Push kicking to the upper chest will tip a person off balance, back over their feet and away from you. It makes the head easier to attack and, of course, once a fighter is on his heels, it is very difficult for him to move out of harm’s way. Pushing the hips so that they rotate backwards will force an opponent onto their heels and simultaneously bring their head down. A trick popular with Kyokushin Karate fighters is kicking to the hip. He has used this very combination, both techniques off the left side, to send Peter Aerts to the canvas.ĭifferent targets on the torso will produce different results. Semmy starts many of his attacks with a heavy push kick to put his opponent where he wants them, frequently against the ropes, and follows up with a thunderous jab. Any smaller fighter will want to get inside to escape the most severe harm, as well as having access to weaknesses and targets. He will push kick his opponents as his principal means of keeping them out at the end of his reach. A more sophisticated use is to halt your opponent’s advance and keep them at a length where you can subject them to other intentions. This isn’t much use, outside of establishing dominance.
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An inexperienced fighter, when confident with his legs, will use it to simply push the opponent away. The fundamental use all kickboxers should understand is the push kick to the torso for positioning an opponent. Similarly, it can be used to block the leg as it is lifted to kick, but this requires many hours of drilling before you can rely on it for anything other than breaking your toes! By doing this, Graham prevents him from being able to find his rhythm, which means all of his attacks are frustrated before they come out.
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As Hari lines up, Graham reaches out intermittently to push kick Hari’s thigh just above the knee. Hari is very much a fighter in the Thai style, right down to the rhythmic stepping from foot to foot – it’s the click track he times his jab by. Push kicking to the thigh is especially prevalent in Thai boxing, but the great example that springs to my mind is when Peter Graham fought Badr Hari in New Zealand in the 2007 K1 WGP Qualifier. Starting at the canvas and working up the body, we have the push kick to the thigh. Use the push kick to control the distance, and follow it up with a more devastating secondary attack. It does, however, have specific uses for positioning an opponent similar to a jab. This means it isn’t as useful for smashing and shattering as the round kick. This is counter-productive and, in a fight, can be embarrassing!Īs I wrote in ‘Fighting as a Taller Fighter’ in the last issue, a push differs from a strike because it has contact before it has velocity. If the back is bent or the hips are back, the kick will effectively push you away from your target, rather than the other way around. It is essential to keep the spine straight and the weight centered, moving it forward with the extension of the leg. To use it more as a strike, you have to fully flex the ankle joint and pull the toes back in order to contact with the ball. With a push kick, the sole of the foot, its most pronounced areas being the heel and the ball, will focus most or all of the impact. It has a smaller contact area than the round kick, which allows as much of the shin as you decide to use.
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The front kick, or push kick is a unique weapon in the skilful kickboxer’s arsenal. International Kickboxer Magazine, Vol.17, No.2