Читать книгу Fighter's Fact Book 1 - Loren W. Christensen - Страница 9
ОглавлениеI’ll admit it, I’m not a great kicker, and any ability I do possess has been hard earned. In bodybuilding, people who develop muscle slowly are called “hard gainers.” Well, if this term was used in karate training, I would definitely be labeled a hard gainer as far developing my kicks. Here are some ways I have used to bring my kicking skill to where it is today and has also helped my students become far better kickers than I am.
Hey, who you going to listen to? A guy with natural kicking ability, or someone like me who has had to sweat, bleed and swear for every inch of progress?
1. STRETCHING
There are two basic times to stretch: Before you train, to warm up your muscles in preparation for your workout, and after your training session when your muscles are already warm.
Take it Easy Before Training
Use caution when stretching before your training. Go slowly and gently, keeping in mind that you are only trying to get blood into the tissues and lubrication to the joints. To repeat: This is not the time to work on increasing your flexibility. I’ve seen many students strain muscles by stretching too hard immediately upon entering the class room. I had a student who tore his hamstring so violently that I heard it snap, and I was in another room. I didn’t have any trouble hearing him scream, either. Go easy when your muscles are cold.
Stretching to Increase Flexibility
When stretching to improve flexibility and limberness, you want to first thoroughly warm your muscles with a few easy kicks to a low target, a dozen or so half squats, a dozen reps of leg chambering, and a couple minutes of knee rotations in both directions. You are ready to stretch when you can feel that all the kinks and stiffness have left your legs and hips. Nonetheless, start out slowly and don’t push the muscle until you have been stretching for several minutes.
Although, most sports trainers advocate stretching for increased flexibility at the end of class, it’s still wise to start out slowly, progressively pushing the intensity of the poses over the 15 to 20 minute session.
You are not “Naturally” Stiff
Don’t tell yourself that you are naturally stiff and that you will never be flexible. Even if you have never been flexible a day in your life, you can improve. You just have to stretch consistently, at least every other day. On those days when your muscles feel especially good, push yourself a little, and on those days when you are especially tight, stretch, but take it easy. There will many days when you can’t stretch as far as you did the day before. No problem. Just stretch as far as you can and don’t worry about it.
Stretching should never be painful. If you have a Marine drill sergeant for an instructor, and he screams, “Push it! Push it! Eat the Pain!” while you are stretching, quit his class. That kind of mentality is dangerous to your health and safety. Stretching is a slow and gradual process that should feel good while you are doing it and leave you energized afterwards.
Be Careful with Partner Stretching
Use caution when stretching with a partner, especially if your partner likes to clown around. I was watching a children’s class recently in which the majority of students were goofing around during partner stretching. They were pushing and pulling each other’s legs far beyond their maximum capacity and having a good time doing it. The teacher had her head in the clouds and didn’t seem to put any significance on the great risk the kids were being subjected to. If I had a child in her class, I would have immediately pulled him out.
While there are the occasional goof offs in adult classes who think its great fun to overstretch their partners, usually over stretching by adults happens by accident. Your partner, who is pushing your leg over your head, can’t feel your muscle tension the same way you do. You must communicate to him that your leg is nearing maximum stretch. He may be thinking about the last time the two of you stretched together when you were especially flexible. You must tell him when to slow his push and when to stop and hold it. Don’t let your ego keep you from saying “that’s far enough.”
Keep communicating and keep in mind that partner stretching is never as safe as solo stretching.
Communicate with your partner how you are feeling this day and how far you want to stretch.
Stretching for Strength
Here is a new finding that may surprise you: According to a recent study done by Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D., director of fitness research at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts, stretching will actually make you stronger. Westcott conducted a 10-week study, in which 53 people stretched consistently. While all of them made strength gains, those people who followed a complete weight training workout with a separate stretching session showed the greatest strength gains - a 54 percent increase. People who stretched after each weight training exercise, showed a 37 percent strength gain. Those who didn’t stretch at all after their weight training, gained 29 percent in strength.
Can you Warm-up for a Street Fight?
Instructor Daniel Alix has found an interesting way to keep his legs prepared to kick hard and fast in a street situation when there is no time or opportunity to warm up.
“Obviously most real fights occur under conditions that don’t allow a fighter to warm up ahead of time,” Alix says. “I find that a good way for my legs to be ready to perform is to do dynamic-style stretches first thing in the morning.
