Kicking is fun and scoring with a properly executed kick is even more fun. Nobody will disagree. There are hundreds of different ways to kick, and consequently there are hundreds of different ways to train these kicks. The following twelve examples are but a small glimpse of what we consider effective, challenging and most importantly, fun.
Due to the recent changes in karate tournament karate, now rewarding kicks to the head with three points, almost everybody changed his personal competition style. If there is a need for change in competition, there is certainly a need for change in terms of training drill as well. This article is intended to give at least a few ideas on how to train and of course improve one’s kicking ability.
In the last article we emphasized that basics should always come first. Therefore we concentrated on the reverse punch. The following instructions focus predominantly on two specific kicks and their respective variations, although every single drill can be used and modified for any kicking technique. Simply make up your mind and use your imagination. Suddenly even planning a training session becomes interesting and fun.
Never forget, choose the kicks you like most and practise them as often as you can. Change the drills and they won’t become boring. You don’t have to know thousands of different techniques; you can only score with one at a time. It is brilliant if you do know thousands of these techniques and it is even more brilliant if you can apply them properly, but as far as competition is concerned, it is most brilliant if you just win.
Although fighting for keeps and fighting in a competition is as different as night and day, both go hand in hand with a certain stress reaction. Every stressful situation triggers your fight – or – flight reaction which simply means that your gross-motor skill will take over.
This means, at least in the beginning of your competition career you won’t be able to use complex, i.e. flashy kicks and combinations successfully. As long as you can’t control you heart rate sufficiently through controlled breathing, you are better of with having trained your basics and being able to use the automatically. We are sure that the following drills and exercises will help you to achieve these goals.
It is always sad to see young and talented people stopping to train because they feel bored. It doesn’t have to be that way and it mustn’t be that way. In other words, don’t just follow orders, question, use your imagination, and if it should not work the first time, do it again, and again, and again. Just don’t quit.
We hope that you will enjoy the following article and we wish you every success in your competition and your karate career.
Contents:
- Basic exercise – technique on the floor
- Basic exercise – holding strength & flexibility
- Basic exercise – balancing
- Basic exercise – technique with partner’s support
- Basic exercise – technique at slow and fast pace
- Basic exercise – technique flow drill
- Speed exercise
- High rep technique training
- Training explosive strength of the stability leg
- Application exercise – reaction & speed with two partners
- Application exercise – reaction “question-answer-drill”
- Application exercise – “How good are your kicks?”
1. Basic exercise – technique on the floor
The karateka is lying on his side while pulling his lower leg backwards to his outstretched hip. Release your lower leg and snap the kick out and back. Catch the kick again with your hand when the foot comes back towards your hips.
Practise the same doing Ura – Mawashi – Geri
2. Basic exercise – holding strength & flexibility
Start from a position with holding your kicking leg stretched out. Your partner is holding his hands approximately 30 cm wide apart. Bring your foot in between his hands and move your foot (leg still stretched out) from one palm to the other. Do at least 20 reps with each leg.
Grabbing with the toes: Grab your partner’s uniform with your toes. Start at his shin and climb up to his shoulders. Use a mawashigeri (roundhouse kick) motion on the outside and an uramawashi (hook kick) motion on the inside. This exercise trains coordination, balance and strength.
3. Basic exercise – holding strength
Execute mawashi geri gedan, chudan, jodan and back with uramawashi. Do it really slow using proper technique in order to improve coordination and balance.
Do the same in a relaxed and fluid motion snapping the kicks without hitting your training partner
Important: always think of correct body position, feet position. Keep your guard up. Always align upper body, hips and feet.
4. Basic exercise – technique with partner’s support
Due to your partner’s support you can fully concentrate on the proper execution of the technique without worrying too much about balance and stability.
Do at least twenty reps slow, relaxed and fast. Watch the position of the holding hands in the pictures below.
5. Basic exercise – technique at slow and fast pace
The respective technique has to be executed very slowly in the beginning, in order to understand its mechanics, to feel the technique and to get a general understanding of distance. The second set has to be executed as fast as possible. Most importantly is the snapping motion of the lower leg, correct hip movement, proper guard position and upper body positioning.
Do the technique without a partner first then with a partner. This particular exercise can be done for any kick. Uramawashi Geri is being used as an example in the picture series below.
6. Basic exercise – technique flow drill
Execute mawashi geri jodan with the front foot. Bring the kick down in front of you. Do mawashi geri jodan with your back leg. Bring the kick down in front of you. Do the same sequence with the other leg. Interchange with your partner after each sequence.
This exercise is an excellent training for beginners who will unconsciously do a high number of reps and thus will improve their kicking ability. Do the same with uramawashi geri as well. Vary the kicks, for example, front foot mawashi geri, back foot ura-mawashi geri and vice versa. Include fines using your feet. For example, uramawashi – fine – mawashi and vice versa.
Do the fines with both, the front and the back foot.
7. Speed exercise
Kicking on time:
Kick mawashi geri targeting your partners hand as fast as possible within 15 seconds. Bring your foot down to the floor using the muscle impulse when touching the floor for acceleration making the kick more explosive.
Kicking in both palms:
While the partner is holding both his hands together with his palms facing outwards kick both his palms using various kicks as fast as possible.
8. High rep technique training
Execute one mawashi geri on the first count, two on the second, three on the third, and so on until the tenth count. Do the same down the pyramid from ten to one. Always do the full motion of the kick, do not cheat. This exercise can again be used for any kick.
Kick and tsuki:
Both partners standing in the same position. Kick five mawashi geris using the front foot in your partners hand plus a deep and committed gyaku zuki after each kick. Step back after each hand technique. Do ten reps on both sides.
9. Training explosive strength of the stability leg
Jump from one side of the gym, dojo or wherever you are training to the other executing mawashi geri. One kick per jump. Do the same jumping backwards, which is a lot harder.
Do the same using your partner as a target, preferably his hand not his head.
10. Application exercise – reaction & speed with two partners
One partner is standing in the middle holding both his hand up at head level. As soon as he drops his hands, the other two have to react as quick as possible kicking mawashi geri (jodan and chudan) with the back foot.
Do the same with the partner in the middle moving forward and backward forcing the other two to adjust distance by stepping forward and backward.
Do the same, this time with the middleman moving sideways. The outside partners have to compensate the position change through moving sideways as well.
The same drill on chudan level:
Important: React as fast as possible on the middle man’s signals. Your target must be kicking faster than your opposite partner. Never forget your control. If you should lack control in your kicks simply change the movement of the hand position. Start with the middleman holding his hands at hip level. Kick as soon as he brings his hands up.
11. Application exercise – reaction “question-answer-drill”
One partner execute a kick and the other partner gives the same kick back (mirroring). Do the same with kick combinations.
Do free sparring only using kicks.
12. Application exercise – “How good are your kicks?”
One partner has to hold his position. He is only allowed to block the incoming kicks. The other partner tries to kick and score as fast as possible. Use fines, change the kicking level (low, midsection, head), combine hand and feet techniques as a set up.
The authors:
Christian Gruener (Nidan Karate)is the current World University Karate Champion 2004. He studies at sports at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena Germany. He has won several national and international titles.
Ken Oesterreich (Nidan Karate) is New Zealand University Games Silver Medallist Winner 2004. He is currently a Phase II exponent of the Todd European Close Combat System.
