Hook Kicks

[Em MacIntosh]

Yes or no? Heel or sole? High or low? Self defense? Competition? Sparring? How about the more powerful swing kick? I'm a big fan. Especially with heavy boots. I like the sole, for a small sacrifice in power the extra range and surface area is worth the trade. You?

 

[Brandon Fisher]

Hook Kicks to the mid section or legs in reality only if you can make it work. Not my first choice at all. Sparring you can make them work, but I use the ball / Sole of my foot depending on the damage I want to do.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I guess in sparring using the ball of the foot could minimize damage but still get the point across. I like to keep all my kicks on the street at hip or lower, almost always at the knee and shin. I usually prefer a shin-roundhouse to the legs thana hook kick for self defense but in sparring, the speed and deception of the hook kick to the head is great. I like all the striking surfaces, espeacially the heel to the thigh charley-horse.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

I use them in sparring often, but they have no place in self-defense. On the street, all kicks go to the belt and lower. Anything higher and you are breaking the "closest weapon to closest target" rule.
Hook kicking someone to the face is a waste of time. A kick to the shin or knee would take a fraction of the time.
Also, kicking someone in the face (on the street) is the equivilant of crouching down and punching the top of their foot.

AoG

 

[searcher]

Yes or no? Heel or sole? High or low? Self defense? Competition? Sparring? How about the more powerful swing kick? I'm a big fan. Especially with heavy boots. I like the sole, for a small sacrifice in power the extra range and surface area is worth the trade. You?

Yes.

Heel if I intend to do serious damage, sole if I wish to reduce damage.

I use them to the head only, but I train them a ton.

I never use the in a self-defense situation it is to risky on several fronts.

Competition I use them often.

I use them with sparring, but with the highest level of control.


I also never do them with boots on. They reduce the control and they increase the risk of personal injury. I will not use them on the street from the no kick to the head policy I have and the fact that this is the most scary kick I have ever used. The risk of doing serious irreparable damage is just to high. One slip to the temple and it can easily end their life.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

Can't argue with either of you except that I find boots give me extra momentum and stability and actually make my kicks more controlled and faster. To each his own. I espeacially agree with the kick to the head=punch to foot. One of my philosophies. However, never give up an oppertunity that presents itself.

 

[Tez3]

Can't argue with either of you except that I find boots give me extra momentum and stability and actually make my kicks more controlled and faster. To each his own. I espeacially agree with the kick to the head=punch to foot. One of my philosophies. However, never give up an oppertunity that presents itself.

Curiosity makes me ask this....do you fight in the street alot? Do you live in a rough area or do you just pop along to the rough areas for a fight? Not being funny, I have a friend to whom fighting is a stress relieving technique. He always feels better after a fight usually in a car park at the back of a pub.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I haven't been in a scrap for 5 months. The last one was the last straw and I moved. I find fighting quite stressful actually. If you'd like to know I can tell you my story. For now let's just say I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong freinds. The rest is sparring with freinds and bagwork (and karate classes,of course). Karate is more of a stress relieving activity for me. Now, out of curiosity, why do you ask?

 

[Tez3]

I haven't been in a scrap for 5 months. The last one was the last straw and I moved. I find fighting quite stressful actually. If you'd like to know I can tell you my story. For now let's just say I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong freinds. The rest is sparring with freinds and bagwork (and karate classes,of course). Karate is more of a stress relieving activity for me. Now, out of curiosity, why do you ask?

I'm probably what you would call 'nicely brought up' having a sheltered upbringing lol, I went into the TMA world which was still 'genteel', the sparring and comps were point sparring and no one fought for real anywhere. Then my current instructor arrived where I work and I joined his club ( also where I work) and I was introduced to MMA (which I love) also a whole different world! Mick my instructor has fought in all sorts of places, as do most of the MMA fighters and promoters I've met. He teaches 'real' self defence which he knows works because he's used it.
I 've met all sorts of different people, some who've been in prison, some are doormen, there's gangsters etc. these are people to whom fighting is a real thing and it's quite fascinating!
There is also the conflict between the traditional martial arts which I love and the 'real' world of fights. I know that a lot of the traditional stuff done as it would be in the Dojo simply doesn't cut it outside.
The other thing that amazes me is the sheer 'normalness' and casualness of fighting to some people!
anyway i've taken this well off topic for long enough!

