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Kicking

3K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  TheNegation 
#1 ·
When I kick a heavy bag my feet hurt and I feel this shock through my nerves. Doesn't happen every time, but it happens. How can I minimize or reduce this? What part of the leg should I be hitting with exactly? The top of the foot or th elower shin/ankle?
 
#2 ·
You should be aiming to hit with your shin/ankle area.
 
#11 ·
Not wrong but karate kicks are different and, for the most part, useless. In mma and MT you swing your leg like a bat, rather than whip your foot in someones face. If you swing your leg like a bat and connect with your foot, you're going to come off worse than the recipiant.
 
#12 ·
Useless, huh? I'm pretty sure Gonzaga KTFO'd CroCop with a headkick just like that one.

There're alot of Muay Thai nuthuggers on this forum, so naturally you're going to get alot of people telling you to use your mid-lower shin. That's fine - that's how they teach it in Muay Thai and it works pretty well. But it's not the only way to kick. In alot of other MAs they teach you to hit with your instep. It's a tradeoff; hitting with your shin allows you to transfer a little more of the kick's power into the dude's head because you don't have the ankle there to take some of the shock. On the other hand hitting with your instep gives you another 8-10in of range, allowing you to land kicks from farther away.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I don't nut hug MT, I nut hug practicality. I also said earlier in the thread that you can kick with the insteap or shin. Gonzaga did not kick Mirko with his foot. All I'm trying to steer this guy from is landing with his foot, which is causing him discomfort(and rightfully so). There are loads of tiny bones in the foot like in the hand, which can easily be broken and more strain is put on the ankle than the wrist when punching. Landing with foot is retarded. Whenever mma fighters do it by accident when they don't choose the ranger properly, they break their foot.

Edit: and by instep, I mean instep of the shin. The only time you can safely kick with the foot is push kicks, where the forces are lined up straight down the leg and no strain is put on the ankle/foot.
 
#13 ·
the head-kick is almost impossible to do with shin part - unless ur fighting a midget. u kick with instep to the head.

in MT you can and do kick with instep and it usually happens when opponent moves away. the reason for kicking with shin - first of all the upper part of the foot can easily break if you hit an elbow or knee. with broken foot the fight is over for you right away in the ring or you become beating dummy on the street. Im sure it's not easily healable part too.
Plus i think it helpes with the range, if you try to kick with foot from far way all the time it's very easy to avoid it. But if kicking with shin - it hurts like hell and if you move away you still get tagged with foot
 
#16 ·
No matter what you get hurt if you hit anything.. just like you harden and kill your nerves on your shin taekwondo practitioners kill their instep's nevers and harden it.. muay thai and tkd is comepletely different in muay thai you swing like a bat.. in tkd you whip your leg.. the speed muay thai SHOULD be faster seeing the fact that it has less travel time since you just kick straight while in tkd you have to spin, u90 percent of times an average taekwondo trainee can kick faster than a muay thai trainee.. they both have ups and downs.. one sacrifices their accuracy and range while the other sacrifice speed.. even though its by a little.. and tkd kicks are less predictable... know what you are talking about before you talk about it
 
#18 ·
Thanks for the replies. As the days go by I feel my leg and kick getting stronger.
 
#20 ·
yo i dont know about you but if you do tkd without instep... your instep gets harder, and there are spots on your feet that is as ahrd as your shin, (it does hold all of your weight, even more than shin, so it has to be tough) but you never hit with your ankle, thats just dumb, thats like saying you should hit people with your wrist... when i also say traditional, i mean none of that olympic sport crap.

Also pauly j, so you can break your shin too... lol and so many bones? instep not your F**king toes do you punch with your fingers?

I never said instep is better than shin, i just listed its pors AND cons for BOTH choices in the previous comment, comparing these 2 is like comparing elbows and punches... do you understand now?
 
#23 ·
If your going to practice your kicks using the instep of your foot then dont use a heavy bag, use something with much more give that you can kick through.

Heavy bags are best for ocnditioning the shins with MT style kicks... Which i personally prefer because they are MUCH more powerful and not a lot slower, plus your less likely to injure your leg or foot. Just look up Buakaw on Youtube.

Also, i've seen tae kwon do style kicks work in tae kwon do tournies, but never in MMA...
 
#24 ·
Meshuggeth

If you are getting hurt during the kick, it could be because you are executing the kick wrong, so you might want to have your coach watch you more carefully. It is also possible you are kicking a lot harder then you are conditioned to kick. If thats the case you are going to just have to work your way up.
 
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