most useless

[tshadowchaser]

How about the split kick
you know the one where you jump between two opponents and kick both at the same time.
for my this might have worked at 20 but not at my age now

 

[rmclain]

Simple flying jumping sidekick, like your opponet is just going to stand there while you come running at him and jump with that foot going right at him, please the movies are great but this kick is worthless and yet it get tought by everyone except me but my students learn it from vido games and movies.

Yes, I don't think it has much use either, maybe very rare situations.

I actually had this attempted against me when I was a teenager. I was fighting two guys between a community center and dentist office (grass alleyway). Next thing I knew, I heard a "Yaahhh," and out of my peripheral vision came another guy (friend of theirs) running at me then jumping into a flying side kick. I sidestepped and held my arm out. The guy's kicking leg caught on my arm and he dropped on his head on the grass. He didn't continue after that.

R. McLain

 

[FearlessFreep]

Be honest, how many if you secretly wish these kicks were more practical? I mean who wouldn't want to fend off the biker gang from the young lady with a spinning hook to the gang leader's jaw followed up with a double front kick to his two lieutenants before the rest of them scatter before your awesome aerial kicks??

 

[MA-Caver]

Be honest, how many if you secretly wish these kicks were more practical? I mean who wouldn't want to fend off the biker gang from the young lady with a spinning hook to the gang leader's jaw followed up with a double front kick to his two lieutenants before the rest of them scatter before your awesome aerial kicks??

Yep, it'd impress the young lady alright. :uhyeah:

Unless of course she is the girlfriend of the biker gang leader who just happened to be in the middle of an argument with her old man and YOU decide to interpret it as an attempted kidnapping ("get on the bike dammit!" "NO! Leave me alone!!" ) and jump in with your superkicks... way to go fella.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Be honest, how many if you secretly wish these kicks were more practical? I mean who wouldn't want to fend off the biker gang from the young lady with a spinning hook to the gang leader's jaw followed up with a double front kick to his two lieutenants before the rest of them scatter before your awesome aerial kicks??

Yep, it'd impress the young lady alright. :uhyeah:

Unless of course she is the girlfriend of the biker gang leader who just happened to be in the middle of an argument with her old man and YOU decide to interpret it as an attempted kidnapping ("get on the bike dammit!" "NO! Leave me alone!!" ) and jump in with your superkicks... way to go fella.

Being one that use to hang out in biker bars in my misbegotten youth... it is stuff like this that could get one seriously hurt.

A spinning hook to the gang leader's jaw followed up with a double front kick to his two lieutenants.

Who then all stand there staring at you and say "now you've mad us mad"...or pull out their 45s or 38s or 44mags

But it sure is the stuff of a real cool movie scene

 

[girlbug2]

The big problem with the horseback theory.... horse are tall, you'd have to be clearing 6 feet and kicking at 8 feet. Those Okinawans / Koreans aren't the tallest people on the planet either. I just can't see someone kicking a person off a horse.

Actually, if it was invented in modern times it could be explained as a kick invented to knock somebody off of a motorcycle

 

[StuartA]

Simple flying jumping sidekick, like your opponet is just going to stand there while you come running at him and jump with that foot going right at him, please the movies are great but this kick is worthless and yet it get tought by everyone except me but my students learn it from vido games and movies.

Agreed, the only way that kick could work is that if you're on a first strike mood and your opponent has got their back turned to you and is wearing IPODS blaring out music.

I beg to differ! Having used it in a real SD enviroment to protect someone else when they were attacked (and thus had to cover ground first) I can testify that a. It has its place b. It worked very well!

Stuart

 

[tshadowchaser]

All right we have a different thought on the kick. that is good

so what would your most useless kick be

 

[igillman]

My most useless kicks are anything above waist height because, for me, they have no power behind them. I can kick up to shoulder height but by then I might just as well tap them on the shoulder as both the tap and the kick have the same force behind them.

 

[YoungMan]

I think it should be pointed out: Just because a kick doesn't work for one person doesn't mean it's useless. Those who criticize high and jumping kicks have never been on the receiving end of one done correctly.
There are kicks you are less likely to use, but all have their place.

 

[igillman]

Just for the record, my post above said "My useless kicks". I was not saying that all high kicks are useless, just "my" high kicks.

 

[TKDTony2179]

Useless in a real fight situation, I'm assuming. This kick wasn't taught to me but to a couple other, more talented students - an upside-down jumping spin kick.

I think pushing your ability to control your body in time and space and make it do extraordinary things has value ... but I just can't see using this IRL ... unless you're fighting Spiderman or your opponent is hanging from a fire escape ladder or chandelier or something.

How in the world could someone do that??

 

[TKDTony2179]

Simple flying jumping sidekick, like your opponet is just going to stand there while you come running at him and jump with that foot going right at him, please the movies are great but this kick is worthless and yet it get tought by everyone except me but my students learn it from vido games and movies.