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I'll tell ya more later.
As for hook kicks, what's your opinion?

 

[tshadowchaser]

Heel if I want to do a lot of damage, Sole for less damage and a little more control.
I throw them all over the place when sparring but prefer midsection or lower (my legs are not what they where at one time)
As for the street I have never used it in the street, prefering a front kick to the groin, but I quess I might if I knew it would land and hurt. I also do like turning my back in the street unless throwing someone.

 

[Ella]

I use them in sparring often, but they have no place in self-defense. On the street, all kicks go to the belt and lower. Anything higher and you are breaking the "closest weapon to closest target" rule.

Why couldn't you hook kick someone below the belt?

Say, behind the knee, to make them fall if you don't want to do a lot of damage? Or to the front of the knee if you do? It would really depend on how your facing them.

It would not be my first choice, but I don't think I would go so far as to say it has "no place in self-defense".

 

[Tez3]

I use hook kicks in trad sparring, I haven't managed to use it when MMA sparring. All my kicks are low kicks! I can't get them above the waist! Like a roundhouse/turning kick it's good on the thigh, Thai style.

 

[Hand Sword]

Yes or no? Heel or sole? High or low? Self defense? Competition? Sparring? How about the more powerful swing kick? I'm a big fan. Especially with heavy boots. I like the sole, for a small sacrifice in power the extra range and surface area is worth the trade. You?

Going by the majority definition of them (JKD uses the term to describe round house kicks, from my experience) I say No! I never liked them. I hated to practice them. I would never use them.

 

[Tez3]

Erm, I'm thinking here that maybe what you think of as a hook kick may not be what I think of as a hook kick? The way I was taught it it is a heel strike and very difficult to so using the heel. I realise i may sound totally ignorant here lol!
The way I was taught to do a hook kick is, off left stance for example, to bring back ie right leg up to do a roundhouse kick (maewashi geri) to your opponents left side (to leg if you are me, head if you aren't!) but bring your knee across more and strike with the heel to your opponents right side instead. Hope that makes sense! What's a swing kick btw or I should say what would I know it as?

 

[Chizikunbo]

I would concur with most here, in saying that they have no place in reality...funny I should say that being a Tang Soo Do guy, but this kick is not easy to pull off effectively in a controlled class environment, let alone against a crazed attacker...Maybe a good flashy kick for those of you who are big in the competition scene, but what happens in tourneys stays in tourneys
--josh

 

[Tez3]

I don't see it as being a flashy kick nor being difficult to pull off. I've never done it in TSD, I learnt it in Wado Ryu.

 

[Chizikunbo]

I don't see it as being a flashy kick nor being difficult to pull off. I've never done it in TSD, I learnt it in Wado Ryu.

Im still gonna say its flash, and not an effective kick for actual usage...that is in the korean way of doing it...I have seen the way JKD people do this and its not as bad, but still not a preferred kick of mine...

 

[Tez3]

The second picture looks quite flash I agree but it also doesn't look like the hook kick I know, the first picture is more like it. We were taught to bend the knee more though hence the hook of the name. I have to say no kick I do can ever be described as flashy lmao! I wish! I can kick the 4 year olds to the head and that's it, if I do a hook kick to the thigh ( or liver can just manage that depending of the height of who I'm fighting) of my opponent though it's as good as a roundhouse, maybe better as my heel is harder. Kicking low though is good, less chance of them missing or getting caught.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

Those pictures describe exactly what I'm talking about. I have no trouble using them in sparring. A swing kick is similar except you don't bend the knee, the kick is the same except during the impact and follow-through in which the leg stays straight. You might want to be standing up straighter to take more impact without losing your balance. Kinda like a "reverse muay thai roundhouse kick", torque your hips further than the kick and make the leg catch up. It takes a while to put a lot of force in it. It's hard to explain. Picture an axe kick at a 45 degree angle.