Bruce' sidekick

[hEmPY]

I thought you hate karate

[Arramon]

We use the side kick alot in our class.. . Sifu Matthew Kizzy teaches us in Sacramento. He calls it the pendulum kick, and the step-behind kick for the ranged one.
For the pendulum, by stepping your rear foot forwards, snapping your leg up, and leaning backwards some, allowing the front leg/foot to raise more and your muscles and bones to align better, you can thrust out your sidekick pretty well.. its just getting a good aim at your target. And keeping your body adjusted and settled right so all muscles can have a chance to react as one... If you try to kick without having your leg totally raised and focused on the point to where you want the force to go (or go through), you may very well not have a strong attack. Or may even pull a muscle, or feel a pain because muscles tend to flex into and around bones and joints/ligaments..

Was that understandable?

Sifu always tells us to get your rear foot to the base of its foundation quickly and steadily, then allow your body to lean and strike once the attacking foot is a) high enough b) aligned directly at the target, so that when you strike, your power and strength go directly at/through the target... kind of like a rear thrust kick, but from the side, with the lead foot...

Bruce seemed to be able to move from a front snap kick position to a side kick position quickly by just turning on the balls of his feet into a side stance, and raising and aligning his striking leg/foot at the same time, so that as soon as he's turned his stance, he's already striking.

Little hops here and there do help to shorten gaps between opponents, if they are so close that a step behind wouldn't work... but you need to have a firm stance after the hop and before the raising/aligning of your kick.. unless you hop forward alittle with your rear foot, similar to a pendulum kick, and strike with the lead foot simultaneously. The power of the strike will diminish if you try to land your hop and then strike (ie you slide-step then pendulum and strike)... you should move towards your opponent and strike within the same movements to use the force from the momentum of your body (ie slide to pendulum then strike)... If you try to stop your body then strike, it just causes you to not strike as hard. You can connect, but your force isn't what you want if your trying to kick with meaning. =)

As to leaving yourself open if you were to strike with a side or step-behind kick... you just need to get that foot down! Like someone said before...

Or make sure that your rear foot is active enough so that you can adjust your stance and either spin your body so that your rear foot now becomes your lead (affectively moving you away from the opponent), or come down with your striking foot so that you are attacking again as you bring your lead foot to your ready stance, using your heel..

If you strike with enough force in the first place, your opponent should move, giving you more room to operate. If they defended, deflected, or just plain got out of the way, just make sure you pull your leg back in before you try to follow through with your kick (returning to your previous stance with another pendulum)... make sure you've hit something first before you charge or step in... unless you are ready for some close quarters grappling, or can follow up with a few combo strikes (upper-cut, elbow, front palm strike/double elbow)... =Þ

Don't forget you have hands also... you could always deflect or catch a blow if you seem to be left opened for attack. OR, before your kick is unleashed, you can deflect or spin your opponent with your hands first (possibly spinning your opponent), then kick...

Usually if someone attacks you, you should deflect and counter-attack. You not only are opening up their defenses by blocking their offense, you are giving yourself an opportunity for YOUR offense, by use of your defense...
Spin the opponent or make them off balance by side stepping so that they have to follow... You dont have to attack from a position directly infront of someone. You can always move around and look for the openings that will a) limit your chances of not being able to recover your stance or b) limit your opponent's opportunities to strike directly at you with full force...

[Thai Bri]

I thought you hate karate

Nope. I just hate the way 99% of people practice it, especially when they go onto claim it as the "best self defence".

There are Karate-Ka with awesome fighting skills. But they are hard to find.

And, of course, being an ex Karate-ka myself, I'm well qualified to slag it off.