Kicking Speed???

[Seigi]

Hello,

Does anyone have suggestions or drills to help increase Kicking Speed?

Thank-you in advance for your replies.

[MA-Caver]

Hot peppers... eat a bunch of hot peppers and hold it in...
sorry couldn't resist.

Continually developing leg muscles help me with my speed in my art. Stretching excercises and working the muscles by running, jumping and other beneficial excercises does wonders.

That and practice lots of it. Working on your reflexes and timing.

[stickarts]

when i kicked too slow, my instructor ended up popping me! that increased my speed! LOL!

have your opponent strike at you at different speeds and distances. this will help your timing as well as kicking speed. plus drills, drills, drills....eeeerrrrrr

[maunakumu]

kick faster!!!

Seriously though, the speed comes with time and practice. The more you work your legs, the easier it will be to find where your body will let you go. My instructor would sometimes have us kick 500 times before we started class and then we would spar.

Upnorthkyosa

PS - those were the puke bucket days.

those are good answers and all fit well. Here is something you might like as well to break up the monontiny, and develop some better kickers.
Remember, speed, balance, control, muscle development, flexability, all play a part in the success of a kicker. Try doing slow kicks.
Slow slow slow. count out loud 1, 2, 3, up to 15.
Have them begin in a front stance for a front kick, begin slowly with hip alignment, raising knee up high as they can, extending foot out, lock knee and hold for 3 counts, then begin retracting in the same manner, until you reach 15. Do 3 kicks each leg to start out with, and do the same for side kick, round kick, and even back and hook kicks. I think after a few weeks of this, you will see an improvement.

I hope it helps.

bb

[Seigi]

Thank-you to everyone, these are all great tips & i will try them all. Keep them coming.

[Touch Of Death]

Imagine you are kneeing someone in the face. In fact do that knee strike in the air and on a bag. Now do that knee strike and extend the kick. You see, the first half of your kick is crucial to overall speed.
Sean

[Seigi]

i like the focus on the chambner of the knee being quicker. Thanks

[TallAdam85]

for me i work on my kicks a few sets a day like 4 sets of 15 round house it works for me

[Touch Of Death]

Originally posted by Seigi
i like the focus on the chambner of the knee being quicker. Thanks

I know a similar trick for your punches if your interested.

[Eviscerate]

I've found that ladders and sprints helped to increase my speed extremely well.

[crushing]

I think what helps you kick faster is your flexibility and the ability to relax the antogonistic muscles of the motion. For example, with a front kick (this is a very simplistic explanation because there are many more muscles involved) as your hip flexor and quads contract you want the glutes and hamstring to relax and stretch. This gets complicated because to add the snap or thrust to the front kick you muscle sets reverse during the motion.

Unless it comes very naturally, you will need to concentrate on relaxation of the antagonistic muscles during your kicking drills. Even though kicks seem pretty straighforward, you may want to break them down into components based on the active and antognistic muscle groups being used.