World Of Swords

Kicks are one of the best and most powerful weapons you can develop. Not only are kicks cardio intensive, giving an instant sweat during a work out, but they are one of the most powerful weapons you can have in a fight. After all, most people don't know how to use their legs, and if you do, instant advantage.

Of course, kicks take a little extra hard work if they are going to be great. But if you take your time and do learn the types of kicks in a certain pattern...you can have power busting kicks of the first magnitude. That said, let's go over the proper order of kicks.

The first kick is merely standing and doing the kick. You don't have to have a stance, you can even put your hand on the wall, and do them at a moderate and easy on the body speed. The idea here is to look at your body examine how it has to move to generate efficient and effective kicks.

The second kick is going to be done from stationary stances. Take a kick like a simple front snap kick, low level to begin, higher as you get better, and learn how to apply it from the rear leg while standing in a front stance. Go through all the stances you know, one by one, kicking with the foot you are not standing on.

The third kick is to use your weight leg for the kicking. This means you kick with the leg you are standing on. Again, go through your stances, but this time figure out how to hop so that the leg you do not have weight on replaces the leg you are standing on, and the leg you are standing on does the kick.

The fourth kick is to explore the direction you are kicking in. This is going to require some quick contortions of the body. Simply do the third kick, described in the last paragraph, but this time kick first north, then set up and do the kick to the west, then the east, then the south.

Now, there are a few things you should remember as you go through these four stages. Don't be one of these people who do ten kicks per kick and then quit. Do a hundred kicks, three hundred, even five hundred kicks per kick.

The idea is to develop your legs so that they are as light and easy to use as your hands. So concentrate on learning how to relax while you do your kicks. Soon your kicks will be second nature, light and easy, marvelous little things of quick flick, and yet able to instantly end any fight.

A Martial Arts class is a place to be strong and healthy. It is filled with hard working, dedicated people. The five following items are what you don't want to hear in a martial arts class.

Hearing any of these things slows the class down, breaks the pacing. Hearing any of these things reveals a weakness that should not be revealed, but rather squashed. Hearing any of these things destroys the rite of passage that a martial arts class is.

Number five amongst the things you don't ever want to hear in a good and serious martial arts class is...that hurts. Hey, a little pain is going to happen here and there, we all know that, but grunt and grit and get over it. If you need medical attention, crawl off the mat, find a telephone, call an ambulance, and check yourself in at the local hospital!

Number four amongst the not to be saids in a martial arts class is...I wasn't ready. Good friggin' Lard...being ready is what the class is about! Open your eyes and ears and get with the program!

Number three amongst the not to be saids in a martial arts class is...I'm sorry. You're supposed to be learning how to dish out pain! If you handed out too much pain, then watch him or her crawl off the mat, or, better yet, roll them off the mat, and get back to business!

Number two amongst the not to be saids in a martial arts class is...what if the guy does something else, like Oh, ow and slap my ears I can't believe you said that! If he changes, then you change...and, in the meantime...get with the drill or you won't be able to handle the first thing he did!

Number one amongst the not to be saids in a martial arts class is...me asking you why you were late! Get ready bozo, because when I get done with you you're not going to be ready or able to crawl from what is about to hurt so bad somebody is going to have to roll you off the mat so the serious martial artists can get on with the show! I mean it!

The point of this is...always be ready, be careful and considerate with all your matmates and try not to injure them or yourself, don't interrupt or slow the flow of the class, and be on time every time. Sure, we had some humor here, and there should be humor when you're learning to dismember and maim the other citizens of good, old planet earth. But...treat the art as sacred, and the art will enable you to become as sacred.

When learning the martial arts, especially if you want to be effective, you need to learn the differences, the gains and limitations, of the two kinds of punches. Knowing these punches will dictate and proscribe your combat strategy. Knowing these punches will effect your training and enlighten you as to the True Martial Arts.

A thrusting punch is the first kind of punch. A thrusting punch is like a train running into something and going through. Simply, there is no back off, and the punch goes through.

The one, main problem with this kind of punch is...what happens to all the cars behind the locomotive? They all jam together behind the locomotive, collide and become a mess. Thus, the unstoppable power of a thrusting punch can become a godawful mess.

Once delivered, a thrusting punch, is now entangled. The body behind the punch, unless the legs have moved the whole body forward, risks becoming unbalanced. Thrust, and you are forced to commit your body to the action, and possibly be overcommitted.

A snapping punch is the second type of punch. Imagine a jackhammer striking cement, but only impacting once and then holding off. It hits, damages as much as possible, and then retreats.

Now, the problem with the snapping punch is that there has not been enough weight behind the punch. Weight is not fully committed to the punch because the body hasn't move into the action. You have your balance, but the punch didn't strike as hard as you might have wished?

Now, a thrusting punch is a strategy involving moving your body, using your entire weight, committing it to the action, and if you miss you're going to be out of place and unbalanced, and you're going to then have lots of problems. The snapping punch is a strategy where you make the strike, but don't always create enough hurt. The snapping punch gives less weight, but 95% of the weight will be left in the body of the opponent, a thrust punch commits weight, but takes fifty per cent of the shock back up the arm.

So we have to continuously assess which is better, the thrusting punch, or the snapping punch. Each punch has bad points and good, and you're going to have to gauge balance versus stability, commitment versus noncommitment, weight versus speed, weight left in the body versus weight backed up the arm, potential follow ups, positioning, and so on and so on. When you're done exploring all these possibilities, however, you're going to have the right punch for the right situation.