Mae Geri

Well I was talking with Sensei today and she made a great comment on something that has bothered me for a while on mae geri kicks. The tendency is for people to hunch over as they scrunch and tighten their stomach muscles while kicking. This is really crappy body mechanics.

The difference is in the body posture. If your back is relaxed and you have bad posture the result is you moving your shoulders from behind your hips to forward with the kick you then scrunch with the stomach movement.

Instead start from a front stance with your stomach pulled in your core muscles engaged and your torso directly over the hips. Moving the leg can be done with zero effort from your upper body and speed comes directly from moving the leg only engaging your hip flexor and thigh muscles. Try both ways several times and you will notice the difference.

The importance of keeping your body connected.

So in talking with a Sensei at the dojo we talked about his training were he had learned about the importance of keeping your body connected in every move. What we discussed about that is connecting your hara in each move in karate. When you have this connected movement your body moves in a coordinated fashion. Much more like a fluid dance that has a very discrete starting position and ending position. I will be coming back to this post over time adding in more observations as I learn them myself. Currently what I must do is break down each basic karate technique and relearn it in being connected AND with the absolute minimal effort. Than take that technique and reapply it in every kata or kihon technique and than learn to chain those movements together.

Random thoughts in no particular order

• Connected means your hara ties the movement and strength of your legs to your core and your upper body to your core as well. Everything moves as one unit.
• You must have low stances. High stances can make it difficult to engage the correct muscles. Sensei does not tell you to lower your stance for no good reason.
• You must have good posture with your tail bone tucked in. I having had bad posture learned this very late in my karate life. If your posture is incorrect your hips and shoulders WILL BE disconnected. Think of a rubber band you can push on it even if you think it is tight and it moves. Your core body must be one unit of connected muscles from hip to shoulders.
• Movement. Shift your weight before picking that foot up and keep low.
• Watch that pelvis when moving the tendency is to stick the butt out or shoulders out of alignment between stances. That makes it three times more difficult to snap your body back into alignment at the end of the movement.
• Remove all the extra movements you add into your technique.
• Always, always, always have your core muscles engaged. Even if resting in stance it is your core that holds your body into alignment. Now many other muscles probably should be in a relaxed state and that is good.

Well that's my thoughts for now. It is the greatest thing when you get it as your kime becomes crisp and powerful with less energy.

Kiba dacha

Worked on Kiba dacha this week. The obvious problem was that my kiba dacha was not a strong stance. Looked ok but, my legs were not rooted down like iron. Lots of wobble if i tried moving them with my hands.

Progress was made when I tucked my pelvis in, tightened my glutes, and last my quads. This did seem to help out. Some more practice time punching in front of the mirror should help.

Mae Geri

Well in an effort to refine my Mae geri keagi I took some video of my kicks. Working with my Sensei several things became obvious when I analyzed what we were doing with slow motion video.

1. I have seen two separate ways to wind up for the kick. Method A with the knee forward and up and the foot directly below the knee. Think 90 degree angle. Method B was to wind the foot up tight against your butt. The later is definitely better.
2. Don't start moving the shoulders back before pivoting the hips.
3. Don't crunch the shoulders inwards in an effort to bring up the kicking new.

So after spending some time thinking on this I believe that method "A" in item #1 contributes to a multitude of sins when performing this kick. As you bring your knee upwards with the leg hanging underneath it you are sending your momentum in a pendulum arc towards the target. Instead with method "B" your foot is tucked tight under you and shoots out straight towards the target. This directs your energy directly into the target all the way from the beginning of the wind up.

Secondly I think method "A" is more likely to have you pivot early around your hips and move your shoulders backwards past your center of gravity (CG) before your kick. Try it out. The faster you bring that new up the more your shoulders want to lean backwards. If your aware of this you might compensate by crunching down in our abs which causes you to curl the back and shoulders inwards. Now try method "B" you can engage your core from the start of the kick and bring the leg under your bum than as you extend the kick outwards and through the target the hips will pivot (see photo). Notice the nice flat plane of the back and shoulders down. Ah if my kick only looked this good!

Last item is in the pull back. I noticed that I would start dropping my knee early and this caused my foot to swing down. Instead my knee needs to remain high during the complete pull back. I think dropping the knee causes the snap back to slow down and what happens if I need to double kick. Hhhmmm...

One last thing to play with. Bring your knee up to method "A" now try and engage your hamstrings and calf muscles. Now do the same with method "B". Quite a difference.

Well I will play around with this kick for a month or two and see what comes of it.