Are there examples of large stocky guys like me pulling off acrobatic kicks?

[Ironbear24]

Recently a TKD guy came to our dojo as he is a friend of many people there and likes to work on his hands here with some of us. He openly admits often that they he doesn't get enough at his dojo, I commend him for doing this and hope he does join us eventually but that is not the point of this thread.

He is a small guy around 5'6 and 140 pounds. He is able to fly through the air with amazing 540 and 720 jump kicks and when he tried showing me and a couple of other guys the steps to do them. We failed pretty hilariously, one guy even fell on his face and I am not sure how figured out how to pull that one off. I myself had the basic steps more or less down, but when it came to putting them all together, I could barely get what felt like 2 inches off the floor and the kick didn't happen at all.

Our Sifu can do them, but I suppose that is from all the practice he has had in other fighting styles. Anyway what I am asking is would it be practical for me to learn these or leave the flying to the birds?

 

[Dirty Dog]

Recently a TKD guy came to our dojo as he is a friend of many people there and likes to work on his hands here with some of us. He openly admits often that they he doesn't get enough at his dojo, I commend him for doing this and hope he does join us eventually but that is not the point of this thread.

He is a small guy around 5'6 and 140 pounds. He is able to fly through the air with amazing 540 and 720 jump kicks and when he tried showing me and a couple of other guys the steps to do them. We failed pretty hilariously, one guy even fell on his face and I am not sure how figured out how to pull that one off. I myself had the basic steps more or less down, but when it came to putting them all together, I could barely get what felt like 2 inches off the floor and the kick didn't happen at all.

Our Sifu can do them, but I suppose that is from all the practice he has had in other fighting styles. Anyway what I am asking is would it be practical for me to learn these or leave the flying to the birds?

Practical? Those kicks are not practical, ever. While it might be possible to land one in sparring in exceptionally rare occasions, using the word "practical" to describe them is just silly. And effective? Nope. There's really not much power in these gymnastic moves.
You failed not because of your size, but because you're not a kicker, really. I recall your kicking videos, and I would say this falls into the "walk before you run" category.

Possible, sure. But practical? Nope. Not really.

 

[Ironbear24]

Hey my kicking has gotten much better since then, but thanks for the videos. Here is another question I have, why are these kicks taught at all if they are not practical. I believe you that they aren't practical and that was the wrong word for me to use. I guess the phrase would be "Would it be worth my time trying to learn how to do these kicks?"


I have never seen the guy use them in sparring either lol. .

 

[Andrew Green]

Sammy Hung did some pretty cool stuff, and he's not exactly thin.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Hey my kicking has gotten much better since then, but thanks for the videos. Here is another question I have, why are these kicks taught at all if they are not practical. I believe you that they aren't practical and that was the wrong word for me to use. I guess the phrase would be "Would it be worth my time trying to learn how to do these kicks?"

Crawl... walk... run...

I have never seen the guy use them in sparring either lol. .

And you're likely to win the lottery before you do.

They're taught for lots of reasons. They look impressive (you were obviously impressed). They promote agility, athleticism, and balance. Gymnastics can be fun.

I do not encourage students to spend time on these kicks. If someone really wants to learn, I will teach them, but I stress how impractical and un-useful they really are. We do have one student (a 1st geup) who enjoys this sort of thing. I encourage her to spend the majority of her time on more useful techniques.

 

[drop bear]

People have been knocked out with flying kicks. Some fighters have kind of trade marked them.

It depends what works for you.

So i would say definitely practice them. And if you can. Find a guy who can pull them off and find out how he does it.

 

[Dirty Dog]

People have been knocked out with flying kicks. Some fighters have kind of trade marked them.

He's not talking about a flying kick. He's talking about stuff like this:

Please, show me examples of people using this against another person.

 

[ShawnP]

LOL "i think i broke my ***"

oopps, sorry didnt know i couldnt type that.

 

[drop bear]

He's not talking about a flying kick. He's talking about stuff like this:

Please, show me examples of people using this against another person.

On the phone at the moment so no videos.
There was a Fijian guy called the head hunter who was known for a spinning kick ko. That almost killed people.

Peter graham known for his rolling thunder.

The capoera ko guy.

In mma. People have spinning flying and jump kicked off walls succesfully.

 

[Dirty Dog]

On the phone at the moment so no videos.
There was a Fijian guy called the head hunter who was known for a spinning kick ko. That almost killed people.

Peter graham known for his rolling thunder.

The capoera ko guy.

In mma. People have spinning flying and jump kicked off walls succesfully.

None of which have anything to do with what he's talking about. Think tricking, not kicking. Gymnastics, not martial arts.

 

[Tez3]

On the phone at the moment so no videos.
There was a Fijian guy called the head hunter who was known for a spinning kick ko. That almost killed people.

Peter graham known for his rolling thunder.

The capoera ko guy.

In mma. People have spinning flying and jump kicked off walls succesfully.

They are all kicks, what the OP is talking about aren't, it's gymnastics/tricking. Think demo's and film choreography designed to look good not be practical.

 

[Lameman]

Against an unskilled opponant, sure, why not. But realistcally, stun first then get it off quickly. Last guy to try something like that on me got power bombed into the ground. Your feet are your base, you take them off the ground against an aware opponant, consider yourself warned. Now, I have made good money kicking overhead exit signs. So, they do have their use.

 

[drop bear]

Google 540 kick ko.

 

[drop bear]

They are all kicks, what the OP is talking about aren't, it's gymnastics/tricking. Think demo's and film choreography designed to look good not be practical.

OK. 540 kick ko.

Now to have this discussion we are not talking about 1 kick.

If you bang out a 540 every time you fight then you get countered because you are predictable.

But every move is part of a package. You start to spin and for a second there they have no idea if you are going to kick punch or do something crazy. So it takes balls of steel to actively counter rather than just back pedaling.

Which means there is very good chance you will either land the kick. Or miss but still be safe.

Spinning ko compilation. They are not all tricking kicks. But that is the point. The other guy does not know what is going to happen and gets caught. And these move really injure people.

And the head hunter just because he is one scary dude.

 

[drop bear]

He's not talking about a flying kick. He's talking about stuff like this:

Please, show me examples of people using this against another person.

And because there are so many examples. Here is a tornado kick ko compilation just for you.

 

[Ironbear24]

I talked to my sifu and he said if he finds me practicing them he will be disappointed. He wants me to improve on what I already have experience in instead of doing something that I feel very uncomfortable with.

 

[drop bear]

I talked to my sifu and he said if he finds me practicing them he will be disappointed. He wants me to improve on what I already have experience in instead of doing something that I feel very uncomfortable with.

It is a pity.

Here is the thing.(and this is a life lesson)

The building blocks required to do a tornado kick is also the building blocks to doing your basics.

So you can't reasonably do tricking without having everything else improve.

And why top fighters are doing movement training these days.

 

[Ironbear24]

It is a pity.

Here is the thing.(and this is a life lesson)

The building blocks required to do a tornado kick is also the building blocks to doing your basics.

So you can't reasonably do tricking without having everything else improve.

And why top fighters are doing movement training these days.

It's not the basics I have trouble with. It's putting them all together to do the kick. We practiced each step individually and I was able to do them just fine. It's the putting them all together while jumping up in the air that is hard.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I talked to my sifu and he said if he finds me practicing them he will be disappointed. He wants me to improve on what I already have experience in instead of doing something that I feel very uncomfortable with.

Gosh, that sounds like something I would say... :rofl:

 

[Ironbear24]

Gosh, that sounds like something I would say... :rofl:

You and him would probably get along great.