Recovery

I don't actualy practice tae kwon do, but I have a problem and if anyone can help you guys can. The problem is with my kick recovery, I can kick well enough but recovering from it is my problem.

Not really sure what you're referring to here. Do you mean your momentum is carrying you too far and you're off balance/out of position after the kick?

What type (if any) MA do you practice?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gemini:
Not really sure what you're referring to here. Do you mean your momentum is carrying you too far and you're off balance/out of position after the kick?

What type (if any) MA do you practice?[/QUOTE]

Bingo.

I'm mostly freestyle.

I have troble regaining my balance, especially after high and multible kicks.

[This message has been edited by Stone Carver (edited 03-14-2005).]

Practice, practice, practice. That's all it takes. Focus on trying to maintain your balance while kicking. (You may find you have to lean your torso more to accomplish this effectively)

Practice does't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

I don't want to keep doing it wrong.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stone Carver:
Practice does't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

I don't want to keep doing it wrong.[/QUOTE]

You're exactly correct. If I could see what you're doing, it would be alot easier to tell you how to fix what's wrong. That's the advantage of being trained by a master and not out of a book. Anyone can do a round house, but very few do it correctly. But I'll give it a try and you can evaluate yourself. I've never tried this in writing, so I hope it translates correctly.

First thing you need to do is get the proper form which you acknowledged above. So I would recommend starting from the beginning and getting rid of any bad habits you may have picked up. Try to do the kick in slow motion, breaking it into steps. You will loose your balance constantly but that's exactly what we want to address as your starting point.

From fighting stance, raise your back leg so your knee is directly in front of you. Make sure your knee is higher than your thigh. Point your toe down.

Pivot your support foot slightly forward. Make sure to pivot on the ball of your foot. Never the heel. At the same time, thrust your hip (kicking leg side) forward. (Not necessary, but good practice, keep your arms up as if blocking)

Turn your hip over so your chambered leg is parallel to the ground. (Your little toe should be higher than your knee. If it isn't, you haven't rolled your hip over enough). At the same time, your support foot should complete its pivot. The toes on your support foot should be almost facing backwards at this point.

At this point, your knee should be centered between you and your target. that's a major mistake most beginners make. Their knee is either too far past center, or not enough. (I would guess that you go too far and that's why you can't recover). Many beginners think that by centering your knee past center will generate more power because you'll drive through your target. Wrong. Don't do it.

Swing your lower leg out and back. Make sure you're making contact with the top of your foot, not your toes. For learning purposes, I would suggest trying to kick your target with the top of your little toe. This is one way to keep beginners from cheating and not rolling their hip over enough.

Drop your leg down in front of you. Do not kick out and drop your leg. Make sure to bring it back. This is going to teach you how to recover quickly. You just completed a roundhouse.

Couple of notes:
Don't worry about kicking height. that's the least important thing at this point. Kick at whatever level is comfortable for you.

Hold each stage until you feel you have control of it. If you start on the next stage before that, you're just cheating yourself.

Don't get discouraged when it takes you a thousand tries before you succeed without falling over.

Start to blend the stages together. Ultimately, it will be one motion.

I can't emphasis enough about pivoting your support foot. Most injuries happen because of improper support. Also, your support leg should be straight but DON'T EVER LOCK YOUR KNEE!!!

Over time, your roundhouse will change to match your style and level. That's fine. No 2 roundhouses look the same. What I'm telling you here is not how I throw a roundhouse, but it's more or less how I was taught, and still practice to this day. But as long as you rememer the basics, you will maximize speed and power while keeping injuries to a minimum. There are others methods and ways to teach, but this is mine. Hope it helps.

Good Luck!

Good reply, however you should really ask your instructor to help you with this one.

I will give you this piece of advice however, in order to recover correctly from a kick which is high you have to manage your centre of gravity. In order to do this you may have to break your guard and use your rear hand to balance your weight (yet another reason why kicking high is dangerous). Also, lean forward into the kick if you intend to advance upon your opponent. It is possible with a lot of practice to cover 1-2 metres with a kick without really hopping on your back leg. If you are not practising an MA which uses kicking moves, such as TKD, then I would advise that learning one from a proper instructor is the best way to overcome this problem. However beware McDojos.

chamber, kick, go back to the chamber, put your leg down. If you do it right you won't lose your balance. You may also be trying to kick higher than you're able to at this time.

I recently "discovered" that I wasn't chambering back my side kicks and always had problems. No more. Chamber chamber chamber.

I've already stated that I have very little formal training, so I have just one question. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif[/IMG]Chamber? [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif[/IMG]

[This message has been edited by Stone Carver (edited 03-17-2005).]

yea...chamber that means bending your knee to the maximum and lifting it high.