The Karate "Chop" and other "underrated" technques?

[RTKDCMB]

I'd rather have a cut foot than a knife in the stomach. Anyway you're wearing shoes so it wouldn't do much damage.

If you cut your foot and don't succeed in disarming the knife you could have both.

 

[Buka]

I f you're a kicker, like a lot of guys here are, that kick probably isn't your go to in times of real danger. Sure it's okay, but if you were being pressed it's not what you would initially think of to rip a guy in half. At least not a guy who moves into kicks.

You guys that can really kick would have field day sparring me (and mine). I would be so dead I'd be sleeping in a chair covered in ice. But there's no way that kick would ever come close to landing. Too easy to jam, block, evade, dump, take down, get under - just turn against the kicker. Don't get me wrong, I teach that kick too. As I do every kick. But when you're a fighter, and truly learn kicking - that's one you learn to take advantage of real fast.

I've been hit by exactly one of those in forty years of fighting. And I'm talking about guys who like to throw them.

As for throwing it against a knife attack...might be a good idea to practice that against someone who doesn't train in your dojo.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

The idea is to make it more out and back, to a tight, heel under butt, position; so that you can gauge, a controlled step, as a landing.

I'd have to see that - it doesn't actually sound like the same mechanics as the way I was taught the kick. Which may mean it's a different kick, or it may be why my kick feels so weak.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I'd have to see that - it doesn't actually sound like the same mechanics as the way I was taught the kick. Which may mean it's a different kick, or it may be why my kick feels so weak.

I'm not a fan, of them but it would look like a front kick that went panoramic.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I'd have to see that - it doesn't actually sound like the same mechanics as the way I was taught the kick. Which may mean it's a different kick, or it may be why my kick feels so weak.

The crescent knee strike is an under rated tech. It is the pre-crescent kick.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I'm not a fan, of them but it would look like a front kick that went panoramic.

That's an image I may be able to work from. I'll tinker a bit with taking my front kick into it, rather than starting it as its own kick.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

The crescent knee strike is an under rated tech. It is the pre-crescent kick.

Hmm...I'm not picturing that, at all, unless you're rotating your body through for the knee? Just to clarify, what we call a "Crescent" kick comes up one side (usually about shoulder-width between sides), across on a short arc, then down on the other side - we stay facing front for the entire kick. This is always done outside-to-inside (so right leg moves right-to-left). I'm not picturing that, at all, with a knee.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Hmm...I'm not picturing that, at all, unless you're rotating your body through for the knee? Just to clarify, what we call a "Crescent" kick comes up one side (usually about shoulder-width between sides), across on a short arc, then down on the other side - we stay facing front for the entire kick. This is always done outside-to-inside (so right leg moves right-to-left). I'm not picturing that, at all, with a knee.

Well, you just knee to one side, and swing it like you are swinging a bat. We have one technique, where he is bent over and you are behind him. You start a crescent, hit the knee, swing up, hit the groin, and check the opposite leg, in one swing.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Well, you just knee to one side, and swing it like you are swinging a bat. We have one technique, where he is bent over and you are behind him. You start a crescent, hit the knee, swing up, hit the groin, and check the opposite leg, in one swing.

AH! I thought you were using the knee, not striking the knee! Much clearer that way.

 

[JP3]

I'm not a fan, of them but it would look like a front kick that went panoramic.

Roger that. In TKD I had developed a set of front leg kicks which I used, after I'd watched the Bill Wallace videos way too much (about how he concealed which kick he was doing by chambering all 3 of his kicks the same way, which I never was able to do), but it did start to work after a few years of actually paying attention to it. I had what I called a snap outer crescent kick which went sort of like this: The mechanics in the leg itself (not hips or foot) worked exactly as a high front kick which I'd throw at the opponent's opposite shoulder area, depending on how they held their hand guard. As the kick would snap, I'd also fire a snap-twitch of my hip flexors and leg abductors to flare the kick (describing a right leg kick here) from my left to my right. At the same time, my support leg would drive forward and intot he opponent, sometimes describing the skip-in hop seen in TKD people. When I'd get the best effect is when the blade edge of my foot would catch the opponent under the jawline, while rising. My buddies described it as being caught by an uppercut, but delivering the kick didn't feel like that at all, it felt like I was slapping their face with my foot, inside to out.

