Taekkyon Question

[EdgeWalker]

Where did you come across that information?

I learnt that from one of my classes from Master Do Gi Hyun
A student asked why Taekkyon has the 'inverted kick', that was one of the theories he explained.

Although I think it's partially right, I think the second reason that Master Do explained is more believable: the proximity of taekkyon matches. Traditionally, taekkyon matches were held on 'a straw mat', which in modern times roughly translates to 2*2 judo mats. Taekkyon fighters were confined to a tight spot, so the inverted kick which has a shorter range than the roundhouse is a more practical choice.

[Orlando Lasso]

I had another question about using a kick like that. When would you use it? It seems like you have to wind up a bit to give it power, so your opponent can see what you're about to do. It seems a lot slower than an inverted kick where you chamber your leg. I'm not sure what the chambered kick is called, but it's different than a hook kick or crescent kick. To me, it looks like the mirror image of a roundhouse.

[brihno360]

I have successfully used the twist kick when directly facing an opponent who was moving in toward me when he was in a southpaw stance and I was in a regular stance. he came in and I nailed him right in the face with it because he wasn't expecting a kick coming from that angle.

I another situation (at a karate tournament) I used it to fake the opponent. He was also standing southpaw while I was left forward. In that case I threw the kick expecting him to throw his guard down to block.

Meanwhile I was prepared with a vertical straight punch which I threw at his head and connected with; I was immediately called for excessive contact though so no point on that one. Luckily he had just totally wasted a guy's nose in the previous match and did not get DQ'ed for it so I was also not DQ'ed for my excessive contact which made his nose bleed just a bit :)

I tippy tappy ATA sparring I have used it to kick to the stomach followed by re-chambering and rolling the hips over for a high round kick which usually works as well for that type of sparring, though I would not use it that way if the match was serious at all.

[Orlando Lasso]

Thanks for the response. I'm kinda confused. I found both kicks in this silly video for Taekkyon.

At 1:45, is she doing the twist kick, or is that called something else? That one seems relatively fast to snap out.
At 1:54, the kick is different because she's not chambering her leg. I'm wondering how that kick would be used without giving yourself away. It seems sort of like a crescent kick where you swing the whole leg. There's also a video of a guy teaching that kick in a dojo, but it still seems like a slow kick.

I hear you about point fighting. I also got disqualified last time after traveling to Toronto for the Karate Nationals. I got a video of my fight, even if the angle is kinda bad, you can still tell it was BS I was disqualified. I get that it's point fighting, but I barely made any contact.

[Miguksaram]

I learnt that from one of my classes from Master Do Gi Hyun
A student asked why Taekkyon has the 'inverted kick', that was one of the theories he explained.

The reason why I asked is that I have never heard about that before and talking with my wife and some of our Korean friends neither have they. Perhaps it is something that was stressed in the dojang. Thanks for the info.

[brihno360]

I would say that any time you do not chamber with a bent knee and the outside of your leg as close to parallel to the floor as you can get it your are doing something besides what is commonly called the twist(ing) kick.

In his book "the Complete Master's Kick" He Il Cho describes the kick as follows:
(From a left leg forward stance of some kind)
"shift your balance onto the left (forward) leg
torque your waist to the left
cock you right leg at a perpendicular angle to your right (kicking leg) side with your lower leg as parallel to the floor as possible, extended over your balance leg.

keeping your right leg bent quickly torque your hips to the right (clockwise), and using the quadriceps muscles as well as the gastrocnemius muscles in your lower leg, snap the right leg out at the last moment"

The striking surface should be the ball of the foot.

this is me now:
The overall kick is something like an angled out front kick with slight modifications and with a lot of practice can be pretty quick. I have typically been able to surprise people when I have used it. So I think that any time someone is doing a straight legged kick it is more like an outer crescent or possibly an axe kick.

Something to note about the outer crescent is that when practiced on a heavy bag it may resemble a twist kick since you probably cannot fire it clear through the bag but will instead be forced to allow it to travel on a similar return path as the path on which it was thrown.

If it was attempted at a person's body (as opposed to the head) it would look similar, plus as you stated, be pretty slow.

Straight legged crescents look nice and may occasionally work but are definitely a risky move since the kick:
A. is slower than some other kicks
b. travels in path that is more visible to the human eye

What I mean in b is that your eye perceives motion and depth better when an object travels across horizontally than when something comes directly at you in a straight line.

I learned that one the hard way :)