Heroic Wolf

Are tornado kicks very useful for self-defense? You stay long enough in the air for an opponent to back off and throw a side kick/front kick to outreach ur tornado and knock u out of the air. So is tornado just good for showing off, building lower body agility to help with your other kicks, and teaching how to rotate bodyweight into one's kicks?

aku aku

My opinion:

They are great exercise and fun to do. There will always be stories of people who are good enough or lucky enough to get away with stuff like that but I wouldn't generally recommend it because it's too easy to get yourself into trouble.

DickHardman

like everything else, it has its time and place.

you can generate tremendous power with a tornado kick and kick people much taller than you, and the footwork used to set up the kick can be very confusing to an opponent. just cause you dont see it on spike tv, doesnt mean it cant be used for self defense or properly learned.

the more variety of kicks you have in your arsenal the better. remember cung le vs shamrock?? shamrock only threw 1 kind of kick(roundhouse) while cung le used a multitude of various kicks from different angles.

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kwai chang pain

I trained with a guy who was really great at that type of kick. He was a really good fighter, too. I saw him throw one of those in a tournament and his opponent ducked under the kick, then punched him in the head.

As for using the kick in training....we used to start doing one at a time, then
higher ranks would do two in a row. Sometimes we'd do them across the room, one after another. I'm sure that doing the kick is good for balance and coordination.

I'd have to question the practicality of using the kick in a real situation. Just my two cents.

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bodhisattva

The tornado kick is not a good answer for self defense.

An aggressive, determined athlete will punish a kicker doing something like this..

I would work hard on my boxing skills, if you want striking that works well in self defense.

That's my advice.

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bodhisattva

You can take 100 guys, and teach them boxing.

You can take 100 guys and teach them kickboxing.

99 of the guys are going to "get" boxing, and be able to use it in defense against aggressive, determined athletic fighters.

Maybe 2 out of the 100 guys will be a "Cung Le" or a "Maurice Smith" and kick without falling on their asses - and succesfully knock people out with kicks.

Kicks are a very low percentage move.

I say keep the feet on the ground and protect your chin.

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Heroic Wolf

Ya, kicks can be low percentage shots. However, are kicks that aren't thrown high necesarily bad still?
1. In self-defense, kicks have more force due to shoes being worn
2. I've lost contact sparring to martial artists slightly worse than myself when I tried to just rely on boxing as opposed to integrating kicks into my game
3. The muay thai roundhouse kick lands quite a lot
4. I know some ppl who can hit very accurately and hard with kicks, but I guess they've been doing leg-oriented martial arts training for so long that they don't really count as a representation of the "average guy"

eXcessiveForce

High percentage shots, Jab and cross
High percentage kicks , front, side, round, crescent and hook.

Against a boxer give me my kicks, against a good kicker give me my boxing and kicks.

But it's all going to depend on what range you like to be in.

Jump kicks have reasons to do them. and not for the reasons most people think.

Every technique has a time and place, use the wrong thing at the wrong time and you will get pounded. Also using techniques that are more difficult than are required at the moment can get you pounded.

So you don't throw a jump or spin kick when a basic kick will do, Just like you don't throw fancy hand movements when a jab will do.

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eXcessiveFORCE.

If you must use force, make it excessive.

eXcessiveForce

Well timed kicks are great.
Shoes reduce force (they are padded)

Integration is key to martial arts.
Depends on who throws it
martial artists don't really count as a good representation of the average guy, many are much dumber than an average person getting into a fight. others are much smarter. Problem is sometimes its hard to tell the difference.

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eXcessiveFORCE.

If you must use force, make it excessive.

Tant01

Quote worthy, consider it stolen.

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James Paterson

Heroic Wolf

Oh really, shoes reduce kick power do to cushioning? So kicks are only stronger with shoes on if I'm wearing military boots? As for the proper uses of jump kicks, are they for covering a lot of distance with your kicks as opposed to kicking opponents in the head? One of my taekwondo friends says that jump kicks are only useful when thrown more like skip kicks.

aku aku

Kind of depends on the shoe of course.

eXcessiveForce

It would depend on the shoe, the reason many people kick harder with shoes on is they don't worry about hurting themselves as much. So really shoes don't have much effect on the ability to throw power into a kick.

For instance breaking boards with shoes on usually requires more effort than without.


Jump kicks can have many uses, one can be covering distance although generally this wouldn't be the main reason for jumping. It would also be extremely difficult to explain by typing it out. But there are ways that jumping can increase stability and balance. Increase power, increase range, and provide some distraction.

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eXcessiveFORCE.

If you must use force, make it excessive.

rhee

I think in taekwondo is good dwit chagi. Hurio is not that good in real fight.

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kanik

Try a tornado kick, but landing on the kicking leg. Woot! 540 kicks! They'll take somones head clean off.