The Way of Least Resistance

Lyoto Machida has delivered another keage geri (snap kick) win - this time a body shot (a kick to the liver) - to finish CB Dollaway  at only 1:02 into the first round (after some punches on the ground). At first I thought the kick contacted with the ball of the foot but closer examination shows that the kick landed on the instep near the top of the toes. It seems possible that Machida was going for a toe kick but changed angles at the last second.   [The toe kick might seem strange until you realise that it's been done before - see my article on this very technique .] Anyway, I've often taught this very application for the Chen Pan Ling taijiquan kick (which seems to use the toes but with the right target uses the instep). Alternatively, Machida can be said to have effected a kind of  hybrid mae geri / mawashi geri: the so-called "triangle kick". I prefer the former analysis, ie. a "late conversion" from one to the other -...

Introduction Readers might recall that last year I wrote a piece titled " A pivotal question " - an essay where I analysed where and when one should pivot on the ball of foot versus the heel . In that essay I noted that most of the time we martial artists pivot on the ball of the foot.  Why?  Principally for two reasons: balance and "power" .  This sentiment is echoed by Lucio Maurino sensei in the video below (one that is embedded in Jesse Enkamp's recent  article covering this issue ): But really, judging by the comments on Jesse-san's article I really don't get any sense that people are aware of where and when it might be appropriate to pivot on the heel - which is something I've previously covered.  Some insist that it is never appropriate, while others insist on defending their own particular tradition.  But relatively few seem to accept that both ball of foot and heel are appropriate pivot points depending on one's objective ...

When I first started the martial arts, I recall being chastised for pivoting on my heel occasionally, especially when turning in kata. Sempai Leon (my supervising senior during the first 2 months of my training) would say: "Don't do that. Mobility requires you to pivot on the ball of the foot ." I recall Sempai Leon teaching us to stand with the weight slightly biased to the ball of the foot when we were in ready stance. This would, he explained, facilitate quick movement in response to an attack. "If you have your weight on your heels, you'll first have to rock forwards onto the balls of your feet before you can even start to move. Under the pressure of combat, this is time you won't have." All this made perfect sense then and still does now. [It's strange how, long after Sempai Leon has disappeared into the dim recesses of my history (and long after he has almost certainly forgotten that I even exist), I still remember his lessons well ...

Introduction I recently received two queries from Dave T on my article " Back to basics: the front kick ". Because the queries raise quite important points I thought I'd canvas them more completely (and hopefully more clearly) as separate blog articles rather than as a reply in the comments section. Dave's first question: ankle chamber Dave's first question was as follows: "What is your opinion of the TKD style front kick where the ankle is fully locked so that the instep and shin are in one straight line and the toes curled up? At the chamber position, the feet points down except for the toes. For high targets, won’t this method give the maximum penetration? I find that when using the karate method of the feet parallel to the ground during chamber for high targets, the sole or heel hits the target instead of the ball, thus removing a lot of the power from the kick. The position of the feet during chambering has to be adjusted for targets at different height...