2024-06-17

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We spent more time on kicks in the adult class tonight, with the most attention being spent on ushiro-geri. Some people call this “spinning back kick”, but I prefer “spin around back kick.” Why? Because I’m a langauge nerd. Saying “spinning back kick” uses “spinning” as an adjective to describe the back kick, but that’s not really what’s happening (or, at least, shouldn’t be), because you should not still be spinning when the kick happens. The spin should already be complete.

Thus “spin around back kick” seems closer to what you really want to have happen. You want to spin around and then back kick. The larger problem isn’t the spin, though, it’s the tendency of students to separate their knees during the kick when spinning, turning it into a spinning hook kick … which is a fine kick, just not the one we want to see when we ask for ushiro-geri.

Instead, I insist that the spin be complete, the supporting heel point at the target, the head turn over the shoulder on the kicking side, and the leg extend straight back, keeping the hips level. The raising of the kicking hip is natural becuase it’s easier to kick high that way, but it also causes the foot to rotate out of its vertical alignment, causing the back kick to turn into more of a 3/4 side thrust kick, which is also a fine kick, but not the one we’re asking for.

To summarize, for “spin around back kick”:

• The spin should be done before the kick begins.
• The knees should scrape by each other, during the kick.
• The kicking foot should be oriented vertically, with the heel up.
• The supporting heel should point to the target.

Meanwhile, the Youth & Family class gained another student, may gain yet another on Wednesday, and had three more prospects come to watch. Things sure have come a long way since our humble beginnings with two students back in 2022.