Fight Scene Friday : "Kuri Obi (Black Belt)" Taikan vs Togo

Kuro Obi, is an excellent martial arts drama featuring some phenomenal displays of karate! The story deals with two friends who have to find their own paths after their Sensei dies. One of them chooses to uphold the values that their master instilled within them, the other struggles with using his skills for evil in order to survive. Here we have an excellent fight scene between the latter student (Taikan) and another master. Enjoy!

-Tim

The Front Kick!

 Today we'll be taking a look at one of my favourite techniques, the front kick! The front kick is a relatively simple technique,  generates a ton of power, and can be applied on a number of targets for various reasons. Unless you practice a strictly grappling or punching based art, then you've most likely learnt some form of the front kick. Today we'll be taking a look at how to effectively perform the front kick and how to use it in competition or self defence.


 How To Perform "The Front Kick":

 It would seem simple enough to perform a front kick, after all how difficult can it be to lift your knee and kick something in front of you? Yet, while it's true that it's not hard to lift the knee and throw a kick that is done in front of your body, it can be difficult to throw that kick correctly and with the most potential for damaging your opponent.

 First things first! Hyper extending or breaking the toes is a common injury during the front kick. For this reason you need to "pull" the toes back and point them towards your own nose when throwing the kick. Toes to your nose, remember that. This way you'll be able to effectively strike your opponent with the ball of your foot. By striking with the ball of the foot (as opposed to the heel) while your toes are pulled back, you'll increase the distance you're able to strike the opponent at the same time as you reduce the risk of injuring yourself.  

The Ball Of The Foot (toes pulled back)

Another common mistake is to simply throw the kick by raising the leg up into the air without an extension from the hips. By throwing the kick in this fashion you reduce the distance in which you can strike your opponent and you'll be missing out on any effective way to "hammer" the kick into the body or face of the opponent. In order to make the kick land with some real power and drive it through the opponent, you'll need to lift the knee, and as you throw the kick extend from the hips! What do I mean "extend from the hips", well when the kick is being thrown out you'll actively give a quick thrust from the hips and a slight lean back all at the same time as the kick is being extended. This can be quite awkward at first. Most people have trouble coordinating the hip drive and the extension of the kick, but with time and practice it will all come together. 

 WRONGE! No hip extension, toes not pulled back, no contact with ball of the foot!

RIGHT! Good hip extension, toes pulled back, ball of the foot strike!

Putting It Together:

 Now that you can avoid some of the basic mistakes, we'll look at the steps that allow you to throw the front kick.

1.) From a fighting stance, lift the back knee straight up in front of your body to around waist height with the toes curled back so the ball of your foot is exposed.

2.) Begin to extend from the knee and at the same time give a quick/sharp thrust from the hips

3.) Drive the ball of the foot through the target, at the point of impact you should look exactly like the animated picture of the little animated man above! 

4.) As soon as impact occurs, don't leave your leg hanging out there and don't just let it drop down in front of you. Quickly pull it right back in to the back leg position it was fired out from. 

 Things To Avoid:

 - Kicking with the toes not pulled back. A great way to break your toes!

 - Pushing with the kick instead of hammering the kick into the opponent. These are two different types of kicks. 

 - "Flicking" the kick out lightly instead of firing it out with power and sharp hip extension. 

 - Not raising the knee before throwing the kick. Reduces the amount of power behind the kick and its ability to drive through the opponent. 

- Pulling the knee out to the side before throwing the kick. The knee should be kept straight during the entire technique. 

- Not pulling the leg back in quick enough or just letting it drop down in front of you after contact. 

How To Apply The Front Kick:  

 Now that we've covered the basics, it's time to discuss how to actually apply the front kick. The most common target for the front kick is the torso, mainly the lower abdomen or solar plexus areas. The face is also a common target, but requires more timing, flexibility and set up than a kick to the torso.

  Using the front kick to strike the torso while on the defence is great for keeping the opponent at a distance. The front kick when thrown correctly is a fast and direct kick that can be hard to see coming and difficult to catch. It also hits quite hard and causes more damage than a push kick. If you were to apply the front kick during an offensive attack, you could lead with the front kick to have the opponent momentarily distracted at a lower area and then come in high with a combination of punches or a follow up high kick. The reverse can also be done, lead with high techniques such as a combination of punches, and as the opponent is backing up slam a front kick into their mid section while their guard is high. 