“What you get from this is a resetting of the nervous control of your muscle tension and length. What this means is that your nervous system has a built-in reflex to avoid letting a stretch, particularly a sudden stretch, end abruptly and cause a tear. It does this by gradually tightening the muscle as it’s being stretched.
“Not even intense conscious relaxation will stop your nervous system from regulating the tension in your muscles as they are stretched. What will help is to reset the point where the nervous system starts to tighten the muscle during a particular movement. But don’t worry, your nervous system will not allow your tension point to be reset beyond where your muscles can stretch when they’re warmed up.”
Alix explains the practical application: “To do a dynamic hamstring stretch, raise the leg up to the front. You don’t want to throw the limb up in front of you (ballistic stretching), nor do you want to slowly lift the leg up because this forces the thigh muscles to do all of the work. Find a happy medium where the leg still uses its momentum, but at a slow rate of speed. Start out low, then progress higher and higher. You shouldn’t feel a big stretch each time; instead you should get to the point where the nervous regulation reflex is about to kick in. You notice that with each lift, the leg goes higher and higher until you reach your maximum height after about 10 lifts. Do a few sets like this to imprint the new nervous reset point (but not too many sets).
“A few hours later, do a few reps of this same leg lift, and you’ll find that your nervous reset point is still way up there. You will not achieve this same range of flexibility by performing traditional, stretch-and-hold static stretches in the morning. Dynamic activities require dynamic stretching, while static activities require static stretches.”
One last safety tip. When you are at maximum stretch, you should feel a pulling sensation on the muscles being worked. You do not, however, want to feel a pinching, burning or tearing sensation. If you do, stop the stretch or at least back out of it until you no longer feel that sensation. Don’t try to tough it out to impress your teacher, your workout partner or because you were able to stretch further during your last workout. Your muscles are communicating to you, so listen to them. Think of this way: If you don’t listen to what your muscles are communicating to you, then you must be prepared for some extraordinary pain and many months of recuperation.
Flexibility is Not Just for Kicking High
Greater flexibility not only means that you will be able to kick high, but that will be able to kick faster to a low target. This is because a flexible muscle is one that is looser and less restricted. Also, with a greater range of movement, you are less likely to be injured when you unexpectedly slip on the floor or a sparring partner grabs your kick and jams it up to dump you.
With increased hip and leg flexibility, you can experiment with offbeat kicks such as the reverse roundhouse.
After chambering the reverse round, snap it into his inner thigh, groin, or bladder.
2. SQUATS
Many bodybuilders feel that the squat is the best exercise of all. Powerful legs mean a powerful foundation, a quality we definitely want in the fighting arts.
If you have good knees and you belong to a health club, you can do squats with barbells and various types of squatting machines. As a supplement to your karate training, your objective with squats is to develop fast and explosive leg muscles for kicking, not just big muscles so you can lift even heavier weight. For karate, you don’t have to use the extreme poundages that bodybuilders and power lifters use.
If you lift weights and include squatting as part of your regimen, you should squat no more than once a week. Push it hard during your session, but don’t squat with weights again for at least seven days. Remember, you are also doing lots of kicking and stance work in your karate training, so don’t risk injury by overtraining.
If weights are not accessible to you or you choose not to include them in your training, here are two karate squat-like exercises that work your kicking muscles. Do these at the end of your class or on off days.
Moving Horse
When you are in horse stance, your legs look as if you are riding a big fat horse. The posture is as old as the martial arts and is found in virtually every fighting style in existence.
Some use it as a fighting stance, but I believe that it’s too deep and immobile to be of much value in a fight. However, just as there are people who violate “health rules,” and smoke and drink into their 90’s, there are a few karate fighters who violate “fighting rules,” such as tournament champ Bill “Superfoot” who has had an incredible career fighting from the horse stance.
I teach the stance as an exercise position to develop powerful legs, though we never just sit motionless. If you only sit in one position, you only strengthen your legs in that one position. Sitting motionless in horse stance is like doing an isometric exercise where you pit your strength against an immovable object. If that is the only position you do, you neglect strengthening the others. To eliminate this limitation, and to make the exercise more dynamic, squat up and down in the horse stance.
Assume a horse stance with your feet pointed outward slightly, about 10 degrees. They should never point straight ahead as this puts excessive stress on the ligaments and cartilage around the knee joints. As you squat, go as low as you can, but never let your knees extend forward beyond your toes, which also puts excessive stress on your tendons and cartilage. Concentrate on lowering your butt straight down as opposed to bending your knees. You go down either way, but when you think about lowering your butt, your knees have a tendency not to extend over your toes as much. Also make sure that your knees always point in the same direction as your toes. If you turn them inward, which is a common error, you put dangerous stress on your tendons. When you have gone as low as you are going to go, push yourself back up and count that as your first rep.
