Kicks to the Leg Hurt – Badly!

Many years ago, in traditional karate and other martial arts, the leg kick was not taught that heavily. What does this mean? Only that most karate schools in the USA, only taught kicks that would break a leg (at the knee usually) or to stop (check) the advance of an oncoming opponent. The teaching of sophisticated defenses to leg kicks weren’t taught much. Why? The schools knew these were 1.) not allowed in the dojo, due to risk of injury. 2.) they were illegal in karate “point” tournaments. So they were probably touched on briefly but not really taught thoroughly.

Over the past 15 years we have seen the rise of leg kicks, since the influence of Muay Thai kick-boxing hit the martial arts scene, to stay. The Muay Thai leg kicks are practiced and thrown “full blast”, and are meant to hurt and / or slow down the opposing fighter.

Let’s look at the leg kick for a moment. For instructional purposes, we’ll assume that the fighter kicking, is a conventional “left side forward” opponent. This is the preferred stance of right handed fighters. The opponent simply slides the back foot up, (right foot – toward the front leg) and out to the right a bit, with the foot positioned and pointed about 45 degrees outward. This sets his back, or base leg (right leg), up for throwing the kick (left leg). He will then torque his whole body, from the waist up toward the right side and swing his leg into the target area (the leg in this case) with 100% commitment and strike with the lower shin/instep area of the leg.

Note: These kicks are practiced against extremely hard bags or hand-held pads, to toughen the shins and instep against the pain one would normally feel. To strike your leg with their shin at full speed is no big deal to a “Thai” trained kicker, but a very big deal to the fighter who is hit with them.

The best defenses are: (again we assume you are also a left side forward fighter)

1.) Pick up the front leg (left leg), angle it slightly to your left and catch the kick on your own knee or shin, and if done really well – deflect the kick painlessly. If you have conditioned legs as well, you’ll hurt the opponent worse than he hurts you – discouraging further attempts. The leg must be picked up and held firmly, or their leg kick will knock the defending leg out of the way and take out the remaining “base leg” as well!

2.) My personal favorite, and the fastest, most effective means, is to “mirror” their kick (throw the reverse image of what they do), slide in and to the left – then kick his base leg with your back “right” leg, (which will be holding him up as the other is in the air). Remember – “by sliding in and to your left” as you let go of a back leg (your right leg) counter kick. You just throw the mirror image technique that the opponent threw at your left leg and throw it instantly – the moment they kick – you counter-kick, and your shin will strike his leg on the soft inner portion of the right leg (base leg), effectively stopping them completely – “mid-technique”. It puts a world of hurt on the opponent who throws the leg kick and is countered this way. It is known as a “cut kick”.

With the advent of MMA (mixed martial arts) events, these kick are becoming ever more popular. I have seen better, larger, stronger opponents chopped down to size with leg kicks, until they were stumbling around like they were drunk, and finally knocked out. All because they hadn’t learned the kick or the counter to defend against it. That is the effect of this devastating Muay Thai leg kick. Martial artists are on notice: If you haven’t been hit with this kick – you will! Try and find someone with Thai boxing skills and approach them for some lessons. It doesn’t take long at all. A few hours will give you all the “head knowledge” you’ll need, the conditioning, speed, and timing to fight these types of opponents and successfully avoid getting your legs kicked out from under you – is kind of up to you!

Don’t get it? Disagree? Post a comment and I’ll post back!