This ten article series will deal with the various components that need to be addressed when considering the utilization of a particular kick in a combat or self-defense situation. These ten components can also be used by the tournament competitor although certain segments would have to be modified slightly for the tournament aspects of kicking, rather than the more intensive nature of using a kick or kicks in combat. Although all of these individual components are important, they are most effective when combined together and utilized correctly when executing a kick.



Although I will only be discussing one of the components in this article, here is the complete list of all ten of them.

1.Your Kicking Ability

2.Your Intended Application

3.The Environment

4.Telegraphing

5.Striking Implement

6.Striking the Correct Target

7.Initial Impact

8.Impact

9.Retraction or Follow Through

10.Return to Fighting Position

Component Nine; Retraction or Follow Through:

Now I was always told from the first day that I started taking Karate that no matter what kick you did, that you never wanted to leave your foot ?hanging? out in the air. There were three primary reasons for this and they are as follows.

1.The longer your kicking leg is ?hanging? in the air, the longer you have to balance on one leg.

As hard as some of you may find this to believe, we humans were born with two legs for a reason, and that is to stand on both of them. We were not designed to be standing around all day like a pink flamingo with one leg ?hanging? out in the air.

Now I am all for extensive training on balancing on one leg while kicking and I even have several different training exercises that I do in order to improve my balance. However, the keyword here is ?training.? When in an actual situation where you have to defend yourself, you want to get your foot up and out to make contact with its intended target as fast as possible, and then immediately get it back down on the ground.

2.The longer your kicking leg is ?hanging? in the air, the easier it is for your opponent to grab.

Ever watch a boxing match where one of the boxers has a tendency to leave his punch in his opponent's face, or is just a bit too slow in bringing it back into position? What usually happens to that boxer?

Well, generally if the other boxer is any good, he will land at least a punch or two on his opponent. Why? Because by leaving his punch ?hanging? out in the air, he leaves himself wide open for a counterattack. Now as bad as this is, it is many times worse when you are kicking. Not only do you leave yourself balancing on one leg, but you also leave yourself wide open for a variety of counterattacks. These can range anywhere from a punch, kick, or even tackling or throwing you to the ground, and these aren't even the worst.

The worst of all possible counterattacks is to have your kicking leg grabbed by your opponent. Why is this the worst? Simply put, because you then no longer have control of your body, your opponent does.

3.The longer your kicking leg is ?hanging? in the air, the longer it takes before you can execute another kick.

Try this experiment:

Take one leg and hold it up in the air at about waist height, now leaving it up in the air, execute an effective and practical kick. Now try throwing a couple of punches while standing on one leg. Does it work very well?

A kick coming up from a balanced position on the ground is far more effective and powerful than one that starts off already in the air. What I mean by this is that the first Roundhouse Kick that you throw from a standing position is far more powerful than the second one that you throw with the same leg before setting your foot back down on the ground.

If you are executing a kick that relies on the foot being returned along the exact same path of trajectory that it traveled to get to its target, this would be called a ?retraction? of the kicking foot. The following kicks would be ones that would require you to ?retract? your kicking foot after making contact with your target.

1.Front Kick

2.Back Kick

3.Side Kick

4.Roundhouse Kick (with the notable exception of the Thai Roundhouse Kick)

If you are executing a kick that relies on the foot continuing through the target along the same path of trajectory that it traveled to get to its target, this would be called a ?follow through? of the kicking foot. The following kicks would be ones that would require you to ?follow through? with your kicking foot after making contact with your target.

1.Wheel Kick

2.Axe Kick

3.Crescent Kick

4.Reverse Crescent Kick

5.Hook Kick

6.Hatchet Kick

Training Advice to Improve your Retraction and/or Follow Through:

Under normal standard training practices, the student attempts to execute a kick as fast as he can from a standing position to the target. In this case, I am going to have you do the exact opposite.

This is a rather simple, yet very effective, technique that you can practice in order to improve your retraction or follow up skills. Simply put, what you do is take your kicking foot and slowly place it in the position where it would have made contact with your intended target. As soon as you leg and foot are in position, as fast as you possibly can, complete the kick by completing the retraction or follow through. Always be sure and utilize the correct technique at all times.

Final Thoughts:

As fast as your foot traveled to strike its target, it should be just as fast if not faster returning back down to the ground. Other than improper technique and improper application of the aforementioned technique, leaving your foot ?hanging? or ?posing? in the air after kicking is perhaps the single biggest mistake you could possibly make when kicking.

This ?hanging? or ?posing? seems to be prevalent in a lot of the tournament oriented schools more so than the traditional schools. Although I have seen students ?posing? kicks in both types of schools.