Leg exercises for powerful side kick.

If you can choose one or two body weigh exercises for powerful side kick what would they be?

Lunge one leg at a time.
And one leg squat.
That is if you can do a good technique to begin with.

Jump squats add explosivness and probably power.

Lunge one leg at a time.
And one leg squat.
That is if you can do a good technique to begin with.

Exactly!

Technique is often what drives the power. A powerlifter can't kick hard, if he doesn't know how to kick.

Oh yeah?

Well how much power does a 10 year old girl have? Say she even did karate for 5 years?

You need both baby. Technnique and raw horse power.

Yep that explain the one weekend women's self defense class.
Especially when a side kick to the knee is taught.

I don't see teaching a side kick to the knee cap any better than a front kick to the groin.
Both have to be practiced. A women who did five and a half side kicks in a seminar will not be able to do much with it. I also doubt that many go home and begin to pactice.

Thank you guys.

Thank you guys.

Don't kick me though. :cry:

[speedy]

If you can choose one or two body weigh exercises for powerful side kick what would they be?

The power of the side kick has very little to do with the strength in your leg, it has A LOT to do with technique, form, and proper use of the hip which technically is the form. Work slowly at first, and at a level you are most comfortable with. Do at least 20 at a time with each leg, and the rest will come naturally.

If you can choose one or two body weigh exercises for powerful side kick what would they be?

The power of the side kick has very little to do with the strength in your leg, it has A LOT to do with technique, form, and proper use of the hip which technically is the form. Work slowly at first, and at a level you are most comfortable with. Do at least 20 at a time with each leg, and the rest will come naturally.

I must disagree.
A little, 5 year old girl who does karate for 2 years may have a good form in her side kick. But a UFC fighter who has exactly the same form will kick harder.
How come?

[speedy]

If you can choose one or two body weigh exercises for powerful side kick what would they be?

The power of the side kick has very little to do with the strength in your leg, it has A LOT to do with technique, form, and proper use of the hip which technically is the form. Work slowly at first, and at a level you are most comfortable with. Do at least 20 at a time with each leg, and the rest will come naturally.

I must disagree.
A little, 5 year old girl who does karate for 2 years may have a good form in her side kick. But a UFC fighter who has exactly the same form will kick harder.
How come?

The weight behind the kick. There is a lot to a kick, and ones weight has a lot to do with it too, especially sidekicks.

F=M times A.
You can't increase the Mass. Acceleration you can increase.
Ploymetrics!

[Steel91]

The only thing that's really gonna help with sidekicks is doing sidekicks. Sure, the squats and lunges and what not will strengthen your legs, but the power source of the sidekick is actually in the hips. The best thing to do is what I call tension kicks. Find something to support yourself on like a wall or bench or whatever and hold out a sidekick as high as you can and hold it as long as you can while still using good technique, if it looks sloppy or your leg starts to drop and you have a lot of trouble getting it back up, then stop, make sure you bring it back and chamber it slowly. Another way, instead of just holding it out, you can just do sidekicks VERY slowly with good technique and form as high as you can. This really works your hip strength to make your side kicks quicker snapier and more powerful, I'd also reccomend stretching before you do this, and remember to keep the heel of your ground foot pointed towards your target or whatever direction you're kicking.

Slow kicks are most anoying training techniques.
And probably the most important ones. :!:

[koltz]

One legged alternating jump squats or two legged for starting.
Lunges are alos very usefull for extending the legs at the hips to the sides

Jump kicks make stading kicks allot stronger.
Also kicking in low stances.

I meant supporting leg bent, not straight.

[bobster_ice]

Sweet advice guys.

If you are wanting stronger kicks, get limewire and download matt fureys lung and leg workout, its pretty good.

[Appleman]

Sweet advice guys.

If you are wanting stronger kicks, get limewire and download matt fureys lung and leg workout, its pretty good.

Hm, squats on toes, not sure I want to mess with that.
But thanks for the info, maybe one day.

[speedy]

Sweet advice guys.

If you are wanting stronger kicks, get limewire and download matt fureys lung and leg workout, its pretty good.

Aside from Combat Conditioning you can get better workouts "for free" from other locations.

Squats with people sitting on your back and leg pressing other people. Does that count as body weight? Koreans are know for this and no one can mess with them when it comes to kicks.

[speedy]

I think once we start using additional things (leverage aside) to increase the difficulty it stops being true to the word bodyweight.

