non telegraph kick

[Indomitable Spirit]

i was training on my own today at home trying to work on my sparring techniques. i was just throwing out kicks into the air and trying all sorts of combo's. then i started to spar with some imaginary opponent.
but what i found was that even though i can kick pretty fast when just fooling around, in sparring, however, my kicks were not fast enough. basically what i'm trying to say is that i think my kicks were too obvious and would easily be telegraphed.
for example doing a double turning kick. 1st kick to body then immediately to the head. this is good because i can do this fast once i get my legs up but when trying to catch the oponent they just telegraph it. i couldnt launch it fast enough. now to fix this problem i figured that maybe i need to just get my explosiveness much higher or am i wrong? if i am right how would one train to get more explosive to get non telegraph moves?

 

[FearlessFreep]

Use feints; false attacks to get the opponent to react to what is not really an attack (partially to keep them mentally occupied, and hopefully they will move in a way that will setup a real attack) Mix feints in with real attacks and work to make your feints as realistic as possible

Practice foot control. For example, on rear-leg kicks, I notice a lot of beginners, like myself, will shuffle a bit..usualy forward, right before the kick is launched; this telegraphs the kick before you even start, so work on being stable on your feet and kicking without unneccessary movement.

Yes, work on speed, but also use proper technique and a little smarts to confuse the enemy and not to give too much away too soon.


As to speed, this may be obvious to anyone experienced but it's something I think of a lot. Work on driving from the toe rather than just lifting the thigh/hip flexor. I find I can get my kick up a lot faster of I spring from the foot and not just lift

 

[Indomitable Spirit]

hey thanks for the advise . when you say drive from the toe do you mean kicking by not lifting the knee as much and concentrate on bringing the foot up faster..sort of? because i think that mite work. and the feints, yeah i have to concentrate on making them look real.

thanks.

 

[Zepp]

Freep's given some good advice. Here's a bit more:

Kicks from your rear leg will always be telegraphed somewhat, so they either need to be set up, or you need to catch your opponent with them while they're focusing on the wrong part of your body. If I think my sparring partner has gone into "tunnel vision mode" I love throwing a 45-degree roundhouse kick, from my back leg to their chin, as a wake-up call.

Don't forget to work on lead-leg kicks. You've probably already seen sidekicks and roundhouses done off the lead-leg with a cross-step, but they're much faster when done with a sliding step instead. Ask your instructor to show you how to do sliding kicks if he/she hasn't already.

 

[Zepp]

when you say drive from the toe do you mean kicking by not lifting the knee as much and concentrate on bringing the foot up faster..sort of?

I think by "driving from the toe" