Kicking

[bart]

Does anybody regularly practice kicking within their FMA? You always see alot of handwork in FMA, but what about kicking? I'm not talking about kicking based FMA like sikaran and solefighting, but rather about eskrima/arnis/kali that practices kicking along with the punching applications and such. Anybody?

 

[dearnis.com]

It is hard not to train with kicks, but theexecution often appears sloppy. If, for example, you employ leg traps, you have a free kick on the way in. If a trap doesn't work and your hands are busy, the legs play a role.
It is work getting a hold of a video Max Pallen produced called 'Modern Arnis comes to America;' it contains a lot of back yard footage of Professor Presas in the mid 70s.
Another video worth looking at is the Dog Brothers tape on Krabi Krabong; while a Thai art it shows some interesting real-time integration of kicking with stick work.
I try to have my students work the kciks in as best they can; obviously thosewho start later in life will not devlop the same kicks as the 18-20 year olds. Why? It is not an efficent use of training time to get a 45 year old who has never done much kicking to do mid- to high-line kicks. I could get the student doing it, but for he same investment of time I could have him doing so much more instead. (Of course I have one or two students I thought would never kick at all who now routinely throw a few low-line shots in when we play.)
Chad