Other low kicks

**Gypsy Jazz** · Posted On: 1/09/2006 2:23pm

Front kicks (teeps) to the thighs and hips are some of my favorite attacks. The main problem I see with them is that if you aim for a thigh and get shin checked into the ball of your foot, it can hurt like a bitch. It has happened to me more than once, and has left me limping for a day after. If you use your heel as a contact point it's nowhere near as bad, but you also lose a decent amount of reach.

Also front kicks don't pack much power when compared to a rear leg roundhouse. A front thrust kick can do some good damage, but it's tricky to find the right distance to use a kick like that effectively. Although a roundhouse always has an ideal striking surface, I care much less if someone step into my round and gets hit higher up on my shin than if someone stuffs a thrust kick and I lose my balance.

I'm a bit scatterbrained in my organization of this one, but I'll sum it up and say that a teep to the thigh is a great kick for keeping distance or setting up your hands, but that front kicks don't deal much damage compared to a solid round.

**Lights Out** · Posted On: 1/09/2006 3:20pm

Originally Posted by Gypsy Jazz

I'm a bit scatterbrained in my organization of this one, but I'll sum it up and say that a teep to the thigh is a great kick for keeping distance or setting up your hands, but that front kicks don't deal much damage compared to a solid round.

Aye, but a well-timed rear thrust kick to the middle section can be devastating.

But ge digress.

At my gym we only used roundhouse low kicks. I always thought that the rules forbid any other kick to the legs (at least in kickboxing), am I wrong?

**Ryno** · Posted On: 1/09/2006 4:12pm

Yeah, we do the inside stomp kick. My FMA instructor referred to it as a tadjak (stomp). It's not something that is great during mma competition, due to the bare feet. With shoes on however, you can either rake their shins, or drive through a bit more on their shin or knee. Hurts like a mother. It works nice in knife fighting as well, as it doesn't expose your inner thigh for cuts to badly.

**Honey Badger** · Posted On: 1/23/2006 2:42pm

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

You can certainly throw snapping frontkicks under and into the kneecaps, but then you're just a dick. We have an old crazy guy in the Karate class who does it.

This kick is in Kun Tao. I imagine that with steel toe shoes, you could blast the kneecap into next week.

There's also the stomp kick to the knee, and a low side kick to the outside of the ankle. Good footwork is essential in getting either one.

I don't think a shin rake is effective against anyone who conditions their shins, either by hardening routines or repeated contact with a heavy bag.

**Shuma-Gorath** · Posted On: 1/23/2006 2:46pm

Originally Posted by Honey Badger

This kick is in Kun Tao. I imagine that with steel toe shoes, you could blast the kneecap into next week.

When you have to say "I imagine..." that usually means you can't train the technique safely and as such it should be beneath your daily consideration. I wear steel-toed boots all winter and I wouldn't change any of my basic kicks.

**Rubberduck** · Posted On: 1/23/2006 2:54pm

Originally Posted by Ikken Hisatsu

throwing a teep into the top of someones leg is a pretty common technique in some places. real common in savate, seen it end fights. can be tricky to practice with in sparring because of the chance of smacking out someones knee.

All the savates low kicks should hit the thigh, not the knee. Only exception is coup de pied bas, which is allowed to shin. :profe:

**Honey Badger** · Posted On: 1/23/2006 9:49pm

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

When you have to say "I imagine..." that usually means you can't train the technique safely and as such it should be beneath your daily consideration. I wear steel-toed boots all winter and I wouldn't change any of my basic kicks.

I can train the technique safely - using accurate targeting with control. I don't go full bore into my training partner's knee and I don't wear steel toe boots during class.

I know from experience that it hurts - I can extrapolate that with the above mentioned shoes it would hurt more, and cause greater movement on the kneecap than when I'm being careful.

Done with semantics?

**Omar** · Posted On: 2/02/2006 6:05am

Originally Posted by Kidspatula

We've practiced this kick in my thai class and I was simply unable to generate any force with the kick because it always turns into that awkward wing chun-esque oblique kick...

That oblique kick is no good as a kick for the most part anyways. Works better just as a step. Step on the other person lead leg at the shin or knee. It works really well as an alternate to using a teep as a block. Just bring the foot up and stom on the thigh of the leg that the other person is kicking you with. Really the same as a teep when used that way, just a stylistic variation.

Originally Posted by Lights Out

Aye, but a well-timed rear thrust kick to the middle section can be devastating.

But ge digress.

Some while ago I got tough enough that I decided that thrust kicks to the midsection aren't worth trianing anymore. Now I go push kick all the way. I've never been hurt.....ever by a thrust kick to the midsection. At the so-cal throwdown someone...Csinca? ...nailed me with one of those that made everyone one go, "Wooah!" as I was kicked half way across the room. Didn't hurt. Just gave me kind of a rush really. Unless you get lucky enough to peg someone just right in the solar plexus I think it's pretty useless against someone with decent conditioning. Now I did get knocked back a fair bit but if you are going to value it for knocking someone back, you may as well train it as a push directly. The dynamics between a push and a strike are different and for a front kick....I think the push is more usefull. ****, you push them far enough and fast enough and half the time they fall over anyways.

So to sum up: never seen anything close to "devastating" from a front thrust kick. Been push kicked once and landed poor spraining my wrist and arm.

push > kick

**Astrosmurf** · Posted On: 2/02/2006 6:20am

Originally Posted by Kidspatula

We've practiced this kick in my thai class and I was simply unable to generate any force with the kick because it always turns into that awkward wing chun-esque oblique kick...

The fear of knee blow-out is indeed exagerrated. I use that kind of kick alot though, if it hits were it should with correct timing it is a good set-up for punches etc.

**Halogen** · Posted On: 2/02/2006 7:56am

Originally Posted by Omar

So to sum up: never seen anything close to "devastating" from a front thrust kick. Been push kicked once and landed poor spraining my wrist and arm.

push > kick

There's a guy at my old CLF school that used to do hundreds of reps each day of the front kick, making it really strong. In his second amatuer fight his opponent retired hurt in the first round because the 3rd or 4th front kick he got hit with tore a muscle in his lower abs (which apparently made breathing quite painful). I think, like most things, it comes down to how much effort you're prepared to put into training one technique.

As for low non-round kicks, the front/side jab into the thigh seems to be pretty common in most kickboxing-type styles. CLF also has a kind of raking kick (really only useful with shoes on) that is similar to a side kick, but you stomp the blade of the foot down the other persons shin/knee.