 When throwing the front kick the face, there is a greater degree of difficulty. Not only do you need to be quite flexible and have above average balance, you'll need to know how to time the kick correctly and know when to throw the kick for it to be truly effective. The front kick to the face is best shot on an opponent who is in a hunched position with their head tucked down and leading forward. An opponent standing in this hunched position (rather than an upright fighting stance) is set up to receive the maximum force of the kick. The front kick not only slams through the opponent, but also hits through in an upward motion. If the opponent is hunched and the kick lands, they'll receive all the power of the kick (upward and through) directly to the face. The hunched stance also makes the opponent a little shorter allowing you to kick them in the face with greater ease. If the opponent was standing straight up, it would be much harder to connect with their face and even if you connected the kick would be missing a bunch of the power. 

 Here's a video clip of Anderson Silva landing what is most likely the most famous front kick of all time knocking out Vitor Belfort. As you can see, he throws from the back leg, knee straight and lifted, snaps the kick out at the same time as he thrusts from the hips. He lands the kick with the ball of the foot to Vitor's face. Also note how Vitor is standing the a hunched stance, making him an excellent target for a front kick to the face! Now that's putting it all together! 

 Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this little break down of the front kick. 

- Tim

Fight Scene Friday! The Ninja Turtles Vs Shredder

 In 1990, when I was just a little guy, the first live action ninja turtles movie was made! One of my favourite movies was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" , and as time goes by it still is one of my all time favourites! They have so much i can relate to. A love for pizza (my favourite junk food!) and skateboarding, a brotherly bond ( I have two brothers myself), and they're expert martial artists! In this scene we see the Turtles meeting and fighting their all time greatest enemy, The Shredder! It's emotional, funny, and gritty all at the same time! Enjoy!

 -Tim

Grip Training And Its Importance!

 

 

 

 Grip strengthening is an often over looked, and incredibly important, aspect of self defense and martial arts training. A strong grip is needed in almost every single art to carry out various techniques with ease and efficiency. Judo and BJJ practitioners rely on their grip to hold onto, throw, and submit resisting opponents. Various Kung Fu and Karate styles require your grip strength to complete numerous standing locks and chokes. Regardless of the art you study, your grip strength could always be improved and should be trained in order to not only make your techniques more powerful, but also allow you to perform them with less effort.

 

 Grip strength training is something that can be trained in a number of ways, and doesn't need be trained on its own. Your grip strength training can actually be thrown into your strength and conditioning workouts ... or it can be done on it's own as a separate workout. There are two types of grip training you'll want to incorporate.

 

Grip Strength Endurance:

 

 With grip strength endurance, we're talking about your bodies ability to grab a hold of something, grip it hard, and not allow it to drop of fall out of your hand for a period of time. It's the type of grip that is required while holding onto a wrist during a lock or that allows you to hold onto the gi of an opponent in order to perform a throw while they resist.

 

 Kettlebells are an excellent option when looking to increase your grip strength endurance. The centre of gravity of the kettlebell is further away from the handle (unlike a dumbbell) and is always pulling away from your hand. Kettlebell work with a medium to heavy kettlebell that has a fatter handle is an excellent option for increasing your grip strength endurance. If  you're interested in kettlebell training I have a bunch of great kettlebell DVD's available from my Personal Training and Fitness Website!

  

 Another option is to simply switch to fatter bars or using fat grips during your workouts can help a lot. By using a fatter bar during exercises like pull ups/dips, deadlifts, and bench press etc. your grip will be forced to become stronger in order to hold onto the now larger surface. Another great option is to grip a towel, or a gi that has been hung over the bar during body weight rows or pull ups!

 

 

(Towel Grip Pull Ups)

 

 

Crushing Grip Strength: 

 

 Crushing grip strength refers to your ability how much pressure you can produce while closing the hand. This is the type of grip that is used during Eagle Claw attacks to the throat that crush the wind pipe or dig into muscles. This is the kind of grip we would see during some small joint manipulations or eye clawing techniques. 

