most useless

[Koshiki]

Jumping kick useless?

I think one issue is not so much their combat effectiveness, but rather their lack of obvious defensiveness. A running, jumping, leaping, flying side-kick is a great way to launch yourself into an unarmed battle, or even end the battle with your opening move; but harder to work into a situation which we might reasonably consider self-defense.

In sparring games, I love jumping kicks; they're great for just blasting your way into the other guy's defense. But that's sparring, and aggressive sparring at that.

 

[RTKDCMB]

A running, jumping, leaping, flying side-kick is a great way to launch yourself into an unarmed battle, or even end the battle with your opening move; but harder to work into a situation which we might reasonably consider self-defense.

I can think of 2 off the top of my head;

1) You are being chased by a group of people, someone jumps out in front of you to stop you or slow you down, you do a flying side kick to knock him down and then keep running with little interruption.

2) You see someone getting attacked by 2 or more people you run in with a flying side kick and take one of the attacker by surprise.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

I can think of 2 off the top of my head;

1) You are being chased by a group of people, someone jumps out in front of you to stop you or slow you down, you do a flying side kick to knock him down and then keep running with little interruption.

2) You see someone getting attacked by 2 or more people you run in with a flying side kick and take one of the attacker by surprise.

I saw this done years ago. A guy had left his mate to go and get a drink (outdoor festival), upon returning he saw three guys shoving his mate around and came running in with a flying side kick and sent two of them flying and how it didnt break the back of the third guy I will never know.They both ran off leaving the three on the ground. It was hillarious and everyone around just stood there wondering what on earth had just happened.My mates and I still have a laugh about it to this day.

 

[Koshiki]

1) You are being chased by a group of people, someone jumps out in front of you to stop you or slow you down, you do a flying side kick to knock him down and then keep running with little interruption.

2) You see someone getting attacked by 2 or more people you run in with a flying side kick and take one of the attacker by surprise.

Agreed. But, I wouldn't say that either of those is obviously defensive, more preemptive, from your own personal vantage. What I mean is, in the specific interval in which person A flying kicks person B, person A must start from a position of relative disengagement from person B, and intentionally enter combat. It can, in specific circumstances such as you mention be defensive of your self, but it is pretty tricky to utilize as a defense against a realized, rather than impending attack. Re-reading what I wrote, I realize that I wrote it poorly.

Also, a situation like one, I would speculate, is relatively rare. A situation like two, would technically be more of defense of others, rather than self-defense. Defense of others is always a tricky, complicated ground, because, as you enter in defense of another, you become the assailant of the original assailants, who were not assailing you. I think, unless I wrote down to many assailants who assail the unassailed but assailing...

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On another note, I have to step in a re-iterate what always gets said in these sorts of conversations, and indeed has already been said. What works for one may not work for most! I love snapping ball-of-the-foot inverted roundhouse kicks up to the side of the head, from close, clinching range, but I'm 24 with hard-earned flexy hips. Will I still be doing those kicks in 10, 15, 20 years? I hope so, but I know it will become more and more difficult, and require more and more upkeep. On the other hand, I'm only 150 pounds, so techniques that some can do, relying on dropping your bodyweight to pull the attacker off balance, or into the wall, or whatever, often leave my feet dangling, still pinned against the wall, if I don't modify it to utilize something more than dead weight.

 

[Earl Weiss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQez4jQO81c&list=PL773A90DEAA9A50F9