teaching/learning side kick

[shaolin-warrior]

Try this and tell me what you think:
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. Shift all your weight to your left foot and chamber your right knee. pivot on the ball of your left foot bringing your left heel in proper alignment or pointing at your intended target, this will rotate your right hip and allow you to strike with your right heel. The starting stance is a traditional horse stance, the chamber stance is a crane stance neither of which are effective in a ring or street setting, but provide the beginner with a tool to learn proper balance and execution of a side thrust kick.

[Piston]

Chambering is very useful in my opinion. It puts your kicking foot, fully coiled back and ready to strike giving you a hell of a range and power advantage, its very hard to get inside someone with a good chamber.

[aku aku]

My brother thinks of it as aiming a fart at your opponant.

[Maxx]

For a long time one of the things that I noticed not only in the school that I trained at but also among a lot of schools was that a traditional chamber (bending ready stance for those ITF people out there) was seen less and less as a method for chambering the side kick. The more common chamber was done with the leg lifted, the hips turned away (already rotated) with the buttocks facing the target and the kicking leg already aimed at the target so that all one would have to do is simply contract the quads to fire the kick.

Personally I felt that it was a reasonably powerful kick, but about 10 years ago I started looking through the Encyclopedia and some of the older TKD books from the 70s, 60s and 50s and found that most of the time the side kick was launched from the bending ready stance. This is essentially standing on one leg with the foot of the raised leg either resting on the base leg at the knee or hanging at about knee level. I found that from this position, which seemed like a weak chamber, I could extend the kicking leg towards the target and forceably thrust the hip into alignment at the last instant, thereby creating a considerable explosion of force on impact.

I still go back and forth between the two methods, depending on whether I am attacking (moving forward) or defending (intercepting an attack). If simply defending (no forward motion) or in some cases sliding, I will throw from the bending ready stance chamber.

[Piston]

That stance is in some ITF patterns, Do San for example, I had always been told it was just more of a traditional ready stance, I shall have to try it now! Thanks!

[us-navy-seal]

Side kick- When using back leg side kick, you must bring your back leg up and pivot on the ball of your front leg. Your front foot should be angled at your rear by 45 degrees when you finally make it.

Lean back slightly to balance yourself with the weight of your knee and slowly release your lower leg into a snap, either flattening your foot with your toes pulled back or angling it so the side would hit directly. You must have your hip turned and keep your hands up when you throw it or you will be thrown off balance.

Practice that constantly with both legs until you get the feel for it.

Front leg side kick- Before I explain this, do you mean stationary shot? Or one step up?

[kwai chang pain]

I'd say stationary shot...plus, do you think it's futile to teach back leg side kick when (in my experience) front leg side kick ends up being the one most often used in sparring?

[us-navy-seal]

Not so. It depends on your situation. If you are using deception techniques on your opponent, you can do a fake out rise with the front leg but bring the back leg up into a powerful strike.

For Olympic competition, the front leg side may be effective as well as the technique I just shared, but in the real world that back leg serves a much greater cause.

[aku aku]

The advice I heard was that, since the rear leg side kick is slower and easier to see it should rarely be thrown above knee height. What are your thoughts?

[Piston]

A side kick is very effective when thrown at knee level or top of the thigh, it can really stop somone in their tracks, this does not mean thats the only place where it should be thrown. Other ideal places are the gut, maybe a kidney strike if you opponent is side-on, it hurts getting struck with most attacks in the sternum, and for most people its wise not to take a side kick above the solar plexus, however a side kick to the head is viable IF you have the speed and hip flexibilty, a major factor.

[tkddad]

With the appropriate chamber a pivot (rear leg) side kick can be affective in sparring. If you "bait" your opponent with some regular round kicks it will draw their guard out enough for a good side kick to get through. The key is to make the two kicks look similar with the initial portion of the chamber.

[kuk sool won]

yeh you need to 'round' the chamber though, so that it first appears you are going for a roundhouse then pull your knee across your body chambering it accordingly so that you may strike with the side kick.

I also like the side kick because of its pushing power, it acts a lot like a front teep. Even if you don't make a direct connection to the striking areas your kick can still push your opponent back or put them off balance. Its rather intimidating when even though you block the kick it still has great effect.