Hi there! If the title wasn’t understood, I want help on increasing the height of my side kick (Mawashi-Geri). I have a good deal of force in it, and I can hit about thigh height, and I want to be able to kick someone near the height of the neck. Are there any drills (besides kicking many times, which I allready do!)
Uh… Stretch?
Stretch what muscles?
mawashi geri is roundhouse kick, you mean yoko geri. stretching is certainly part of it, don’t get me wrong. for that particular kick you will need flexible hamstrings (you’ll feel the pull in your supporting leg if not) and a decent “splits” stretch. However, strength in your obliques and abductors is very important.
Stand sideways against a wall (say your right shoulder, hip, and foot touching the wall). Using the wall for balance, kick your left leg out about waist high and hold it in the outstretched position. You will feel the muscles you need to strengthen quickly.
As a technical aside, the main technical key to kicking higher is pulling your knee higher during the first part of the kicking motion. The higher you pull your knee, the higher you’ll kick. Make sure you practice simply knee ups (essentially the first part of the kick w/out actually stretching the leg out to finish the kick) to train yourself to bring your knee straight up into the chamber position.
[quote]FatJew wrote:
Stretch what muscles? [/quote]
Your pecs, obviously.
Box splits…don’t place your hands on the floor while doing this. Stand with a straight torso. It will greatly increase your side kicks.
O_O I got my terms wrong, I did mean the mawashi geri (Round-house kick) rather than the yoko-geri (side-kick). I’m just abit iffy with the english terms (SORRY!)
get your hips loose, that is so important. if your hips are tight you won’t ever be able to kick high. butterfly stretch, basically any rubber guard stretch for hip mobility would be a good stretch for height in kickboxing. high knees, crescent kicks with a 90 degree turn in slow motion to really get the hip popping.
also, when you kick don’t try to kick high, you’ll only hurt yourself. work on the technique at a midsection level, making sure to lock the foot out for a second before returning it. technique and flexibility are precursors to getting high kicks. it will come with time.
If flexibility issues aren’t the problem you need to work on your control of the kick.
What you need to do is determine how high youcan throw the kick at a slow speed and hold it fully extended without losing your balance. If you can only go knee high to begin with work on that and try to bring it up to hip height.
Another problem can be the way you are built. If you are carrying a lot of upper bodyweight it can be hard to balance.
Spar with midgets.