As someone who used to kick a lot when sparring with the gear on, I'll lend some advise to everyone.
One of the most common ways I was able to kick people in the head had to do with where non-boxers keep their hands, where their eyes are focused, and how they block.
Modern Arnis people who are used to parrying don't usually protect themselves like a boxer, so their hands are usually positioned with one in front of the other, and often times below their jaw line. Their vision is usually focused between the eyes and shoulders triangle. They can see upper body movements fairly well, but if you know how to throw a kick without telegraphing too much with your upper body (until maybe right before impact), then this can be very decieving to them. I was often times able to hit people right in the face with my lead leg round house because they wouldn't even see it coming, and my foot would come right over their guard due to the positioning of their hands.
More on hand positioning; as a kicker, my objective was to get past their hands with my kicks to my target, or to get BEHIND THE HANDS with my kicks. I would come overtop, underneath, or in between to accomplish this. The further away their hands were from my targets (head, body) the easier it would be for me to get behind their hands. So, when the average martial arts person faught (especially from trapping systems), their hands in their guard often wandered outward, one hand before the other. They also often wandered below the jaw line. this gave me great opportunities to get behind their guard with my kick.
The third thing involves how they would block. With most people who parry, they reach out to meet the attacking limb with their hand to intercept the attack. This creates a great opportunity to fient with kicks if you are a kicker, especially if their hand and eye position is as described above. I'd throw a kick or two, maybe one high and one midrange (I would really try to hit them, and buy suprise); if they were able to parry, then this gave me an opportunity to study their parry; to learn its timing, how far out it travels to meet my kick, the start and end of his parry, and how fast it travels. I use that as a gauge; I now know when they execute their parries in relationship to the attack, how fast the parry travels, and how far out they are willing to go to meet the attack. As the kicker, the further out their parry is willing to travel, the better. So now I can throw a midlevel kick, and as their hands travel downward to parry, I change the direction of my kick and pop high. Or I aim high, then go low. It's all about timing, then, at this point.
Now, having this information, how would you defend against a kicker if you are not one yourself, especially in a geared sparring situation? There are a number of ways, but I'll address the 3 issue's above (hand positioning, eye focus, method of blocking). I'll address vision 1st. The one mistake you can't afford to make is to start looking at his legs. Kicks can become so decieving to a modern Arnis person because we don't kick high and modern arnis, so we are used to focusing our eyes on the upper body. As soon as we are facing a kicker, our instinct may be to start to focus our vision lower and lower. This is a huge mistake; if you are looking at the guys legs you will definatily get popped up top. Now, ideally with your perephials you should be able to look into the opponents eyes and see both hands and both feet. THis can be hard to do at times though. Regardless, keep your eyes up, and try to look at the whole body, not just upper, and definatily not just lower. 2nd thing would be hand positioning and blocking. As a kicker, I had the most trouble with boxing type defenses. rolling, taking impact of the blow in the arms, using arms and elbows to block the mid section, and always keeping the hands up, both hands, protecting the head. If you don't know how to move like a boxer effectively, learn. If you are sparring someone and you haven't yet learned, then I wouldn't try this. The reason why boxing type defenses are difficult for a kicker is because the objective is to get behind the guard; a difficult thing to do with a guard held as tightly to the body as a boxers. A secondary problem is that boxers don't "reach out" to meet an attack, so this is difficult to fient them. Regardless of what stance you take, position your arms closer to your body against a deceptive kicker. I'll repeat myself because it is worth repeating; kickers like to hit under, over, between, and mostly behind the arms with their feet. The closer your arms are to your body, the more difficult it is to do this. 3rd thing is your block, which is directly related to hand positioning. If you parry, don't extend too far. Remember much of your parry is how you position your body rather then the hand movement. you don't need to flail your hand WAY out to meet the attack. try to stay tight because once again, a kicker wants to get behind your hands to the target, and the tighter your parries and blocks are, the better. One final thing, remember that distance is key to pulling off effective kicks. They need the RIGHT distance to kick you. If you are too far for them to reach, this is good, but remember that they can slide in to get you. However, the closer you are, the more difficult it will be for them to kick.
I hope you all find my advise useful!
:asian:
*) Some people will argue that the kick was not properly blocked if they get a partial extension and you block with a raised shin or knee. Then again many people will cry foul if you heel check someone's ankle.
