It makes no sense to let an attacker get close enough to use his hands. If he’s got a knife or club, or just a fist that is fast, the best strategy is to kick low and keep him at a distance. The problem is that many Martial Arts schools do not teach the right way to use the legs.

A couple of things to remember before we get into making your kicks powerful. Practice high so you have strength and flexibility, but keep your kicks low in a fight so you don’t get a leg caught. And, the best strategy is to avoid the fight altogether whenever possible.

Practice kicking over a chair or similar height object. This will train you to raise your knee high for the kick. When your knee is high your foot can go straight in and deliver the goods, and not scrape up the body in a rising arc.

Turn your hips into the kick. Always turn, or tilt, your hips so that the weight of the hips is committed to the action. This will also give you a little more reach, and it will help put the whole body into the action.

Always try to do your front kicks with the ball of the foot. I know many people like to kick with the instep, but if they miss they risk spinning out of control. Kicking with the ball of the foot forces the artist to use a sharper tool, and it concentrates more weight into the smaller area of the ball of the foot.

Bring the foot all the way back. Snap that foot back so that an opponent can’t grab it. This also tends to leave more power in the target.

Practice planting your foot on your partner, then pushing him. This usually means you will alter the kick so that you can place the heel on the body of your partner, then push. This trains you to use the exact muscles that are actually used in a kick.

Kicks are your first line of defense, don’t just practice your kicks ten or twenty times and forget about them, practice them hundreds of times a day for each kick. Whether you are training in Karate, or Tae Kwon Do, or Kung Fu, or whatever other art, a well placed kick can go a long way towards saving your life. So practice, and look at your kicks, study the physics of a kick so that your kicks are effective and end the fight before it can even start.

Al Case has analyzed martial arts for more than 4O+ years. A writer for the magazines, he had his own column in Inside Karate for several years. You can find out how to have the most powerful punch in the world, or how to have the strongest kicks in the world, by picking up his free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.

Tags: Self Defence