which martial art has the best kicks

**AAAhmed46** · Posted On: 1/29/2006 1:49pm

Your right though! I think the roundhouse is eaiser and more practical.

Just trying to show others that side kicks CAN be used properly in a full ocontact setting.

i use the roundhouse more.

In my old school, i trained to use the side kick with great dilligence.

I now have a great side kick, but i never use it.

THus, my roundhouse isnt as sexy as i would like it to be. It's getting there.

**TehDeadlyDimMak** · Posted On: 1/29/2006 11:48pm

Originally Posted by Jitsuman

When I was a TKD'er way back when, sidekicks were my absolute bread and butter technique.

I used them all the time, every angle possible, for everything. I'd use them to judge distance, keep an opponent at bay, kinda like a jab. I'd even "finish" with them.

I used to skip into them too (you know, back foot crosses behind the front, front leg kicks) with great results while sparring. TKD "point sparring" of course.

But hey it worked all the time for me!

Fast foward to sophmore year of college.

Got into a minor 'str33t' fight outside a bar. I was pretty sober, but the other guy wasnt. i didn't want any **** so I figured I'd nail him in the gut with my trusty sidekick and be on my way.

Well as it turned out side kicks dont work so well against a drunk guy bum-rushing you. The guy would just eat the kick before I had full extension on it, and kinda run right throught it. very annoying!

....but eye opening in many ways.

point of the story: Sidekicks dont work so well outside of point sparring.

(the fight was broken up by the guys friends who appologized on his drunken behalf, no real damage was done, and I got laid that night, yehaw)

I discoverd after joining a Sanda gym that the sidekicks I've seen in TKD, Karate, and most Kung Fu were not the same as the ones in Sanda.

Sanda guys do manage to make them work.

***DerAuslander*** · Posted On: 1/30/2006 1:10am

You know what martial art has the best kicks?

Boxing.

Boxing...and Aikido...those Aikido guys kick amazingly...

**new2bjj** · Posted On: 1/30/2006 2:32pm

Side kicks, which I like, do take an amazing amount of effort to perfect, and do not mix well with most effective fighting stances ( storng hand in rear). But they are good as a knockdown kick in a fight- ie sidekick- knockdown- ground and pound. But in term of cost benefit- the MT round kick is the most effective all around kick- and that's form a former TKD black belt who had plenty of pretty kicks, at one. Two weeks at fairtex, adn I saw the light.

**Dr. Sleepless** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 1:57am

Originally Posted by losttrak

San Da/San Shou is a fighting format, not a system... if that is what is being implied.

Anyways, side kicks are great weapons but I feel a lot of people don't use them because they are very taxing when compared to a roundhouse. When I fought in San Shou, I sometimes used them to win the first round by sniping people. In the 2nd (and sometimes 3rd), I was already looking to conserve and fight more efficiently. Roundhouses are so power-efficient as it requires minimal effort to maintain proper form and execution. Also, they can be more unpredictable and harder to dodge in certain circumstances.

Like everything it's how you train. I don't see too much of a difference between my side kick and roundhouse. They both have their uses, the side-kick less so.

**AikiZenDragon** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 3:29am

Aikido kicks are the best, they are so fast you can't hardly see them at all :lookround

**Arbiter** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 3:04pm

Originally Posted by losttrak

San Da/San Shou is a fighting format, not a system... if that is what is being implied.

Anyways, side kicks are great weapons but I feel a lot of people don't use them because they are very taxing when compared to a roundhouse. When I fought in San Shou, I sometimes used them to win the first round by sniping people. In the 2nd (and sometimes 3rd), I was already looking to conserve and fight more efficiently. Roundhouses are so power-efficient as it requires minimal effort to maintain proper form and execution. Also, they can be more unpredictable and harder to dodge in certain circumstances.

Sidekicks can be power-efficient and used when exausted in later rounds, in fact that is a strategy we employ. We've got them to where we can rely on the form and structure and expend minimal energy with them, but keep landing them and use them to control the fight, especially in later rounds when the opponent should be just as fatigued as you if conditioning is good. What you say is 'generally' true however, and is a big reason why most other peeps are coasting on roundkicks only in later rounds, which makes sidekick even more effective then because they may be not expecting it and often too tired and open to deal with it. also harder to see and catch this sidekick than a roundkick.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 3:08pm

Dim Mak, please explain how the SanDa sidekick execution is different from TKD or Karate? I have seen them used in competition and could tell that their execution was different but haven't been able to figure out how it is different.

**Tom Kagan** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 3:32pm

Originally Posted by Kristofer2

which martial art has the best kicks
clearly its tkd but i wanna hear different opinions on this matter

Oh, so wrong!

KungFu has the best kicks! From a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip ... they're as fast as lightning. (In fact it was a little bit frightning, but they did it with expert timing.)

:owneddanc :owneddanc :owneddanc

**TehDeadlyDimMak** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 6:05pm

Originally Posted by Ronin.74

Dim Mak, please explain how the SanDa sidekick execution is different from TKD or Karate? I have seen them used in competition and could tell that their execution was different but haven't been able to figure out how it is different.

Actually Arbiter just explained it... since I just joined his school...