 

 In order to build this crushing grip strength you'll need to actively be squeezing objects that challenge your crushing grip strength. There are numerous products on the market, such as rubber webbing, stress balls, grip strength "clamps", or small rubber "doughnuts". Most of these tools can be purchased at any local sports store and come in a variety of difficultly levels (the amount of resistance they produce).  Start with something that provides enough resistance that it's not easy, but not impossible. As you get stronger switch it up to tool that provides a greater amount of resistance.

 

 

(Grip Strengthening Clamps)

 

 

What ever art you practice, remember, you're only as strong as your weakest link. A weak grip could mean the difference between a 1st place trophy, a championship belt, or life and death. Start training your grip today so you won't regret it tomorrow!

 

 

- Tim

 

 

 

Fight Scene Friday! "Fighter In The Wind" Final Fight!

"Fighter In The Wind" is an excellent martial arts film and a sensationalized telling of  Kyokushin Karate founder Mas Oyamas life. If you haven't seen this film yet it has some excellent hard hitting fight scenes and some bad ass training sequences based on the hard body style of Karate Mas Oyama created! Here we have the final fight scene, it's well worth the watch!

My Thoughts On Iron Palm and Hand Conditioning

 Body hardening exercises and techniques have existed for centuries in various forms and can be found in many arts. Karate practitioners strike makiwara boards countless times over their life in order to harden their knuckles in hopes of delivering a more powerful one kill punch. Muay Thai fighters are known to strike their shins with bamboo rods and kick bags of varying densities in order to strengthen their shins and numb them to the pain of bone on bone clashes that occur during fights. We've all heard of Kung Fu masters (like the one in th video above!) who have masterd the technique of Iron Palm enabling them to actually shatter bricks with their bare hands! But aside from breaking boards and bricks during impressive street performance, does this sort of bone and body conditioning have a place in self defese and modern martial arts?

First off, we'll need to take a look at how this bone conditioning actually works.

 When your bones are struck regularly, over months and years, against a mildly hard surface, the bones actually suffer what are called micro fractures in what looks like tiny "beams" or "webbing" that make up the density of the bone. These micro fractures heal and actually grow back thicker and stronger than before. Thus, the bone is now stronger and more resistant to injury and fracture.

 A common myth when it comes to bone conditioning is that by striking an area of the body repeatedly on hard objects that it kills the nerves and prevents that area of the body from feeling pain. This is simply not true! This would be serious nerve damage, and that's something you don't want!
What does happen is after having stuck an area of the body enough times, over time, the nerves in that area stop sending a strong pain signal to the brain. Your body actually becomes accustomed to
the impact on that area of the body and no longer views it as a threat and treats it as something
normal. So your body is now capable of accepting more punishment to that specific area!

 So how is this useful in modern martial arts or self defese?

 One of the most common problems in modern combat sports or self defense is fracturing the hand! We see fighters break their hands all the time, and most people who get into a street fight or physical altercation end up breaking their hand on someone's skull! Without fully functional hands it becomes a little difficult to fully defend yourself or fight! With correct, well practiced and slowly progressed bone conditioning workouts it's my belief that the risk of breaking your hands/shins during a fight or self defense situation becomes drastically lowered. Your bones become stronger and more resistant to pain/injury allowing you to deliver full force stikes with a much smaller risk of breaking or damaging your bones.

 I personally think that bone conditioning and body hardening workouts and techniques can provide you with an extra edge in competition and self defense. Who wouldn't want the ability to strike at full force with a reduced chance of injury to your own body? Who wouldn't want to be able to reduce the amount of pain you feel from delivering or absorbing strikes? Now would I suggest you go out and just start striking hard objects in an attempt to condition your bones? Hell no! You should research methods, evaluate the pro's and con's and see if its something you believe in and if it's right for you.

  There are many books, videos and teachers out there to help you build your knowledge on the subject of bone conditioning, I suggest you search for them, research them, try it out and see how you can fit it into your own practice. But then again, that's just my opinion!


-Tim