The Front Kick Dilemma

[WhiteShark]

GTFO of your school. There should be a teep (thai front kick) and a snap front kick (karate front kick). These are both super basic and if you aren't learning one or both with CONSISTENT technique leave your school now.

[G-Off]

I'm confused as to the point of the front snap kick, btw. Lyoto Machida basically knocked out Rich Franklin with one, but that was with the shin and other than that you rarely see it used, much less as an effective kick. I mean, the teep is there to push, so the snap kick you'd think would be for damage but it's a weak kick.

[Uncle_Phil]

To the OP:

How long have you been training?

The front kick-forever at this point. Karate, almost a year.

[Uncle_Phil]

I'm confused as to the point of the front snap kick, btw. Lyoto Machida basically knocked out Rich Franklin with one, but that was with the shin and other than that you rarely see it used, much less as an effective kick. I mean, the teep is there to push, so the snap kick you'd think would be for damage but it's a weak kick.

its a shin killer, and a nut breaker.

[DSL]

Great video above on the hips, watch that and ingest it.

[dwkfym]

I'm confused as to the point of the front snap kick, btw. Lyoto Machida basically knocked out Rich Franklin with one, but that was with the shin and other than that you rarely see it used, much less as an effective kick. I mean, the teep is there to push, so the snap kick you'd think would be for damage but it's a weak kick.

I think snap kicks are for point-attacks to specific areas. Or at least I think thats what they should be limited to. I almost never use a front snap kick, though I practice them out of habit. One of the things that one of my HKD schools did correctly was to teach correct power generation in kicks and punches. We learned snap kicks a lot like MT push kicks, with power coming from forward motion of the body and the rotation of the hips.

Sadly, I don't think the point of impact is strong enough for me to really see snap kicks as useful. Also, Isn't that a super easily blocked attack?

I did read in one book of a full-contact instructor conditioning the ball of his foot. Apparently his feet started looking pretty monstrous, and he would use his snap kick to attack his opponents shin. However, I don't think I'll ever be trying this use of the technique.

[TheMightyMcClaw]

I can't speak for the teep, as I don't do Muay Thai.
But from Shotokan, we learned a couple variants on the front kick.
The first one is where the knee comes up level with the target, the foot extends out with the ball of the foot as the point of impact and the toes raised out of the way. It took me a while to be able to do this with my toes. After the kick, the leg recoils and sets back down.
We would sometimes hop forward on the base foot and pop the hip while doing this to make it a bit more of a powerful driving kick.
For another variant, the same kick would be thrown off of the lead leg, normally as an intercepting technique.
Another, the foot would rise out with the toes forward. Thus, the force of the kick was coming upward, not forward. This was mostly tought as a groin kick or a kick against a downed opponent.
Finally, for a push kick, we were tought to essentially throw a side kick turned ninety degrees. The leg chambers high, with the knee pointed in towards the chest and the bottom of the foot pointed towards the target. From there, the foot extends outward, impacting with the heel. My coach wasn't terribly fond of this one, but he liked variety in his kicks.

Anyways, the reason your seeing so many variations on it might be because there are a lot of ways to throw a front kick. ^_~

[Scott Larson]

I agree with WS. If you don't know how to throw one of the most basic karate techniques after a year(I'm assuming this is with regular attendance) its time for a change.

[Kempo Chris]

GTFO of your school. There should be a teep (thai front kick) and a snap front kick (karate front kick). These are both super basic and if you aren't learning one or both with CONSISTENT technique leave your school now.

Read this!!!

[honesty]

I've been taugh (to date I've not been doing this massively long) 2 different front kicks in karate. 1. Front snap kick or maegeri and 2. front thrust kick. For both the movement is rather similar.

Standing in a basic stance, left foot and left arm forward, change guard so your right hand comes forward.
Bring your back (right) knee up and forward.
(heres where the kicks differ) for maegeri, twist your hips round so your right hip comes forward and snap your lower right leg up, hitting with the ball of your foot.
For the forward thrust kick you use the twist of the hip to power forward rather than up. I've found it a much more effective kick...