Do one set of 20 reps in a wide stance, but not so wide that you sacrifice your form, and then do a second set of 20 in a narrow stance. That’s two sets of 20 s-l-o-w reps.
Sitting in horse is a great exercise but not when held motionless. Instead sit high (L), and then slowly descend to a low position (R). And then come back up to the high position. Repeat for sets and reps.
Work only the Bottom Half
If you are feeling especially masochistic, work only the bottom half of the horse squat. Assume the position and lower yourself as low as you can go while keeping your back straight and not letting your knees extend past your toes. This is your starting place. Now, slowly raise yourself half way up and then return back down to your lowest position. Do 20 reps of these, never raising higher than half way. If it hurts too much, take two aspirins, but don’t call me in the morning.
After the first few months my students and I did these squats at the end of the class, we noticed a marked improvement in our kicks and - you will love me for this - all of our spouses gave us favorable comments on the nice shape of our legs and derrieres. Cool.
One-legged Squats
If you want a fun workout, don’t do these. But if you want one that is a painful killer on your gams and one that will give you fast results, one-legged squats are made to order. If you have bad knees, you should skip this one because it’s stressful on the joints.
Hold on to a chair if you need to or, if you have good balance, just hold your arms out to the side. Extend your right leg out in front of you and slowly lower your rear toward your heel. Go down until your squatting leg is parallel with the floor, then slowly push back up.
Start with one set of eight reps for each leg and slowly, over the weeks, work up to three sets of 10 reps. Do them at the end of your class or on off days.
Variation 1:
Assume your fighting stance with your left leg in front and kneel down on your right knee. Maintain your arms in your on-guard position as you drive yourself upward with your left leg and execute a front kick with your right. Snap your kick back and return it to the floor so you are again kneeling on your right knee. Do 10 reps on each leg. If you find these especially difficult, do only five reps on each leg the first week, and add one rep each week until you have a set of 10. You shouldn’t do these more than one workout a week, and if you have bad knees, you shouldn’t do them at all.
Begin in the kneeling position (L) and then drive yourself up and execute a front kick (R). Drop back to the starting position and repeat.
Variation 2:
Assume your fighting stance but with your left foot up on the seat of a sturdy chair. In one fluid motion, push yourself up until you are standing with both feet on the seat, snap out a right front kick and then set your right foot back down on the floor.
Do 10 reps on each leg. If these are especially hard for you, do only five reps the first week, and then add one rep each week until you have a set of 10. If you have bad knees, skip the exercise entirely.
3. ELASTIC CORD KICKING
I got one of these a few months ago and I really like the constant resistance it provides through the entire range of motion, whether it’s a straight-line kick or a circular one. With ankle weights, the poundage and Earth’s gravity forces your leg downward. I prefer the resistance to be in the direction of the kick, from the chamber to full extension. The elastic cord gives you that.
When you first strap it on, you might find that it’s hard to maintain your balance, but that’s a good thing. To keep from toppling over or flying backwards, you must consciously and unconsciously use all your support muscles. This alone will help you develop strong and stable kicking stances.
I do three sets of 12 reps with the front, side, back and roundhouse kicks. Sometimes I do them slowly and other times I do them between medium and fast speed. I’m leery of doing a lot of fast reps because I’m not convinced that it’s safe. It may very well be, but when it comes to the joints, I’d rather be conservative. I’ve broken one knee cap and it’s not a barrel of laughs.
The great benefit of kicking with these is that the cord strengthens your movement from the beginning to the end. It’s okay to hold onto something (at first).
4. CLIMBING THE TREE
I made up this name and, yes, it’s a stupid one. Nonetheless, it’s a good exercise that builds leg and hip strength. Here is how you do it.
Stand in front of your training partner and throw a roundhouse kick at his calf. Retract it into a tight chamber then launch another roundhouse, this time to his thigh. Retract to a tight chamber, then throw another to his groin. Retract to your chamber, and set your foot back on the floor. Those three kicks count as one repetition. Do one set of 10 reps with each leg, which adds up to 30 kicks for each leg, and then allow your partner to have a turn.
On your next turn, add a fourth roundhouse kick to his midsection. Do a set of 10 reps with each leg (now you are up to 40 reps with each leg) and then allow your partner a turn. Add a fifth kick the next time it’s your turn, this time to your partner’s chest. On the next and final set, add a kick to his head or as high as you can go. All together, you are throwing kicks to his calf, thigh, groin, midsection chest and head, which means you are kicking 60 times per 10-rep set with each leg.
