VISIT OUR SHOP! Tao Jeet Kune Do

Unlock the Secret of Shaolin Fighting Kicks

Author: Yan Lei
Date Posted: March 23, 2009

In China we used to have two Shaolin Temples, one in the south and one in the North. It is said that the Southern Shaolin Temple was famous for their punches and the Northern Shaolin Temple was famous for their kicks. But hundreds of years ago the Northern Shaolin Temple was burned down and the only record of it today is in history books. The skills from both temples have now merged. The ancient books from the temple say that in order to have powerful kicks, we need to develop three vital skills.

Three Essential Ingredients

1) Flexibility. If you want to kick with power and speed you want to have as much control over your leg as you do your arm. This means training it to have as much flexibility and dexterity as your arm.

2) Speed and power. Flexibility doesn't lead to speed and power so the next thing you have to concentrate on is gaining speed and power.

3) Strength. In Shaolin we have seventy-two different styles and one of these styles in called Iron leg. The purpose of training in iron leg is literally to make the leg as hard as iron.

If you can combine these three essential ingredients successfully then your leg will be a weapon and you can then progress to the fourth element, which is.

4) How to use your weapon.

Flexibility

If you've read my other articles then you know that I am always advising martial artists to add running to their training. No boxer would ever go into the ring without stamina training and as everyone knows, all boxers include running as part of their stamina training. At the Shaolin Temple it's the same, we always begin our training with a run, this not only helps us with our stamina but it also makes our body hot. Once our body is hot we then stretch our arms and our legs. Once we have stretched out our muscles then we begin to do The Five Fundamental Kicks, which I demonstrated in a previous Combat article and also in my Shaolin Workout One DVD. The five different angles of these kicks increases our flexibility much further than just stretching ever would. From the kicks we then go into the three way splits. This training make our legs and hips flexible so that our legs and hips can move in different angles, and is the first step to making our leg flexible.

Mixing traditional with modern

Once we can do the five fundamental kicks we can then mix them, for example we can perform the inside kick with the outside kick and link them together. We can increase the number of kicks in the combination. We can use the five fundamental kicks as a warm up before our fighting kicks.

Speed and Power

All traditions of fighters use footwork to link the link the kicks together and practice various fighting combinations. At Shaolin we link fighting kicks with traditional training. The purpose of this is to strengthen our legs.

We may stay in Ma Bu (horse stance) for five minutes and then we will do the fighting kicks as quickly as we can for one - three minutes. This combination of stance and kick links power with speed. Or we may run up a hill and when we come back we kick bags as quickly as we can. We will make a goal to kick one hundred or two hundred times. Our legs will feel so tired that it's hard to lift them off the ground but we will not stop until we've completed our target.

Optimize The Power

If you want to kick with speed then you need to make your leg tired, once your leg is tired, you have to train your body to relax. Once you are relaxed you have to learn how to get maximum power from your kicks. When you kick, ask yourself, which part of my body am I using? Once you know the answer then you will save energy, as you will only be using the parts of your body that you really need.

This dramatically optimizes your power and energy. This is the reason if you want a powerful swift kick then the only way to achieve this is through kicking a lot. Through kicking a lot your body will understand. In martial arts we can never understand with our head, we always have to be led by our body's inherent wisdom.

Strength

People sometimes think if you want to make your shin and feet strong you need to kick hard things all the time but as I explained in last month's article on Body Conditioning, this is completely wrong. If you want to make your leg hard then the first thing you need to do is have good stamina, if you don't have stamina it's not possible for your leg to be strong as you won't have energy. It's like a car without petrol, it simply can't move, you won't be able to lift your leg up or kick therefore you have lost everything.

This is the reason why stamina is so important. After you have gained stamina you then work on your flexibility and then you can work on your speed and power and then you can start on the conditioning training for your leg.

Iron Leg

The best way to warm up is to do the Si Bi Quan form from my Workout One DVD. This form consists of two ingredients: stamp and punch, the more power you can use with the stamp, the more you will build the power of your leg muscles and bone. This movement is simple and useful. After doing this form you can then start to do bag work.

Kick Bags

It's best to kick different bags, some hard and some soft so that your body can get used to kicking different weights. Soft bags eat energy and if you have a powerful kick then you have to hold your power otherwise you may get an injury. This is all part of the training. When you go in the ring, people's bodies are different, people move differently so it's best to be as adaptable as you can when you train. Keep changing your combinations and the bags that you work on.

Kick Bamboo

After we have kicked bags we then kick bamboo. Bamboo is better than wood because it is both soft and hard at the same time. If you have ever been into a bamboo forest, then you will have seen the trees bending with the direction of the wind but this is what makes them incredibly strong.

When you embark on kicking bamboo you have to be careful. Never try this alone but always train under a qualified teacher. You need to have a good understanding of your body, take the training step by step and keep listening to your body.

Qi Gong

When we do this hard training we also practice Qi Gong to look after our bodies and our legs. One of our Qi Gongs is called Bone Marrow Cleansing Qi Gong because it literally cleans out our bone marrow. We use a Shaolin Energy Massage brush to massage ourselves. Not only is this is the first step to body conditioning but it is also another way to open our meridian channels. After we have finished our body conditioning we then use traditional medicine. I make this medicine every two years, it takes about three months to make, and it helps the blood to flow and makes the bone stronger. It comes from a traditional recipe from the Shaolin Temple but there may be slight variations depending on the disciple's personal experience and the type of body conditioning that they do.

How To Use

All of these ingredients make your leg into a weapon but this doesn't mean that you know how to use this weapon or that you are a good fighter, it just means that you have a sharp weapon. So the first thing you need to do is link your punch and kick together and learn how to trick people so that you can get through their defenses. How do you fight with different people? Some people have good kicks, others good knee, other good elbows. At the Shaolin Temple we usually choose one good traditional technique and combine that with our fighting punches and kicks. We then spar against many different opponents to test ourselves and hone our skill.

Mind Control

When we fight in the ring, the judge says start and no one knows what will happen. This is why we practice our fighting kicks over and over again and we imagine many different opponents so that we can be ready for anything and even though we have no control of the outcome, in our mind we have inner confidence and this gives us the control.

About The Author

http://www.shifuyanlei.co.uk

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of Shaolin Kung Fu articles.

Write an online review and share your thoughts with other readers!