Learn how to Effectively Counter and Catch a Push Kick

VIDEO: Look at these awesome techniques to countering and catching a push kick!

Except that more often than not, it doesn’t; you make contact, but the judge doesn’t call the point. This is the difference between form kicks and sparring: you executed the technique perfectly, but it failed to yield the desired effect of the transference of power into your opponent (and the awarding of the point to you!)

Aside from “point sparring” martial artists are generally taught to kick (generally a hand held target or some type of heavy bag) with accuracy and great power.  One advantage to kicking is applicable distance.  Since the human’s legs are typically longer than the arms, a kick can generally be delivered from outside the opponent’s hand striking range.  Given timing and accuracy a good kicker should be able to land an effective kick well before the opponent can evade it or move in for a hand strike or a grappling technique.  Given the amount of power a good kick can generate this one weapon can devastate an attacker.  All this is true in a controlled environment, especially inside a martial arts school, a gym or a sports arena and it can be equally true under favorable conditions on a street, sidewalk, parking lot or even a grassy field.  However there are a number of considerations to ponder when contemplating the value of a powerful kick in a real world “street fight” confrontation.

The first problem is usually a matter of assessing your distance from your opponent. If you’re the ball of your foot can make contact with the target when extended, you’re way too far away. You need to be close enough so that at the moment of contact, your foot makes contact, but your knee is still bent and ready to deliver the power of the extension into your opponent.

Proceejure of catching a push kick:

• When an attacker throws a push kick, you should move backwards away from the kick in order to reduce the power of its impact.
• With the kick’s reduced power, you can attempt to capture it between hooking your hand under the ankle of the attacking foot.
• At no point do we allow ourselves to lean forward or back, striving instead to maintain balance within our own body. In sparring, however, we want to deliver the power from our entire body (not just the legs) into our opponent, and that can mean using a change of body position in order to do so.
• With your other hand, place it over the top of the foot so the attacker can not lift his foot and escape.
• Pull sharply on the captured leg in order to destabilize the attacker.
• Delivering power through a kick in sparring, however, is different than executing a perfect form kick. In forms, we try hard to maintain great body position: head over shoulder, and shoulders over hips.
• The typical showy or flashy high (head shot) kicks typically seen in movies and even in sparring matches can be dangerous to both the kicker and the opponent.

FYI – If you do not pull on the attacker’s captured leg, your attacker can hop forward on one leg and punch or grab you. You can then attack the captured leg with a downward or vertical elbow strike, attempt to sweep your opponent’s non-captured leg (as he will be stuck balancing on one leg), etc.

Second, check your posture. To transfer the power, you need to lean slightly toward your opponent. Yes, I know this is exactly the opposite of what your instructor told you when you first started training: that you should always keep your nose over or behind your belly button, and that to lean forward is to invite a punch or kick in the nose. They were absolutely right… when it comes to forms. When it comes to sparring, however, you need to drive your energy into your opponent.

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