Sensei Seth, welcome to the program. > Thank you sir, thank you sir. > So now a
technical question-- you are world famous for some crazy kicking. Good I mean crazy
kicking, great skills. Probably the most common email I get is I'm not very
flexible, I want to kick higher. How do I kick hiher? It's always kicking stuff. I
know you've addressed this you've got you put up a course about this stuff so
people should keep that stuff out but if you could give us like what is your
first reaction to this like hey I want to be a better kicker what do you have
favorite stretch what's your favorite tip you give us some help okay so for
me first off it's like understanding the body mechanics of the kick there's
there's four to five big things the body mechanics of the kick the ability for
you to pull your leg up so the strength the the allowance of your the other side
of your leg so the top of your leg pulls leg up the
bottom of the leg is what's stretching it's allowing you to get that leg higher
so maybe that's your problem then your mobility how good are your joints so
that's number four and then your balance how good you can practice for long
periods of time keep good balance maybe work on going slow and steady or you
know sometimes you just like your body inherently is you're like oh I want to
get this leg up I'm just gonna throw it up there and then everything else is
just like ah you know the balance goes away so those are my five big things
that balance the body mechanics the flexibility the mobility and then the
strength and then as for each of those things kickin will make you better at
all of those things so like if you just wrap out kiks kiks kiks you record
yourself as what what I've been really big on lately is recording yourself
watching it back watching people you admire who kick and then like comparing
the two that's that's where I feel like I get better it's the best way of
teaching yourself by somebody else's example and then as far as stretching
goes I I hardly really ever stretch anymore I'm not I'm not super flexible
but I stretch for a long period of time as a kid so what I would recommend is
just start stretching now work on things that are active stretches and then every
now and then things that are sad stretches so like the splits I can't do
the splits but if I but I can also kick it head high so it's it's understanding
like what you need what your body needs for you in order to be able to kick
higher instead of assuming that it's always flexibility mm-hmm that's really
a great point I have a video about that flexibility without stretching and yes
seems counter I love hearing that from someone else's mouth yeah because the
activity even just long stances I think goes a long way and just building up
your own body awareness and how to align your bones and working on flexibility
without having to rip anything by throwing it violently in the air right
deep stances are really a great way just to kind of find because I mean a long
stance or a front stance is really the side kick but it's on the ground right
and ya kind of look and your balance to get that a little bit higher so I love
hearing you say that now you also threw in just so people
don't hate your guts you say well I don't stretch haha
that you've been doing this since you were very young Yeah right since I was 3
at this point my flexibility has kind of been engrained into me and and to be
fair I do still stretch from time to time but I do it more actively instead
of being like okay I'm gonna sit down for 30 minutes and I'm just gonna sit in
a in a wide stance here or in a in a middle split mm-hmm I'm just gonna sit
there until my legs move further apart there that does work for some people for
me I I don't like to sit still I do a lot of the stuff that I do is active
flexibility stuff where I'm putting my body in those situations where I'm
moving a little bit further than I usually would but I'm not like making an
emphasis of sitting down and doing that okay so now let me put your your realism
versus your idealism you're a positive guy so I'm sure if someone's listening
right now in their 20s and they want to kick higher and get more flexible and
get the splits you would say absolutely go for it
at what age would you tell someone you know what it might be the days of axe
kicking might be over for you or maybe you should spend that energy in a
different way is there an age sir where you would say forget about it so my
answer is usually the young you're the youngest you'll ever be again so like
you're you're not gonna ever it's never gonna be easier for you to do
it until you start stretching now there's some people where I'm like just
make don't make it a priority if it's like really a goal for you it's probably
it might be possible but the thing is like I've I've never had legs that were
older than 25 so it's hard for me to say from experience right um but for the
most part I like to say well you know what also is really cool punching things.
that's a great answer and you know that everyone will train safely based on it. Yeah.
yeah all right