kicks.

I'm sorry to say that not all techniques are equal and therefore not all can be rated in the same way. Some techiques are simply more versatile and more effective (for various reasons) than other techniques. Yes there might be a certain fighting situation where the single best technique to use would be the spinning crescent kick. But for that one situation there's probably 100 more where a low kick would be better. And the low kick would probably work in the first instance too.
There's only two kicks that I consider main artillery...the front push kick (for pushing people back or stamping onto joints and stuff) and the low roundhouse.
If I only had to teach two kicks it would be those two.
The rest are just add ons, support techniques and/or filler to keep people interested IMHO.

[Aefibird]

jadedragon said:

In my dojo I was tought to use the crescent kick for knife attacks, what other kick would be better suited for that sort of situation if someone is charging you with a knife?

There are plenty of techniques to be used to disarm/disable someone with a knife other than kicking. Kicking should be used as a last resort when dealing with a knife attack - 99 times out of 100 there are much better ways of damage limitation than simply trying to kick the knife out of the attackers hand. That's where other aspects of SD come in, especially the tried-and-tested method of Nike-Do, the ancient art of running away and staying out of trouble.

[random]

Not wanting to be a wet blanket but I recall going over the whole knife attack thing on another thread. It may have been locked because of unpleasantness, but I am sure it will still make for good reading for those who were not here when it was ‘discussed.

To try and get back to effective kicking, how do we prepare/train to throw effective kicks, pads, bag or just continual sparing? Do we condition our shins etc?

[AngelaG]

Yup the thread in question is here. It sinks into a certain amount of juvenile discussions along its route and it did get locked because of a few idiots.

And no I don't do any other conditioning other than hitting and kicking heavy bags. On another forum I remember reading about some bloke ywho was hitting himself with a cricket bat, including his ribs etc. I have no idea if this was a troll or not, but if not then I really think he needs to see a psychologist for self-abuse.

[Aefibird]

I think the best way to get effective kicking is practice, practice and more practice. I'm not really into the idea of whacking my shins with a bat or a rolling pin so that they'll become 'conditioned' - I have a heavy bag and I'd much prefer to hit that. It helps me with my technique and gives me a sense of hitting a solid object.

[rikimaru]

The problm with crescent kicks is you don't get as much power because your hips aren't going into the kick, like they do in a roundhouse.

Also, kicking with the shins is fine in the ring (if you have conditioned shins) but generally if you are close enogh to leg kick someone with your shin then you are close enogh to punch them. Also, kicks to the body are easier to grab than to the head imo. However, there is more chance of slipping if you try a head kick.

[colleentigerpants]

I was taught only kick to their...thing, or their knee or instep. b/c Im so much smaller (Im like barely over 100 lbs!)