Would work only if you are about 2 feet in front of them and they are winded or you do it after a evade. Then some may call it just a jump side kick.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Depends on what you expect the flying sidekick to accomplish. If you see TKD as nothing more than a sport, then I will agree that a flying side kick is unlikely to score, in most common matches. But if you see TKD as a Martial Art, then I disagree. A flying sidekick or a full turning back kick or any of several other kicks that generate phenomenal amounts of power can be used in a self defense situation. I've thrown the full turning back kick several times in sparring situations and the most common result is that even if you block them, there's a good chance you're going to be sitting down, or at least wildly off balance. And when there's no referee to stop things, there's a pretty good chance that this will give me an opportunity to finish the fight.

And I can't believe I'm joining in on this zombie resurrection. :rofl:

 

[TKDTony2179]

Oh see, now this is an easy one. It would be the "snake kick".

Now since most people have never heard of such a thing when I have spoken of this before, please allow me to descibe a "snake kick" as it was taught to my daughter many years ago. Please feel free to follow along at home.

From a fighting position, raise your front leg so that your thigh is horizontal to the ground and your calf is vertical (IE, not chambere for a kick).

Now, from your knee down, swing your calf left to right like a pendulum.

Assuming you are working with your right leg here, now when you foot is as far left as you can take it, begin a kick towards an opponant that is in front of you, as if you are going to kick the right side of their chest. Then as you are kicking you will make sort of a backwards S motion and bringing your leg back to your right, their left while continuing to lift higher then back to your left, ultimately kicking your opponent in the left side of their head.

How's that for not only useless, but dangerous as well unless you don't really care much about doing serious damage to your knees.

Shortly before we left our 1st dojang, where my daughter was taught this kick, we were at a compeititon. I was coaching her, because quite frankly by this point I had a much better grasp of Olympic style sparring than did any of her instructors from this school. They all kinda chuckled at me when I sat down in the coaches chair, but they all stood around the ring to watch her fight. She destroyed her opponent with a final score of something along the lines of 15-2 or something like that. When the fight was over, the only thing any of her instuctors had to say was "That wasn't bad, but I noticed she didn't even do 1 snake kick."

Within 2 months we had found a new school.

I had to get on youtube to see what you was talking about because you lost me with the not chambered kick part. Are you talking about this kick?

If so then yea for most peope the twist kick(snake kick) is one of the most unnatural kick to do and does take training and flexibality to do. I usally start my kick as a round kick chamber and then swing it into a twist. Usefullness more than likely no higher than waist high aimed at the groin. But to each is his own.

 

[TKDTony2179]

OK, here is a quick demo of a z-kick.

http://r4h-music.com/movies/mymovie2.mov

Bare in mind I just started the recorder and didn't set this up as a demo, just trying to illustrate something to you guys here.

This is not a kick I know well or do well or practice much or have ever tried in sparring or anything, so you can extrapolate from my basic mechanics and motions what's supposed to be happening, but don't take it seriously as a good example of the kick.

I know some people who can do it well (fast and powerful) and have used it effectively in sparring so I know it can be effective in context, but it seems to me to be a very 'gimmicky' kick with little practical use.

Can't pull up that link

 

[RTKDCMB]

The big problem with the horseback theory.... horse are tall, you'd have to be clearing 6 feet and kicking at 8 feet. Those Okinawans / Koreans aren't the tallest people on the planet either. I just can't see someone kicking a person off a horse.

Maybe they are not jumping from the ground level but are jumping off a hill or rocky outcropping or the riders are riding very short horses.

 

[RTKDCMB]

I think it should be pointed out: Just because a kick doesn't work for one person doesn't mean it's useless.

A kick that doesn't work for someone is useless to THEM.

 

[RTKDCMB]

I vote for twisting kick and crescent kicks. Great for training, useless in combat.....

Not really. Twisting kicks can be used to attack the groin when the attacker is side on and thinks it can't be reached. It can be used on someone who is attempting to sneak up behind you or if you are doing a front kick and they move to the outside so you can change it to the twisting kick. You can use it to kick around an object such as a pole. It is not the most powerful kick but it can take them by surprise so you can follow up with something more powerful. Crescent kicks, aimed high, leave you groin vulnerable, but used as a sweep they can be very effective. They can be used to knock away someones guard or knock a blunt object out of someones hand (risky but can work if you surprise them and are very quick). You can use one to knock someone out after doubling someone over with a front kick (essentially a mid section kick so less risky). There any number of possible uses for both kicks so I think calling them useless for combat is a bit harsh.

 

[RTKDCMB]

I would say, any heel kick that kicks with the ball of the foot instead of the heel and the rapid fire turning kicks, such as in the video below, that keep 'turning up' in TKD demo's, they have no power and waste a lot of unnecessary energy for little return.