Category Archives: how to

Here are listed posts that explain how to do something, being it a technique, a combination or an exercise.

The importance of proper alignment in front stance

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I will define proper alignment, for the purpose of this post, as the correct alignment of limbs and other body parts so that all vectors of the forces involved in a particular movement or techniques are correctly aligned in order to produce the best performance. For simplicity we can call internal alignment the alignment of your own body and external alignmentwhen we refer to the alignment of your body compared to the position of your opponent. Bruce Lee used for the same purpose the definition of winner’s position in his “Tao of June Kune Do”. I will explain in this post the importance of proper internal and external alignment for maximum results, applied to the front stance.

 

For the majority of people training martial arts it should be pretty obvious the correct internal alignment when preparing for or performing a technique. When training traditional martial arts like Karate, Judo or Aikido a lot of emphasis is paid to the external alignment as well as the internal one. Wing Chun has even a form based on the wooden dummy where proper alignment of techniques can be trained and improved by the continuous feed back that the dummy actually offers.

 

When training contact sports like kickboxing or boxing the application of proper internal alignment offers a good and stable position that is optimum for attacking and defending. The effectiveness of external alignment is easily measurable when testing the actual power that can be exercised onto a target. I prepared some simple pictures below that explain my thinking from a front stance that applies to boxing, kickboxing and many other fighting styles. In all of the pictures the shapes of the feet show the correct angle to be standing (with small personalised variations) and the cross indicates where the centre of gravity should be falling, aligned to the central line of the person.

 

Correct alignment

When two opponents are aligned as in this picture all punches will work correctly as well as all kicks with the rear leg (right, in this case). In this case the one person’s right foot is in line with the other person’s left foot and their central lines are in front of each other. We should remember that all straight strikes (jab, cross, front kick, side kick) should be aimed at the central line of the opponent (with small variations) while the round kick will go across in a circular motion that naturally tend to align the right foot to the line of the left on while hitting the opponent in the process.

Misaligned on the left

This is when the right feet of both opponents are nearly or completely aligned. When misaligned on the left you might have the illusion that straight strikes such as front and side kicks with the rear leg come easier but, in reality, your all structure is weaker and most punches will not work properly. The round kick with rear leg will have to travel a shorter distance to hit the target but it will end up weaker than when properly aligned.

Misaligned on the right

I find this to be the most common form of misalignment, particularly among beginners. Some people instead of trying mirroring the opponent’s position tend to align their left shoulders when facing an opponent. In this case the left feet of both opponents are nearly or completely aligned. All techniques coming from the rear part of the body will be very weak because they will never reach the optimum alignment of the body they have been designed for. Techniques with the front hand will also be weaker than when correctly aligned.

Misaligned at an angle

When one of the opponents stands at a funny angle the whole concept of alignment will cease to work and most techniques will simply have to be performed accepting reduced performance or by trying to realign with proper foot work.

 

All examples seen above could be obviously mirrored when people are standing with the right foot in front.

Conclusion

These examples of alignment and misalignments should be considered individually, taking into account the dynamic aspect of a fighting sport or a martial art. Positions of two opponents could be changing several times within a few seconds and it might be difficult to seize the right instant when everything is next to perfect. In my experience the most essential thing is to train the positions and the alignment statically as part of individual techniques or combinations and then check them during sparring to ensure that they work as expected.

Learn Stretching from the Master

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Bill “superfoot” Wallace retired in the early eighties as undefeated world champion in the middle weight of full contact kickboxing: his combat strategy was always based on fantastic kicking techniques that often caught by surprise his opponents and knock them out. Wallace was not just good and superfast in kicking but he could shoot double of triple kicks with a single leg, using these techniques in the same way most boxers faint punching techniques.

Apart from his obviously amazing experience as a martial artist Wallace has a master in Sport Science that further qualifies him to advise people about stretching for flexibility.   He was a true precursor of innovative stretching excercises and applications like the one decribed in the video below.

It shows here how to improve flexibility for side kicks (and it equally applies to round and hook ones): good news is that we at CARISMA regularly do a very similar (simplified) version during our classes, so it’s good to learn the extra movements we can add.

Hook kick: 5 good reasons to hit with the ball of the foot

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Courtesy and Copyright © Duncan Grisby 2006

Courtesy and Copyright © Duncan Grisby 2006

Different schools and styles of martial arts teach the hook kick (also called reversed round kick) in different ways.  Main differences manifest essentially in the way the movement originates, how the kicking leg is moving during the kick and what part of the foot hits the target that can be the hill or the sole/ball of the foot.

When I teach how to perform a hook kick, I first clarify that to maximise performance the leg should follow a whipping movement to ensure maximum acceleration of the foot toward the target.

I also suggest to always hit with the ball of the foot.  Here are for 5 good reasons both physiological and in terms of pure performance for doing that rather than the (side of the) hill, keeping the foot at 90° to the ankle:

  1. better reach: having the foot extended it increases your range by nearly the full length of your foot ensuring you will hit, from the same position, targets that would not be reachable if you bend your foot.
  2. stronger impact: if the angular speed of the leg moving is constant having a longer weapon (by the length of the foot) increases the speed of the foot itself, build up a higher momentum and delivers a stronger kick..
  3. safer for you: the Achilles’ tendon is a weak point and if you squash it against a skull it will hurt your foot to the point you might not be able of walking for some time.  Even if the impact is not straight on the Achilles’ tendon it can still hit the many nerves that are exposed both on the internal and external part of the hill, moving toward the ankle. The ball of the foot is very well padded and can bear much stronger impact than the edge of the hill.
  4. improve flexibility: with the foot fully extended the natual flexibility of the leg is highly helped; to the contrary trying to extend a leg while the tibial (shin) muscles are tensed in order to keep the ankle at 90° will have some groups of muscles that are fighting against the direction of your kick getting the muscles behind the leg less prone to extend
  5. faster: if all muscles involved in the movement are pushing in the same direction and the others are simply relaxed the overall speed will be improved.

In terms of pure power the hook kick is not to be considered at the top of the scale where round kick and other forward kicks can develop much stronger impact.  Things change when spinning backward where the whole spinning momentum adds up to the actual mechanical movement of the kick itself.

Extra information about the hook kick can be found by checking this post.

As usual, any comment is highly appreciated.