Fancy Kicks
Sun 03:25 PST. Posted by staff@riposte.org.
The other night while watching some MMA (something I rarely do) I noticed that the arsenal of some of these fighters contained low kicks to the thigh, a la Muay Thai. They don't look like much, but speaking from experience they're pretty brutal. I remember a seminar where the instructor showed some conditioning moves designed to prepare the legs/quadriceps in the event of a nasty low-kicking assault, similar to kotekitai (forearm toughening routine) that karate people employ. With the exception of Kyokushin practitioners, most karateka aren't accustomed to taking leg strikes (or head shots for that matter), so some desensitizing routines for the lower extremities isn't a bad idea. In most traditional Okinawan karate tourneys, low kicks are prohibited, yet high-target kicks are okay if delivered with control (i.e. without knocking out your opponent).
Read more: continue
