Crescent kicks: What's the point of you, then?

**electron jockey** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 6:52am

I can't help but feel crescent kicks are utterly useless.

I really think that any time a person attempts a crescent kick they should do something better. Like a turning kick or KEEPING THEIR FOOT ON THE FLOOR.

In my experience they lack power, land awkwardly too often and are so easy to see coming you might as well phone ahead and make an appointment. The tradeoff seems to be height, but what's the point if you end up with a feather-touch kick?

Am I totally missing the point? Does anyone use these in sparring or competition at all?

***WhiteShark*** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 7:53am

They're a good stretch.

**Scott Larson** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 8:28am

Here's a funny one for you.

My hip and shoulder joints are overly flexible, so rarely I use crescent kicks because I can actually generate power because of my strange gift/curse.

I wouldn't recommend most people to use them, however.

**foolperson** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 8:37am

the idea of some of them is to knock a weapon out of your opponents hand but to be honest thats just a spoofy excuse. If someone has a knife, i'm not going to swing my leg in a big arch towards it.

**saturnjunkie** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 8:56am

I vote for premature arthritis in the hips, personally.

**Bear1980** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 8:59am

almost as bad as the 'X block'.

**senseipookie** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 9:11am

And they're really easy for judges to see and for the crowd to oooh and ahh when you're point sparring. Doesn't matter if it hits hard enough do anything more than piss off a real attacker. Because if you get more points, you MUST be a better fighter.

But I have to admit - they're kind of fun to do once in a while. If nothing else just to see the incredulous "what in the hell do you think you're doing?" look on someone's face when you actually have the balls to try it.

**Kintanon** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 10:18am

I use them to setup my 540s... And I like the spinning inner crescent kick -> jumping spinning outer crescent kick -> spinning outer crescent kick combo.
Nothing says, "Look at ME! I can FLY!" quite like that...
So, to answer your question the point of them is to look good. Or if I have someone ridiculously outclassed I can tag them in the face until they cry....

**Frank White** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 11:46am

Originally Posted by foolperson

the idea of some of them is to knock a weapon out of your opponents hand but to be honest thats just a spoofy excuse. If someone has a knife, i'm not going to swing my leg in a big arch towards it.

i never went for that one either. today I'm gonna see if I can kick a knife out of an assailants hand.
By assailant I mean wife and by knife I mean chalk of course.

**BSDaemon** · Posted On: 8/09/2007 11:49am

One of my last Karate lessons included blocking punches with the crescent kick.

This was one of the last nails in the coffin... I quit soon thereafter