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.

To win a fight it is necessary to make the decision to win the fight. Without that decision, simply, you aren't going to win. Thus, you have to practice making the decision, and backing it up with a plan so that the decision becomes reality.

To back up the decision to win a fight you are going to have to make five decisions. This is the combat strategy that is found in every fight. This is the strategy you must understand and master, decision by decision, until you are able to deliver the original decision.

The first decision, and the most important, is that there is going to be a fight. Interestingly, you don't have to get in a fight if you refuse to make the decision to be in a fight. Even if the other person has made a decision, unless you agree with his decision, you don't have to fight.

The second decision involves distances involved in the fight. You should understand , at this point, that a fight is going to collapse in distance. And, you must understand that if you can control this distance, and even change collapsation into expansion at will, you can control and win a fight.

The third decision has to do with which side of the bodies the fight is going to occur on. One out of eight people being left handed, a fight will usually occur with right hand, and the bodies will turn to fit the hands, and the fight will be on that side. If you can control that decision, as to which side the fight will be on, then you are going to win that fight.

The fourth decision is going to be whether you are on the inside or the outside. What this means is that if he punches with a right hand, you must block/push/whatever so that his right hand misses you on the outside, and you see the inside of his wrist. And, if he punches with the right, you must block/push/whatever so that his right hand misses you on the inside, and you see the outside of his wrist.

There can be millions and millions of decisions in a fight, literally. Do you wish the fight to be conducted with specific weapons at specific distances, such as foot, or fist, or elbow, or whatever. Or, do you wish to control the decisions so that the fight expands or collapses through the weapons distances, from foot to elbow to knee to throw to fist to foot to whatever, your choice, and so on.

The point, however, is that to control all the other decisions, you must control the first four decisions. If you can understand and create drills to back up these decisions, then you can win any fight. Of course, as I said in the beginning, the first decision, that you are going to win that fight, is the most important.