Kicking, the Secret of a very Lost Art!
I had a friend, name of Ted, way back in the late sixties. He was a tall, skinny, hippie looking fellow, who happened to have the most phenomenal kicking ability. One day he was driving, and a fellow cut in front of him, and Ted hit the horn.
The fellow stopped his car and got out and walked back towards Ted, who got out of his car. The fellow was huge, a monster, and he dwarfed Ted, and he said some unpleasant things. Ted backed up, held up his hands palm out, and told the fellow he didn’t want to fight.
The fellow swung a punch, and Ted rocked back and planted a beautiful roudhouse kick in the center of the monsters chest. The fellow sat down on the pavement, groaned, then stood up and rushed Ted again. Ted tried to back away, he held up his palms again, and told the fellow he didn’t want to fight.
The brute swung, and that was when Ted called on the art. Ted sunk his weight, put his hips and weight into the kick, and roundhouse kicked the fellow on the chin. Bang and the fellow laid down for ten, and Ted went to his car and drove away.
So, sinking your weight and throwing the hips, some fellows do it, and some fellows don’t, but the ball of the foot, that was the key. Look, when the UMMA fighter bashes, they swing the leg like a baseball bat, and there is no body behind it. When you swing the foot and use the ball of the foot, the energy goes back along the leg and into the hips, and their is body and weight behind the kick.
Yes, kicking with the instep is okay, but kicking with the instep spreads the striking area over the ankle. The ball of the foot kick concentrates the mass into a smaller area, puts more weight into a smaller contact surface. If you want to put a nice, precise hole in a piece of wood, are you going to bash it and let the weight spread out, or use a balpeen hammer and focus the weight into a smaller area?
Kicking is an art, as is punching, and the UFC and MMA type of fighters are really doing boxing, not pure martial arts. To understand pure martial arts, one has to study pure physics, and then the answers will come, and then the art will be seen again. Art, not sport, and not in the ring, but in ones life, that is the answer and the solution and the way.
Al Case has researched martial arts for 40 years. A writer and columnist for the magazines since 1981, he is the originator of Matrixing Technology. You can see his work on developing perfect and artistic punches and kicks at Monster Martial Arts. Look around the site for his free ebook on Matrixing.
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