My own Inner crescent, almost exclusively to convert to Axe once over what I was interested in hitting, which was usually collarbone. Big leg, big weight on structure, typically operated to drive them to a knee. Glad groin strikes weren't legal, as a certain target area was literally open right there, as it were. The thought makes me cringe, now. Bad habit that. "Here! Punch This!"

It is interesting to me that, as I was converting my TKD/HKD background into full-contact Muay Thai, learning the knee strikes (yeah Gerry, there's a method of turning the hips while a rising knee describes the same arc of a crescent kick which you can use to deliver knee-to-rib strikes), the crescent kicks just... disappeared. At the "end" of that 5 years-ish, my kick arsenal which I actually used had dropped significantly. No more just trying to "score." Nope, now it was "Hit, and hit hard, so they can't hit you back." So, crescent kicks went away, but the front snap stayed, in addition to MT's own push-style front kick, spinning heel stayed, but the spinning wheel kick didn't. TKD style roundhouse kick went Poof, but the MT style of shin striking surface round kick got a huge portion of training and use time... and was hardly ever delivered above the hip socket, most often from the lower portion of the quadricepts down. Think on that TKD people. It was definitely a change of style. Went from headhunter kicker to a guy who eliminates the opponent's foundation.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Hmm...I'm not picturing that, at all, unless you're rotating your body through for the knee? Just to clarify, what we call a "Crescent" kick comes up one side (usually about shoulder-width between sides), across on a short arc, then down on the other side - we stay facing front for the entire kick. This is always done outside-to-inside (so right leg moves right-to-left). I'm not picturing that, at all, with a knee.

On a related note, to what we are talking about, our school teaches the round house punch, as a straight punch, with some tricky footwork, so that you can go around the guard.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

On a related note, to what we are talking about, our school teaches the round house punch, as a straight punch, with some tricky footwork, so that you can go around the guard.

I'd like to see that. Not a "roundhouse punch" in my vocabulary, but still sounds interesting, and on the receiving end would carry some of the characteristics of a roundhouse.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I'd like to see that. Not a "roundhouse punch" in my vocabulary, but still sounds interesting, and on the receiving end would carry some of the characteristics of a roundhouse.

Try it yourself. Just before throwing a punch off the lead hand, take your rear foot straight to the right (on the ball of your foot) , turn and face as you do a straight punch; so, you start facing 12:00, rear cross-over, to end up facing 10:30.

 

[O'Malley]

It kind of sounds like what my Kajukenbo sifu used to call the "Filipino hook punch" or at least the application would be similar.

Basically the punch is done either with the lead or rear hand, you keep your fist vertical and you make a circular movement to the inside, moving parallel to the ground, like using a big, imaginary coffee grinder.

It looks and feels halfway between a straight and an ordinary long hook punch. It actually is a very intriguing technique, I'd like to try it out more in sparring but the times I did land it were when I stepped to the outside like you described. That's also the way the instructors did it.

 

[Touch Of Death]

And, on a related note, spinning back kicks are just back kicks, precede by a reverse close-kneel.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Try it yourself. Just before throwing a punch off the lead hand, take your rear foot straight to the right (on the ball of your foot) , turn and face as you do a straight punch; so, you start facing 12:00, rear cross-over, to end up facing 10:30.

Which side are you starting forward, when you say step to the right? (We don't always stand with the same side forward, so it's ambiguous when I read it.)

 

[Touch Of Death]

Which side are you starting forward, when you say step to the right? (We don't always stand with the same side forward, so it's ambiguous when I read it.)

Right foot forward, right hand punching, left leg steps to the right, and up the circle.

 

[Headhunter]

Another thing the chop is great for is a bit to the bicep if you can time it right. I used it a lot in my kickboxing and mma sparring and I remember in one fight I used and the guy started complaining to the ref that it was illegal lol. Just to note that wasn't a proper chop because of the glove but It was the same mechanics

 

[drop bear]

I never cared for the crescent kick, but I have to say that the version I'm learning in Capoeira seems much more effective than what I've seen elsewhere. I've still got a lot of work to do before it catches up to the rest of my arsenal though.

The capo is hips forward which gives it a bit extra pep. (ok this could also be a front kick i cant tell for sure.)

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Right foot forward, right hand punching, left leg steps to the right, and up the circle.

Thanks.