Kicks from very low stances.

I'm originally a wrestler, then did a bit of Korean kicking arts. I'm trying to work out some really effective ways to throw kicks and strikes from a VERY low wrestlers stance, quickly and with a minimum of body shifting. So far, I've realized that rear leg arcing kicks work okay, that front leg kicks are VERY limited (side kick only), and that strikes are pretty much limited to palmstrikes. Practicing this stuff has me looking like the bastard child of Capoeira and Blanka from Streetfighter 2. Is anyone else out there experimenting or trained in kicking from such a low stance? The reason I'm doing this is to integrate my wrestling with my other martial arts experience. I'd like to be able to transition smoothly from wrestling to other arts on the fly. I'm also working on adapting traditional wrestling throws to make them more damaging and safer to use in combat. Any input would be interesting.

Kicking from a low stance.

The penetration steps and height drops from wrestling are going to make it pretty much impossible to kick. If you have dropped you height you need to lengthen your stance and that makes you very prone to losing balance. Kicks off a long stance take a loooong time to cover because of the distance they have to travel.

Vale Tudo (and other forms of NHB fighting) have addressed this issue. For VT you need to be able to transition from kicking to punching to clinchwork to takedowns to groundwork. By looking at the most effective and adaptable stances from a number of arts VT fighters tend to use the following:

Stand up - Muay Thai, which has two stances boxing stance and kicking stance. Kicking stance is a 45? stance with your feet as wide as your shoulders. This allows you to stand tall and kick through with both legs without losing balance and recovering quickly.

Clinch work - a mix of Thai 'plum' clinch and body control from Greco Roman.

Take downs - this is the only time that you deliberately drop height. If you are coming in low all the time you are very open to a kick in the head.

Plus if you start off low then your opponent is going to block you if you shoot, sprawl and mash you into the floor. By starting high you can draw an opponent to throw head shots then drop and shoot in below them, making the most of your wrestling skills, with it be for a single, double, ankle pick or rising up to a body lock and slam.

Kaliphil, you make some very valid points, many of which I have considered myself. As I said, I'm mainly trying to smooth out my transitions from wrestling to striking, so that if I find myself in an awkward "in between" area (like shooting in and missing, disengaging from grappling, or just plain trying to get up off the floor) I can have some kicks and strikes available. I wholeheartedly agree on the vulnerability of the head while shooting. I've been working on keeping the hands higher and a little closer than in wrestling, sort of an open handed boxing/wrestling hybrid, which works okay, but leaves the top of the head open. I've been working palm strikes to the opponents face for distraction value, as well as arm drags for disrupting balance. I like what you said about having to lengthen the stance in order to drop it. I hadn't thought about that.