2023-09-13

In last night’s adult class, I shared a bit about how I think of chambering the foot for yoko-geri keage. I’ve never heard anyone else describe it this way, but it seems to help students so I’ll share it here in case it can help others.

Side thrust kick is all about using your leg to push your heel away from your hip, on a direct line to the target. So, at any point during the kick, your heel should be on the line that connects your hip to the target. I don’t know about you, but no matter how high I lift my knee, my heel is still below my hip. And if my heel is always below my hip, then it can only ever be on a straight line to targets that are also below my hip. To “fix” that, we need to find a way to get the heel higher before the kick begins. If you’ve ever seen a baseball coach toss a ball into the air before hitting it into the field, that’s how I think of side thrust kick, except my heel is the ball and the rest of my leg is the bat. Allow me to explain …

Much of krarate deals with being able to control tension and relaxation. To begin side thrust kick, I relax my kicking leg and then only use the muscles necessary to “toss” my heel up into the air. Then, once the heel is “on line” between the hip and the target, I “swing the bat” by using my leg to thrust heel towards the target.