Lesley Jackson is weeks away from taking her black belt, and she realises that she kicks like a donkey. The skill to achieving great power and strength in the high-kicking art of Taekwondo is all down to technique, as she investigates…
I looked at myself in the mirror a few weeks ago whilst doing a side kick in class and I think I shall change my name by deed poll to Eeyore because I looked like a donkey. Even though I’m only a few months away from taking my black belt, I rather arrogantly assumed that learning the basics were done and dusted for me. How wrong was I. Whilst executing my side kick and the reverse side kick in Chung Moo, I was dropping my knee and flicking my foot up to gain extra height; which lost power in the kick, caused me pain and looked stupid. It wasn’t until we had a different instructor covering our class one lesson that this was actually pointed out to me, corrected and relearned. I realised a couple of important things. Number one, with all moves and for the sake of this article, kicks, the correct execution of the technique is absolutely essential. Number two, no matter how long you have been doing a martial art, revisiting and practising the basics must be done on a regular basis if you are going to become an expert practitioner; you can’t learn the flashy stuff unless you can do the basics well.
After spending time relearning and improving my basic kicks I wondered where I had allowed myself to slip in the first place. The conclusion I came to was that I made the mistake of mixing my traditional and sparring techniques. What may score you a three point kick to the head in a sparring match will not be an acceptable technique in a traditional setting such as patterns. I think it is important that as a fully rounded martial artist, one must mentally separate the two purposes of performing a kick and then apply the correct procedure for its function.
As with anything on this planet, all things must adhere to the laws of physics and your kicks are no different. To create the elusive kick that is both well executed and powerful you need to work upon three different areas: flexibility, speed and correct technique. To perform those high section axe and turning kicks, you need to be flexible and this is something that is easier for some people than for others. For those naturally bendy people who can wrap their legs around their necks this may not apply, but to us mortals, increasing your flexibility can be a slow and sometimes frustrating business. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will you be able to perform box splits in a week but if you spend a few minutes a day doing a few simple exercises, you might be surprised at how much you can progress to achieve the flexibility you need to perform to your kicking requirements.
Stretching
First of all, do a thorough warm up. Make sure your muscles are warm and your joints are loosened before you try any of these stretching exercises. Find a space where you won’t be disturbed; I often do this in front of the TV to help me relax and keep me occupied while my legs are working hard. I don’t recommend you do these two stretches in one session as you could overwork your muscles and ligaments and you want to keep this session short. Little but often is the key.
The first method is dynamic stretching. Find something sturdy to hold onto and plenty of space (I have broken my stereo and several mugs doing this, so be careful!). With one hand, hold onto the chair, radiator or shelf and swing the outside leg up and back as far as it will go. Do this about ten times, building up to twenty as you improve. Repeat this on the other leg. Then face towards your support, holding on with both hands. Swing your leg out towards the side, preferably with your foot in a foot sword position to imitate a side kick. Do this again for ten on both legs and build up to twenty over time. This should get you results pretty quickly and will help you get the knee height needed to perform kicks well.
The next method is isometric stretching. This is taking your static stretch a bit further and again, if done a little and about twice a week you will see some pleasing results. Do bear in mind though; this stretch should only be performed by adults who have stopped growing and certainly not by children under the age of sixteen as it will put too much pressure on growing muscles and joints. One way of doing this is to go into a box stretch, as far as you can go. Then pull your muscles and feet against the resistance of the floor and count for ten. Relax your legs and count to ten again. Repeat this about five times and you will see your legs increasingly have more room to be pushed out even more, thus improving your box stretch. Go easy on this one and don’t overdo it but with time and practise you should see some dramatic improvements to your stretching ability.
Speed and Power
We’ve all seen and envied the martial artists who, even though they may be slight in stature, can break through boards like a hot knife through butter. They aren’t in possession of any magical powers; it is just that they have managed to build up their technique and speed to generate the sort of power that can break several wooden boards or dramatically burst open a door, should they feel the need to. According to my shaky grasp of physics, speed plus mass equals power. Therefore, it isn’t necessarily the bulk of the person that can generate a powerful kick but their ability to generate speed as well as their mass that will enable them to stick their foot through several breaking boards.
You cannot test the power of your kicks by kicking air alone, you need a target and something to hit against and this should be an essential part of your training.