If you began the drill kicking to three targets and progressed as described to six targets on the fourth set, you throw a total of 180 kicks with each leg. If you want a harder workout, use smaller increments as you climb his tree. If you are really full of energy, throw two kicks at each target.
You can make this drill as hard or as easy as you want. The end result is that your kick grows stronger because the exercise requires that your leg and hip muscles do all the work as opposed to momentum carrying the kick to the targets. Try the exercise using all of your kicks.
5. STICKY FOOT
This exercise would be fun if it didn’t hurt so much. Its purpose is to strengthen the leg muscles at the point your kick is at full extension, the so-called focus point where the muscles contract.
You can do sticky foot any number of ways: in the air, on a bag, on a tree, on an opponent. It doesn’t matter what you kick at because you are not making hard contact. In my school, we do it mostly with a partner, taking turns kicking back and forth at various targets. Here is how it’s done using a front kick.
Face your partner and launch a front kick toward his abdomen. When your leg is extended and your foot is touching his body, hold it there for one second, counting “one thousand one” before you retract your leg. You don’t need to purposefully contract your muscles, because they are going to do it all on their own - trust me on this.
First, you do the kick and then your partner does it, continuing back and forth until you have done 10 reps with each leg.
You can kick at any height you choose; obviously the higher the kick the greater stress on the muscles. You can kick slowly, medium speed or fast, it doesn’t matter. It’s that one-second stick at full extension that you are after.
Do the exercise no more than twice a week using the roundhouse, side, back, hook and crescent kick, and concentrate on using good form.
There is a high potential for muscle cramp with this, so be careful.
A Variation
I was going to call this “A painful variation,” but I want to be positive here. This works best if you grab hold of something for support, such as the back of a chair, a wall, or your training partner’s shoulder.
Let’s use the sidekick to illustrate and let’s do it oh so s-l-o-w-l-y. Slowly chamber the kick, slowly extend it, and then stick it at full extension for one second, just as you did with the front kick in the first exercise. Don’t cheat and lean too much because you want your legs and hips to do all the work. When the second is up, don’t retract your leg; you haven’t done the fun part yet. With your leg still fully extended, slowly raise it as high as you can. Yipes! Can you say muscle cramp? If you get one, shake it out and continue with the reps.
Do one set of 10 reps to begin, and progress to another set of 10. As is the case with most exercises, there is no hurry to progress; add a rep whenever you can easily do the last one. Remember, you are trying to build muscle, not shred it.
Do this variation with the front, back and sidekick, and you will attack all the muscles involved in most of the other types of kicks. This is a result-producing exercise and, before you know it, you will notice a new crispness to your kicks and greater impact on the bag.
6. 1000-REP DRILL
This will make or break you; the answer lies within you. It’s a killer leg workout that will tap your energy, trash your legs and trash just about everything else. But in the end, your kicks will be faster and stronger and your discipline will be ironclad.
Your objective is to do one thousand kicks within about 30 minutes, about one every two seconds. Which kicks you choose is up to you, though you should choose ones that you want to improve. All of the kicks, all one thousand repetitions, must be executed at maximum power and speed. If you cheat and do a few easy kicks, you are cheating yourself and you shouldn’t feel pride when completing the giant set.
Here is one version that I have used. Use it or modify it however you want.
1000-Rep Kicking Drill
Single Kicks (Total Reps with both legs: 180)
Technique
Reps
Total Kicks
Front Kick
15
30
Roundhouse Kick
15
30
Hook Kick
15
30
Side Kick
15
30
Crescent Kick
15
30
Back Kick
15
30
Double Kicks Same Leg (Total Reps with both legs: 300)
Technique
Reps
Total Kicks
Front Kick, Front Kick
15
60
Roundhouse, Side Kick
15
60
Side Kick, Back Kick
15
60
Front Hook, Spinning Back
15
60
Crescent Kick, Front Kick
15
60
Supported Roundhouse Kicks (Total Reps: 100)
Hold on to a chair or brace your hand against a wall. If you are doing these with a partner, you can hold hands and kick back and forth. By supporting yourself, you can chamber your kick higher than you can when you are not supported. Do 50 reps on each side.
Unsupported Roundhouse Kicks (Total Reps: 100)
Now throw your roundhouse kicks without support. This way you are using, and improving, your hip strength to get your chamber as high as you can. Do 50 reps with each leg.
