Kicking moveset for poor internal hip rotation and lowback issues

[Fungus]

I do make up for much of my degrading physical abilities with good form, experience and sneakiness. I’m actually super satisfied with where I’m at and still believe I have much to learn and the ability to do so. My advice to you, is to train smartly and become very good at what you CAN do. Enjoy the journey.

Thanks, I have heard similar advice from senior instructors, to work with what you've got and perfect it, it's encouraging to hear this from more people. Indeed I can see that isntructors has an amazine sense of dynamic movement in fighting that always amazes me. They don't jump around, but but move just at the right time in the right direction, so they don't have to block, as they are gone in time. I presume it's ALOT of expereince there for me to acquire to get there.

 

[Cri70]

I found that one of the challenges is to find out my own optimal fighting style and strategy that suits my physiology and limitations. I am curious how others solve the same problem?

I have
- low back issues with a nerve jam, and poor flexbility for high kicks
- quite good external hip rotation, but at the expenseve of poor internal hip rotation - this is confirmed by physioterapeut test

Means I have problems with jodan kicks, an in particular mawashi geri.
Mawashi geri in general is also tricky, but gedan and low chudan is doable.
Same issue with ushiro mawashi.

I thought for a long time i was doing it wrong, but not I realized, that I simply can't do it, due ot constraints of hip mobility (and in part due to low flexibility).
Flexibility cna be trained, but I thik hip mobility is more about innate anatomy.

Combination of high kicks and inernal rotation I just can't do, and I probably need to live it it.
Due to my hip bias, I find it much more natural for me todo uchi mawashi geri, or spinning crescent kick, or soto gedan or chudan kakato geri also suits my hips.

So my best chance to pull off a head kick with be either tobi geri front kick, uchi mawashi or spinning uschi mawashi (Iove that kick).

In particular do i windoer about power generation of spinning uchi mawashi geri vs ushiro mawashi. It would first of all be haisoku vs heel. Clearly the heel would be better, but which one would you say is faster, and less telegraphing? for chudan I have good enough external hip rotation to do this kcik not as a keage but more asa 45 upwards shin kick. So it is a pretty decent liver kick.

Anyone in the same situation, what do you focus on? I'm doing kyokushin, and is far from my 20s or even 30s or even 40s But this is fun and I want to develop based on my limitations.

Curious to learn about how others deal with this!!

Old thread, but being in my early 50s I get what you mean.

A couple things: your body is eminently adaptable. Obviously not so if you have a bone issue - it doesn't go away - but flexibility is otherwise _really_ easy to train. All you need is consistency - the hardest currency of all in our world. For example, I've never been as flexible as I am now because for the first time in my life a few years back began to focus on it, and try to separate the ******** from the stuff that works (which is definitely easier than for karate!).
For example a "nerve jam" isn't a thing: it's just the result of not doing movements that train and maintain the ability of the nerves to slide when they need to. In most cases such capacity is not lost: it is just untrained. When I began stretching, my left leg sciatic nerve was definitely a little out of training. After a few weeks, I didn't feel it at all. I can do a 170 degrees split and I know well that the main reason I haven't got to 180 is that I dont practice as diligently as I could. I never thought I could - until I found 80% of is a technique thing as opposite to "not being flexible" as I thought for decades, and the remaining 20% is... do it every day or second day, a millimeter at a time.

I am not belittling in any way what you wrote, just saying that our limits as a human being - even with some minor issues - are often much higher than we are prone to believe.
As for the high kicks, they aren't really karate so you can avoid them Just kidding, but again I discovered that the most important bit in any kick is the flexibility in bringing your knee as up as you can (and, for practical application, the speed with which you can do that). The same way you whip your punches, you gotta whip your leg, only it's the buttocks and the abs doing the job as opposite as the lats. And the legs are way heavier so it does take much longer!

Again, what I am saying is: research the technique. You may find that there's something you're missing and gives you a "aha" moment (as when I discovered I had zero problems kicking higher than my head - and I was just trying it wrong earlier).

And if you don't.. kick low. As someone said a long time ago, to know ten thousand things, know one well.

Best of luck!

 

[HighKick]

I found that one of the challenges is to find out my own optimal fighting style and strategy that suits my physiology and limitations. I am curious how others solve the same problem?