[koltz]

Trying to train "bodyweight only" limits you in a way it's not as if the 11th comentment is "thouh shalt train bodyweight only" =\
then again other people are bodies too and they have weight , same for dumbells

[Appleman]

Hey even ancient kung fu people still carried pots with water.
If you have something use it. If not learn how to manage your bodyweight for training. It can get you surprisingly far.

I just want to say this; If you can do a one leg squat half way (Knee bent 90 degrees) and hold that for few minutes. Your kicks will not be weak.

[Dillon]

I'm not convinced that slow motion kicks do all that much to improve kicking power. Rules of specificity would indicate that kicking slowly would train your muscles to be better at kicking slowly.

Plyometrics and kicking with resisitance would be a better option.

[Moonduck]

I'm not convinced that slow motion kicks do all that much to improve kicking power. Rules of specificity would indicate that kicking slowly would train your muscles to be better at kicking slowly.

Plyometrics and kicking with resisitance would be a better option.

Kicking with resistance? You get into scary territory there. Your legs like to be grounded, so any sort of kicking that is not solidly stopped can be awful for your knees. So kicking with ankle weights on is murder on you, while kicking into a heavy bag is not.

I would personally work on strengthening the legs (plyo is great for this, as it is very close to specific), and spending lots of time with our friend, the heavy bag.

[Dillon]

A heavy bag provides resistance. So do resistance bands. Standard weights for striking techniques are counter productive, be it for kicks or punches. With ankle weights, the direction of the resistance is downward, whereas you're trying to express force laterally (in most cases). You need the direction of the resistance to be against where you want to generate power. Kicking a heavy bag does this automatically, and with resistance bands you can attach the other end of the band to a support behind you, or perpendicular to you for circular kicks.

[Moonduck]

Overall, we're agreeing, just saying it in different ways.

I don't care much for the idea of bands though. Again, kicks should be solidly grounded, and stopped solidly as well, all to prevent looseness in the joints. Sure, resistance bands can be utilised properly, but they require more control than the average practitioner is going to possess. The bag doesn't need that.

And, yes, the bag is resistance. That's why I included it in the original statement. I mentioned weights because that is what most people think of when they think resistance, and because I have seen people doing kicking with ankle weights on. Scary stuff.

[Dillon]

Yeah, we agree. General leg strenght training (plyos and what have you) is best for overall leg strength, and to make that strength sidekick specific, the heavy bag is your best friend.

[Dillon]

Yeah, we agree. General leg strenght training (plyos and what have you) is best for overall leg strength, and to make that strength sidekick specific, the heavy bag is your best friend.

[Drunken Panda]

Squats with people sitting on your back and leg pressing other people. Does that count as body weight? Koreans are know for this and no one can mess with them when it comes to kicks.

The Kung Fu I train in has us not only squatting with people on our backs, but also holding them with our arms in front and squatting down, and performing squat kicks/walking kicks/stationary kicks etc. whiel carrying someone on our back/in our arms.

Awesome for strengthening the leg, as well as the (lower) back and abdominals (which have to be used to align your body properly)

[cheesedog]

We used to do squats with someone on our shoulders back a few years ago when I was in Enshin karate. Great exercise.

[pusher]

One of the main points in throwing a side kick, ( to maximize power ) is to turn the heel of the supporting foot, in the direction of your kick, at the same time that you throw out your kick.
EXAMPLE: Try keeping the base leg pointing forward, and throw a kick to the side. Its not a good movement.
It doesnt feel right. Now throw the same kick, and allow the foot to turn at the same time. Now the hips are allowed to move, and give added power. You pivot on the ball of the foot.....not the heel. Start slow, build up, and feel the difference

[Heathen warrior]

OK, my $0.02.

The first thing you need to achieve in practically any kick, is the knee lift. If you're not getting your knee up high, as fast as you can, then you're not going to kick your best. So, that muscle that lifts your knee when the kick starts, strengthen that any way you can. Fortunately, when you normally lift your leg for a kick, your knee is bent. Straightening your knee (almost completely) increases the resistance. Do single-leg raises while you're standing. Wearing a combat boot increases that resistance even more.

Also, I go to the pool, stand on the bottom and practice kicking. For most front-leg kicks this works. Most of the rear-leg kicks require a lot of momentum to get the foot around and don't lend themselves to water training. But try it.

[FantasyW]

how about holding a resistence band with your left hand and connecting it to your right leg then side kicking explosively and releasing slowly.... after all it's not slow kicks you want to do right?
Since it's the side of the glutes contracted, you could try a resistence band on each knee, squat with knees together, then spread em :P.... it'll work the outter glutes.