One way to increase the speed of your kicks is to use some weights, the sort that strap around your ankle with Velcro. Either in the garden or a friendly local park and from a stationary position slowly practise the front, side and turning kick as many times as you can manage. After a few sessions of this, you will find that your leg will fly up faster and you will be able to generate much more speed than you were able to before. Also, you must get into the habit of pad work. You cannot test the power of your kicks by kicking air alone, you need a target and something to hit against and this should be an essential part of your training.
Technique
Although I’ve left this section until last, it is probably the most important one because as I discovered a few weeks ago, poor technique can cost you the entire kick. You need to learn and relearn each technique and foot position for each of the three basics of front, side and turning kick otherwise not only will you do these badly but you will not be able to do the more difficult and impressive kicks you will want to perform. Trying to cover the technique and execution of each kick in one article isn’t really feasible but here are some of the pitfalls I fell into and how I dragged myself out of them. During a pattern which needed more than one side kick or reverse side kick such as Yuk Gok or Chung Moo, I was dropping my knee and flicking my foot out and delivering a ‘donkey kick’. Foot position and knee height are absolutely key to these kicks and it took someone else to point this out to me before I realised what I was doing wrong. So I went back to the beginning, relearned the kick, including pointing my foot in the right direction (away from the kick), and then put it back into the pattern. Guess what, it worked. Not only that, my new awareness of the technique also aided my sparring as I was able to jab out those side kicks with much more speed.
The next problem I was having were the high section turning kicks in Hwa Rang. I could get the foot height alright but I was also hurting myself as well and pain is always an indicator that you are doing something wrong. The answer was simple; I wasn’t putting my hips in the right position and was damaging my left hip flexor as a result. As Sensei Richard Kirkham says in his article, ‘Increasing the Power of your Roundhouse Kick’ (a turning kick in Taekwondo), “If your hips do not go towards the direction of your strike you are losing power.” I wasn’t turning my hips over enough and again, once this had been corrected the pain went and my Hwa Rang improved so much I won the next patterns competition I entered.
To improve your own kicking technique you need a good point of reference and you can always get this from the seniors in your club. One useful piece of advice I heard from a member of my club was, “watch your seniors kicking. You’ll find their body moves to exactly the right position, quickly and effectively with no wasted extra movements.” I couldn’t put it better myself, they are the best visible practitioners you have available to you and you can use them as a model of good practise.
Sparring
Of course, some of what I’ve mentioned above can go out of the window when it comes to sparring as the kicks have a different purpose; to strike a person quickly and to score as many points as possible. Therefore, we tend to kick off the front leg because it’s faster and harder to be read by your opponent. As three points are better than two, sometimes technique can be sacrificed to win the match. As long as we are aware of the difference in kicking style, this shouldn’t be a problem but don’t get caught into my trap and let your sparring kicks merge with your traditional.
However, there was one piece of advice I heard from one of our masters recently that did make a lot of sense. That is whilst sparring, stick to the basics whenever possible. If you see a gap and a simple angle kick will score you two points, then do it; don’t waste time and energy doing a spinning technique as you will quite possibly loose that easy point. If, of course, a spinning kick is appropriate and necessary to gain ground or strike a target, then use it but only if you are confident of scoring and not losing points unnecessarily.
Michael Muleta on ITF Taekwondo
This month we have the opportunity to talk to Michael Muleta, who is currently hosting and organising the World Junior ITF Championships in Australia in September this year. He is very high up in the ranks of Australian Taekwon-Do and along with these responsibilities; he is an international instructor, an international referee and runs a successful group of schools across Australia called Thoroughbred Taekwon-Do. Phew!
Even if you are a black belt you need to regularly revisit and check the basics and execution of all your kicking techniques on a regular basis if you want to avoid slipping into the trap of learning bad habits.
So, get practising and say neigh to donkey kicking!
Fitness and Nutrition 
Lesley Jackson is weeks away from taking her black belt, and she realises that she kicks like a donkey. The skill to achieving great power and strength in the high-kicking art of Taekwondo is all down to technique, as she investigates… 
have been doing a martial art, revisiting and practising the basics must be done on a regular basis if you are going to become an expert practitioner; you can’t learn the flashy stuff unless you can do the basics well. 
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