I recently received an email from a new subscriber saying, “I struggle a lot with balance when I kick, especially high kicks”.
I like messages like this. When I’m sitting here thinking, “hmm; what shall I write/make a video about next”; emails like the above help me out twofold.
Firstly they give me ideas of what to write/make videos about; and secondly I know that I’m talking about things that people are actually interested in (rather than what I’m interested in and assume others might be too 😀)!
So, here’s a little video on the 2 main things that I think people sometimes get a little bit wrong when kicking which will adversely effect their balance. It’s basically just good technique, the devil in the detail. But as usual small adjustments can sometimes make big differences, and one of the things that I consider to be one of my strengths is the ability to break things down into fine detail, it’s just how my mind works.
One more tip I’d give (which isn’t on the video) which applies to all aspects of martial arts is, work the technique and fine detail first; not speed or power. When you have a good technique it’s easy to build up speed and power. But focusing on speed and power first, can sometimes lead to engraining faults in technique, which makes it harder to improve technique later. Ironically, faulty technique will limit the amount of speed and power that you can generate compared with good technique. So take the time to do it slowly first!
So please enjoy the video below. If you find it useful, please leave a comment below as it’s always nice to get feedback and share it with your friends. If you have any questions that you would like me to write or make a video about, again, please comment below and let me know; you’ll be doing me a favour too.
For more fine tuning of kicking techniques, please check out my download, 10 Kicking Tips. Like the video above, this download focuses on the principles behind kicking rather than just the techniques themselves.
Hi Barry
Thanks for the feedback.
Thanks also for sharing your own exercises, it’s always useful to see what works for other people.
Having one leg better than the other is quite common. It’s like being right or left handed; we also often favour one leg over the other in same way as we favour one hand over the other.
Hi Charlie. Some good points on maintaining balance. Thanks for highlighting the importance of keeping the leg close to the body’s center of balance. This has helped me reinforce this concept. For your readers, I personally am also finding the following helpful:
1. Simply standing on one foot, gradually building up the time, knee hight, and leg movement. Graduating then to a balance ball.
2. Leg and core strengthening
3. Posture.
I found my balance on one side better than the other, which I found resulted from less strength in the leg I was balancing on. I also found that when my balance starts to fail my posture seems to be failing at the same time.
Leg and core strengthening helps with all these things. Thanks again for a very helpful post. Best of the season to you and please stay safe.