Tornado kick for self-defense

[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]

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?

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.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TGwO1o8wfA[/YOUTUBE]

[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.

[bodhisattva]

boxing instead of kicking - tornado kick is only good for fighting Dorothy and Toto..

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?

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.

[bodhisattva]

boxing / kicking

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.

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.

[Heroic Wolf]

Ya, kicks can be low percentage

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"

[Tant01]

Yeah, that...

Well timed kicks are great.

...
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.

Quote worthy, consider it stolen.

[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]

Well timed kicks are great.

Shoes reduce force (they are padded)

Kind of depends on the shoe of course.

[rhee]

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

[kanik]

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

[tenthousandkick]

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

if you managed to hit someone, it would hurt, but the chance of that happening is slim to none, unfortunately

[kanik]

if you managed to hit someone, it would hurt, but the chance of that happening is slim to none, unfortunately

Yeah... sadly. But it still looks cool! Especially if you do it on an angle and the kick goes towards the sky! Then its a sideswipe, and those things are insanely cool ^_^ or if you do that kick, and spin another 360 degrees after the kick, before landing! Then its a 540 gyro, or on the angle a snap-u-swipe.... Or even cooler! a hyper-900 kick! jump, spin twice, come out with the tornado/round kick, and land on the kicking leg =D yeah... I know I know... none of these would work in realy life... but there still kickass!

[Heroic Wolf]

Lol, ya. But 540 kicks are kind of slow, aren't they? At least that's wut it seems when my tricking friends try landing them on me during sparring :P