Triple Kicks with same leg (Total Reps: 270)
Technique
Reps
Total Kicks
Side Kick, Side Kick, Side Kick
15
90
Front Kick, Roundhouse Kick,
15
90
Roundhouse Kick
Side Kick, Back Kick, Back Kick
15
90
Finishing Kicks (Total Reps: 50)
Still got energy left? Whether you said yes or no, you still got 50 more reps to do. Choose any kick that needs extra work and whip out 25 with each leg.
I strongly suggest that you do this drill no more than once every two weeks, especially when you are doing additional training in your school and other exercises in your personal regimen. If you are careful not to overtrain, and it’s easy to do with this, you will notice a big difference in your kicks after about four workouts of the 1000-Rep Drill.
Let’s conclude this section by taking a look at each of the four basic kicks - round, side, back and front - to see how you can increase your speed, power and overall effectiveness.
7. ROUNDHOUSE KICK - MUAY THAI STYLE
Instead of going over the standard roundhouse kick, let’s examine the features of the Muay Thai roundhouse, an extremely devastating version of the kick.
I’m going to do something here that I rarely do, which is to recommend a technique before I have thoroughly tested it. I’m breaking my little rule because in the year I have practiced the Muay Thai method of roundhouse kicking, I’ve found it to be powerful and fast, more so than the traditional method of roundhouse kicking. No doubt this is why Muay Thai fighters have used this version for eons with great success in the street and in the ring. In fact, they refer to it as “The King of Kicks.” Here is how they do it.
Breaking the Rules
One of the primary differences in the Muay Thai roundhouse is that they stand on their tiptoes of their support leg when kicking, especially when kicking to the head. This is considered a sin in the traditional systems and frowned on in many of the modern ones. The argument against it is based on the perceived precariousness of balance and stability, especially when making impact against a bag or an opponent. I tried it and was surprised to discover that it works pretty darn good. More on this in a moment.
Using the Rear Leg
Another difference in Muay Thai’s delivery is that they mostly kick with the rear leg, using basically two ways to fire it off. One is to kick with whichever leg happens to be in the rear at the moment a target presents itself, and the other is to do a quick foot shuffle, moving the front leg to the rear and then launching it into the target. This is a deceptive move and a good way to increase the kick’s power.
The Mechanics of the Kick
Your kicking foot is launched directly from the floor; you don’t lift it into a chambered position before it’s launched as many other styles do, but rather send it from the floor directly to the target. As the kick speeds toward its objective, your support leg straightens until it’s fully stretched and you are on the ball of your foot. Muay Thai fighters believe that straightening the support leg in this fashion helps the kick move faster and more powerfully, and that standing on the ball of the foot, reduces friction and drag on the floor as it rotates up to 180 degrees.
Your same-side arm is used to help accelerate the kick. When kicking with the left leg, for example, whip your left arm down to your left side and slightly behind you. Your right fist is held on-guard near your right ear.
Okay, here is the four-step process at a glance.
1. Assume a high, right leg forward stance.
2. Launch your rear foot off the floor.
3. As the stationary leg straightens and your foot comes up on the ball and rotates, the hip of your kicking leg begins rotating in the same direction, followed by your thigh, and then the whip-like action of your lower leg toward the target.
4. Contact with the target is made with your lower shin as opposed to the top of your foot.
I like this method of roundhouse kicking, though I will never train to rotate my body 360 degrees as Muay Thai kickers do when they practice in the air. This is because it really hurts when a street thug sticks a blade in your exposed back. But I do like the four-step process, and I find that whipping my arm downward as I kick adds to its power. While it’s still hard for me to come up on the ball of my support foot after so many years of being convinced that it’s weak form, so far I haven’t found anything wrong with it, and it does seem to make my kick a little faster.
Maybe an old dog can learn new tricks.
Free Advice:
Since we are on the subject of legs, let me offer you a little advice that may save you from future health problems.
I’m a strong advocate of kicking an opponent’s legs, relating it to chopping down a tree: You hack at the trunk, not at the leaves. The legs are an outstanding target and when specific points are struck, or when any one point is struck several times in a row, the leg will cave in and the attacker will crash to the ground. But, and this a big but, it’s not a good idea to pummel your partner’s legs in practice.
Yes, I know that Muay Thai fighters do it when they train, and there are stories of some who shin-kick steel pipes and trees in an effort to toughen their legs to make them even deadlier weapons, as well as to toughen them to absorb their opponent’s hard kicks. Does this conditioning work? Yes, it does. Is it good for you? No way. It’s potentially crippling in the long run as it damages nerves.
