Movement Continued
Bungee cord: This exercise works great, feels great and hits the exact muscles involved in the crescent kick. It also makes it hard for you to walk the next day if, in your enthusiasm, you begin with too many sets and reps. Train smart and start out with one set and progress to three.
Attach the cord to your right ankle and lie on your left side. Extend your left arm along the floor for balance and cross your right leg over your left. Scoot yourself away from whatever you have the cord attached to until the cord is tight. Remember, you hit with the outer edge of your foot, so position your foot accordingly as you slowly lift your leg straight up. You can either stop there and return it to the floor, or you can go beyond the straight up position to get a little extra stretch and resistance in the rep.
1-3 sets, 15 reps — each leg
Position yourself so the cord is taught. Slowly bring your crescent kick straight up and then back to the starting position.
Movement Continued
Most kicks can be done with either your lead leg or your rear leg and, as a general rule, the rear leg is more powerful, while the lead leg is quicker. Years ago, martial artists used to argue that lead-leg kicks were weak, but when champion full-contact fighter Bill Wallace and others began knocking opponents unconscious with their lead kicks, the arguments died a quick death.
As a street-oriented stylist, I emphasize that my students use mostly lead kicks in their training and aim for vulnerable targets, such as the inner and outer thigh, knee, groin, solar plexus and kidneys. My reasoning is this:
The lead is closest to the opponentIt’s faster than the rear legThere is less telegraphing, which means there is less time for the opponent to defendThere is less body leaning (at least there should be)It’s easier to follow the kick with punches
There is nothing exotic about the following exercise; you probably do lots of lead-leg kicking now. I’m suggesting, however, that you practice the kicks with a mindset that you are in competition or in a street self-defense situation, and it’s imperative that you launch your kicks with speed and accuracy. Concentrate on each kick to bring out your best. Such as:
• Concentrate on throwing it without preparatory movement
• Concentrate on launching it as quick as a wink
• Concentrate on where you want to hit (use a manikin-type bag, or if you have a heavy bag, put pieces of tape on it to represent targets)
• Think about what you would do as a follow-up
To reiterate, don’t just mindlessly throw out these lead-leg kicks. Think about each rep so that the reason behind it is imprinted in your mind.
Front kick - 2 sets, 10 reps —each side
Side kick - 2 sets, 10 reps — each side
Roundhouse kick - 2 sets, 10 reps — each side
Back kick - 2 sets, 10 reps — each side
Your favorite kick(s) other than the basic four: 2 sets, 10 reps — each side
ONE LEGGED NONSTOP KICKS
To do this exercise, lift your right leg and throw every kick in your arsenal for 60 seconds before you return your foot to the floor. Then lift your left leg and do every kick you know for 60 seconds. Continue alternating your legs for as long as you can without spewing up your last meal.
This is a tough one that works your cardiovascular system, the muscles of your legs, hips and your balance. A valuable side benefit is that you become acutely aware of the necessary body mechanics of each kick. When you do a front kick rep, followed by a hook kick, followed by a back kick, all with the same leg, you develop a greater understanding of your support foot placement and all the necessary body turning, twisting and leaning needed to perform each kick.
Perform each rep with power, speed and snap, striving for fast retractions and fast body shifts that position you for the next kick. As you get tired, strive to keep your form perfect. Fatigue is not an excuse to throw out sloppy kicks. Aim for perfection no matter how drained your energy.
3 sets, 60 seconds per leg, 30-60 kicks per minute (both legs counts as 1 set)
I call this “The last leg exercise” because after you have completed it, it’s the last thing you do that day. I stole it from something I read on Ultimate Fighting Champion Ken Shamrock, who uses this to develop leg strength and overall endurance. You can do it for that, too, or you can do it when you really want to trash the ol’ gams. It’s tough, but if done regularly, your legs and your discipline will be ironclad. Here is how it’s done.
Deep, body-weight squats: 1 set, 500 reps
No, that is not a typo, you really do 500 squats. Although, Shamrock may do one giant set of them, arguably that is not as productive as breaking them into sets with a 15-30 second rest in between. No matter how you break it up, 500 reps makes for a tough workout, so you shouldn’t do it more than once every two or three weeks.
You can be like Shamrock and do all of them at once, or you can split them, such as:
5 sets, 100 reps
10 sets, 50 reps
25 sets, 20 reps
50 sets, 10 reps
When Shamrock finishes his 500, he drops to the floor and burns out as many crunches as he can. He then finishes his workout by rolling over and doing three sets of push-ups, each set to failure. What an animal!
If you can’t chamber your kicks quickly and effortlessly, your kicks will never reach their full potential. The muscles that chamber your legs get lots of work anytime you practice kicking drills, reps, kata, and sparring, but they benefit even more when you do specific exercises that develop their strength, speed and flexibility. Greater strength means less effort to lift your legs into a chamber, which facilitates the speed of the action. Faster chambering means less setup time for your kick, which ultimately leads to faster delivery of your foot to the target. The more flexible you are, the higher you can chamber and therefore the higher your kick. This is important for high kickers, but flexibility is also important for fighters who favor kicking to low targets, since flexible muscles help enable you to kick with greater speed. Interesting how it all blends together, isn’t it? Let’s look at some exercises that improve all three areas.
Building Strength in the Chamber
The following exercises build strength in your hips so you can chamber your leg with speed and kick with power.
Front kick chamber with kick You may do this exercise holding onto a support, though your eventual goal is to do it unsupported. Chamber your right leg as high as you are able and then use your hand to lift it even higher. Hold for 10 seconds.