I have
- low back issues with a nerve jam, and poor flexbility for high kicks
- quite good external hip rotation, but at the expenseve of poor internal hip rotation - this is confirmed by physioterapeut test

Means I have problems with jodan kicks, an in particular mawashi geri.
Mawashi geri in general is also tricky, but gedan and low chudan is doable.
Same issue with ushiro mawashi.

I thought for a long time i was doing it wrong, but not I realized, that I simply can't do it, due ot constraints of hip mobility (and in part due to low flexibility).
Flexibility cna be trained, but I thik hip mobility is more about innate anatomy.

Combination of high kicks and inernal rotation I just can't do, and I probably need to live it it.
Due to my hip bias, I find it much more natural for me todo uchi mawashi geri, or spinning crescent kick, or soto gedan or chudan kakato geri also suits my hips.

So my best chance to pull off a head kick with be either tobi geri front kick, uchi mawashi or spinning uschi mawashi (Iove that kick).

In particular do i windoer about power generation of spinning uchi mawashi geri vs ushiro mawashi. It would first of all be haisoku vs heel. Clearly the heel would be better, but which one would you say is faster, and less telegraphing? for chudan I have good enough external hip rotation to do this kcik not as a keage but more asa 45 upwards shin kick. So it is a pretty decent liver kick.

Anyone in the same situation, what do you focus on? I'm doing kyokushin, and is far from my 20s or even 30s or even 40s But this is fun and I want to develop based on my limitations.

Curious to learn about how others deal with this!!

Welcome to almost everyone's world. We all have some sort of limitation.
Keep working and create a measurement to compare your progression.
Oh, and keep working. Then work some more.

 

[Fungus]

Old thread, but being in my early 50s I get what you mean.

A couple things: your body is eminently adaptable. Obviously not so if you have a bone issue - it doesn't go away - but flexibility is otherwise _really_ easy to train.

Yes, I actually think there is a back/bone issue, and I am slowly thinking that while I can do thinkgs to ease it, I will have to live with it, and it will not go away. There are some things, that I simply should avoid as i KNOW things get worse then. Even some deep stance postures gives me pain. It's not that I can't do it, I can, I have full muscle strenght, BUT if I do it too much, or for a long time during a class, it will be bad. Apparently I have a "budget" of abused that is fine for my back. So I can probably kick a head one if I have to, but I can not kick head kicks 50 times during a class, it will get me.

But I still want to "develop" a fighting strategy that works for me. This is a challenge in itself, to do the best of what I have, given that we aren't 20 either!

All you need is consistency - the hardest currency of all in our world. For example, I've never been as flexible as I am now because for the first time in my life a few years back began to focus on it, and try to separate the ******** from the stuff that works (which is definitely easier than for karate!).
For example a "nerve jam" isn't a thing: it's just the result of not doing movements that train and maintain the ability of the nerves to slide when they need to. In most cases such capacity is not lost: it is just untrained.

I fear the jam may come from the in the spine, but it's not severe enough for any surgery to make sense, as such surgery has a small % chance of getting worse. They don't make such things just because I can't kick people in the head good enough The doctors would tell me, did you try not kicking people in the head?

Again, what I am saying is: research the technique. You may find that there's something you're missing and gives you a "aha" moment (as when I discovered I had zero problems kicking higher than my head - and I was just trying it wrong earlier).

I know that feeling! The holy grail for me was to make a good spinning hook or wheel kick. I just realized if I do it do hip or liver level, I can do it pretty good, at least with my right leg. The failure at head level is simply because i can't get my leg up there att that angle so the technique that works good low, fail as I raise it.

And if you don't.. kick low. As someone said a long time ago, to know ten thousand things, know one well.

Yes, good advice.

So far my plan is, as I am neither flexible nor fast as a cobra (and never will be), I try to focus on setting up power techniques with feints. So far the turning back kick to mid level or spinning leg kicks are my favourites. Feinting with powerful left hooks mostly. This I tried and it seems to work reasonably even against those of higher rank, so it feels like it works. High kicks are very risky to experienced opponents as they catch your leg. I tried some higher kicks on our instructor and he immediately catched my leg and I was on the ground fast. Here leg kicks are safer. So I realise that in order to NOT get the higher leg caught I have to kick like a cobra, and I don't! The idea though with powre kicks is that they are potential KO kicks, so if if they would start/attemp to grab the leg, they are alrady out. But this strategy is not possible to practice on friendly sparring as you don't really knock your partners out. This is for exampling spinnig back kicks to the liver or the chest. Those get you down for sure if they aren't able to evade.

Best of luck!

Thanks!