Technique: Roundhouse Kick
Assume an on-guard stance. Step up with your rear leg and whip a lead-leg kick into the target.
Note that the support foot is off the ground and the arm has whipped down to add power to the kick, while the other arm is held high to protect the head.
8. SIDEKICK
Here are three ways that Canadian Instructor Michael Holmes gave me to help develop a fast and powerful sidekick. While your particular method of sidekicking may be different from mine or his, you can still incorporate these universal ideas to improve yours even more.
Slow Motion Kicking
“With the sidekick, technical proficiency is vital,” Holmes says. “A full-length mirror and a way to support yourself, such as a handrail or a wall, is essential. Strength can be acquired by doing slow motion kicking as you support yourself, and the mirror allows evaluation to ensure proper form. If you cannot kick high, kick low with good form, and with practice and strength development, your kick will get higher. Of course stretching will help, too.
“Practice raising your knee as high as possible prior to pushing your leg outward. This means the kicking foot should travel straight upward before it kicks outward to the target. The higher the knee, the higher the kick will be. Practice reps and sets of this lifting phase slowly, too.”
Push with the Toes
I found this little trick to dramatically accelerate the chambering portion of the sidekick. Here is what Holmes says about it.
“Another component to raising the knee, is to push off the floor with the kicking foot when you bring your knee up. To do this, push with the toes of the kicking foot, rather than just lifting or pulling the knee up. The keyword here is push. When your leg is chambered in the correct position, knee high but close to the body, you will be able to throw your strongest kick.”
Thrust with Momentum
Holmes says to put your entire body behind the kick. “The final component to developing strong sidekicks is the thrust from the chambered position. You are trying to thrust your leg in a horizontal line, parallel to the floor. All your body weight should travel in this same line, which is to say you do not bob up and down. The support leg should drive your entire body mass in the direction of the kick. If you perform a sidekick from a fighting stance with the lead leg, the support foot should move forward at least a few inches from the momentum of the kick.
“To get an idea of the thrusting motion required, begin in a traditional horse stance and spring forward with a lead leg sidekick. Regardless of whether you step forward or hop forward, take care to move in a horizontal plane. If you bob up and down, you will minimize your forward momentum because your energy is wasted moving you up and down. Move straight forward into the target for maximum power.”
Michael Holmes thoughts on momentum apply to all techniques that involve a forward thrust. Think of momentum as a straight line of energy to the target. If you allow your head and body to come up and then go back down again when you, say, lunge punch, you break that straight line of energy and you have destroyed your momentum.
Keep your head and body at the same level.
9. FRONT KICK
The muscles you use to execute a front kick get a lot of exercise from your horse stance and any other exercise that involves squatting. Here are three other ways to make this mother of all kicks the pile driver that it should be.
Standing Slow Kicks
You can never go wrong with slow kicks as a way to strengthen the specific muscles that are used for front kicking. Slow kicks hurt and they can be a little boring to do, but they will definitely put power in the thrust. To get the hip muscles involved, the ones that are used in picking your leg up into the chambered position, ensure that you always lift your knee as high as you can when doing slow reps.
Although you should never fully extend your leg when kicking full power, that is, lock out your knee joint, it’s recommended that you do so when practicing slow kicking. This ensures that you stimulate the muscles around the knee to keep them strong to protect the joint. Remember the difference: Lock out on the slow kick exercise, but never lock out when doing fast ones.
Do two sets of 10 reps, two to three times a week.
Technique: Side Kick
Assume a fairly narrow horse stance and begin to chamber your sidekick with a hard push off your lead-foot toes.
By simultaneously thrusting your side kick with a thrust of your support leg, you will scoot one to three feet. Be sure to keep your head at the same level.
Kneeling Slow Kicks
The motion of your slow kick when kneeling is the same as when standing, but it hurts a lot more. Kneel down so that your right knee is on the floor and your left leg is bent. Hold onto something, grit your teeth and slowly extend your left leg until it’s locked out. Retract slowly and replace your foot on the floor. If you get cramps in your thighs, simply shake it out or massage the muscle and then continue with the reps.
Two sets of 10 should be plenty.
Leg Extensions
You need a leg extension machine to do this. If you don’t have access to one, you should know that this exercise is so effective that it’s well worth the effort to seek one out. It’s a good exercise, because the movement with the extension machine is similar to the movement of the front kick, and whenever you can find that feature in a martial arts exercise, go for it.
