Hows it going?
Ando again from SenseiAndo.com and Happy Life Martial Arts.
The front kick—either a front snap kick or maybe a front thrusting kick—is usually
the first kick you learn how to throw in the martial arts.
But really--do you have to learn how to throw a front kick?
I mean, anybody can throw a front kick.
A baby can throw a front kick.
You don’t even have to get out of your chair to throw a front kick.
Okay.
But the question is can you throw it better?
Today, I’m going to show you an exercise that will make your front kick faster, stronger,
and harder to see coming.
Do this and I guarantee you will never, ever lose a fight…with a baby.
Let me show you this exercise first and then I’ll come back and tell you why I think
it’s important.
I call this exercise the Free Fall Front Kick Drill.
You know when you ride a roller coaster and you’re climbing up to the top--CLICK-CLICK—and
then your stomach drops and you feel like you want to puke?
If you do this exercise right, you’re going to get the same feeling.
So, grab a bucket.
Okay.
The challenge is to kick with your front front without having to shift your weight to the
back foot first.
So, start off simply.
Put your feet kind of close together.
Now just try to get your foot up and out without putting your weight on to your left foot.
If that feels cool, then back it out a little back, make your stance a little wider.
Same thing.
See if you can get your foot up and out without having to shift over to the left foot.
Ah ha.
It’s tough.
Now, don’t get fancy.
I’m only kicking around waist height.
If that’s too much, then bring it down to the knee or the ankle.
I don’t want you to get hurt on this.
Okay.
If you’re cool with that, then widen out your stance a little bit more.
Same thing.
Get that foot out there.
That burns this old man’s legs.
Now, you’ll notice in this drill, I’m only kicking with the front leg.
That’s because it’s easier to throw a front kick with the back foot than it is with
the front foot.
Why?
Well, because I can’t shift backwards from my back foot.
I’m stuck.
The weight can only move forward.
And since I’m moving forward to the front leg and my foot is going in that same direction
for the kick, that means there’s a lot less wasted energy and it’s much harder for the
other person to see coming.
But when people kick with the front foot, it’s not so easy.
So, they tend to either lean back, or stand up, or pull all the way back before they send
that foot out.
I don’t want any of that in this drill.
This is not something you can do in slow-motion.
I want that foot to come up, and out, and back before I fall down.
Can't do that in slow-motion.
It's gotta just go up, out, and down.
Now, if this was a real fight, the back foot wouldn't just be laying there like a dead
fish.
The idea would be that you could either drag behind it... or if you're already bent down
and your ankle is flexed, you can use it to drive your body weight behind it.
That's going to add some power.
It's just like a table.
If you have a table and you take the leg out, and the table is going to collapse unless
you put that leg right back in, that's what we're doing here.
You're keeping your weight right over that front foot.
Give this a try!
Hey— if you have issues with your knees or your ankles, then just stop right here.
Don’t do the next part.
Just don’t.
All right.
The next challenge is to put yourself into a front stance or a bow and arrow stance and
try to do the same thing.
I hate this.
Whew.
The reason this is so hard is because the back leg is locked out and you're super low,
so there's nowhere to go.
You can’t cheat.
Ugh.
Let me give you a quick visualization that might help.
It helps me.
I like to imagine that both of my feet are stuck in mud.
Imagine that you're stuck in mud up to your knees.
Now, if you're stuck in mud, just leaning or rolling around is not going to help you
get your foot out.
The only way out is to get that foot up and out.
So, that's what's going to create that free fall falling.
So, imagine you're stuck in a big boot and just up and out.
Don't have to go high.
Wow.
Try that one.
Wait!
Hold it, hold it, hold it.
I've got one more for you.I wasn't going to do this one on camera because it looks ridiculous,
but I love you.
So, this time, I want you to try to throw your front kick on one foot.
Not this one... that one.
Here we go.
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Ooh, boy.
This one's a killer.
It's also pure free fall.
There's nowhere to go here.
Now, you'll notice I'm not trying to kick much higher than the ankle--I can't kick much
higher than the ankle--the ankle of a five-year-old--but if you can, well then good for you.
For the rest of us who don't have magical powers, let's just keep trying.
So, that’s the Freefall Front Kick Drill.
If you want to burn out your legs, try a set of 10 on each leg.
Even better, do four sets.
First set, 10 and 10 with your feet close together, then 10 and 10 in your fighting
stance, then 10 and 10 in a front stance, and then 10 and 10 on one foot.
I don’t care who you are, if you do that, you’re going to feel it.
Now let’s talk about why I think this is so important.
If you have to shift your weight back to throw a front kick, look what happens to your foot.
There's your foot, it's so close to the bad guy, and then you shift back and look at my
foot, it's traveling backwards before I kick.
Now, that just slows down your kick.
You're adding distance to the delivery time.
I don’t like that any more than I like the idea of winding up a punch.
It's even worse if your front leg isn't that strong, so you find yourself leaning to make
your leg feel lighter, or standing up and leaning to make your leg feel lighter before
you kick.
Boy.
If you do that, it makes your kick so easy to see coming.
I mean, everybody and my dead grandma can see that kick coming.
So, all I'm saying is, if you’re going to lean when you throw a front kick, or you're
going to shift yourself back, or you're going to stand up, make sure you’re doing those
things for a reason.
Maybe you're drawing your head back so that you're out of punching range while you kick.
Okay.
Maybe you're drawing somebody in before you kick.
All of that is fine.
But if you find yourself standing, and leaning, and shifting backwards just to make that leg
easier to pick up for yourself, that's something you're going to have to fix.
Because it’s not easy to throw a front kick with the front foot without shifting your
weight back, you’ll see a lot of kickers, like in Muay Thai or in Taekwondo, using a
very narrow stance.
They keep their feet pretty close together.
Those are usually pretty tall stances, too.
You might also see some martial artists who do a lot of jumping around and fast foot switching.
And that's all great.
I'm not saying that stuff doesn't work.
Those guys are great kickers.
Those tricks work because it's really easy to hide your weight shifting when your feet
are close and when your body is up, it makes your leg feel very light so you can get it
up and out pretty quickly.
But why limit yourself?
For me, I'm always thinking about self-defense, and if I'm fighting this guy and holding off
that guy, I'd like to be able to kick with either foot from any position, high or low.
So, look, even if you never throw a front kick from a low position, I still think this
drill makes for a good workout and helps you build great habits.
There you go.
The Freefall Front Kick Drill.
Again, don’t hurt yourself.
Always warm up and start with your feet close together.
If you’re feeling good, then you can start widening out little by little.
And hey--if you can kick at waist height off of one foot—don’t tell me.
My ego can’t handle that.
If you liked this video, thanks for giving it a thumbs up and subscribing to my channel.
Until next time, keep riding the roller coaster, my friend, and keep fighting for a happy life.