The
Truth about Kicking
Martial
education, like all other forms of education, is provisional. We
don't hold this provisionalism against good teachers. We know that
while we may learn the spelling rule "i before e" in the first grade
we may also have to modify this to "except after c" in the second.
Some provisionalism, however, borders on misrepresentation. We know
that when our candidates say that they will lower taxes and end
a war the assumption is "to the best of their ability." We become
angry, though, when we learn that they never had the slightest notion
of fulfilling provisional promise.
There
is no other aspect of martial training that so walks this very thin
line than that of kicking. Take, as an example, what is, in many
styles, the first and simplest kick taught: the snap kick. In this
the student is asked to raise his knees to waist level with the
foot cocked back at the opposite standing knee. The lower leg is
then briskly snapped out and back before the foot is replaced on
the ground. Lift. Cock. Kick. Cock. Reset. These five actions define
the snap kick. As any advanced martial artist might tell you, there
could hardly be a kick that so violates most of the rules of real
kicking.
(Before
we go on, we should note that the reason this kick is taught in
this manner combines considerations of safety, explicitness and
balance. Note, also, that effectiveness is NOT one of these considerations.)
What
do I mean about these defects? Well, first, the wrong muscles lift
the leg with elevation tightening the thigh. Secondly, the cocking
of the foot proceeds in the opposite direction it should - that
is, away from the opponent. Thirdly, the frozen knee position, though
basic to accuracy, negates much of the kick's power. And, finally,
the re-cocking action before planting wastes much time.
So
how should we run our kicks? Is this good or bad provisionalism
since, as teachers, we intend to modify this form of kicking significantly?
The answer lies in how long the student is kept bound by these provisions.
As soon as we can we should begin the process of teaching better
and more natural methods.
Provisionalism
is good of you do not have to go back and undo what you have already
taught. Can we agree that college level is too late to discourage
students from reading pho-net-ic-al-ly?
And
what of better methods? The answer lies before us in the way we
move. We walk every day with a natural and effective gait. We do
not raise our knees to step. We swing our hip and move our lower
legs like the sweeping of simian arms. The knee contributes only
what is known as "attitude." Attitude is basically height with some
slight angular modifications.
In
other words, kicking should be as similar to the natural requirements
of locomotion as we can make it. When I first studied Kung Fu I
was already a black belt in Chinese Kenpo. Being twenty I was a
pretty good kicker, I thought. I had numerous "self-defense" kicks,
such as side and wheel. The Northern style of Kung Fu I studied,
famous for its kicks, actually seemed a little ineffective to me.
We had the straight leg kicks of the Tan Tui form and the wide crescents
and Tornado kicks of the Shaolin forms. Many of the kicks seemed
flamboyant but unfocused. I will admit, readily, that much of the
practical knowledge of kicking has leaked from Kung Fu consciousness.
But in the main, having spent many years performing and teaching
kicking, I can see that the general principles of correct kicking
lay in those loose and waist-driven leg actions of the Kung Fu forms.
Now
I use everything but kicking as an example of kicking. I make my
students trudge as though shod in snowshoes. We perform Frankenstein
shuffles up and back. They are asked to swing their hips like showgirls
and flip their feet like ice skaters. The knee, the stupidest joint
in the body, is a controlled mediator between the hip and the foot,
nothing more. I see every stance now, and teach it so, as one or
another kind of kick. I impose rules: you must never kick longer
than the reach of your hands. You much not break your rhythm to
kick. You must not use your hands exclusively to aid the balance
of the kick.
There
is an old saying, "Rules were made to be broken." This
is, of course, not true. Rules were made to illuminate pathways
where students can learn new inroads and create better, more telling
rules. The truth about kicking is that constraint in the begining
should lead to more freedom later on. The teachers job is to add
just enough weight to encourage the student to jump higher, but
not enough to inhibit the student's flight. We start teaching highly
controlled movements so that later we can allow the fullest expression
of movement itself.
Mancuso
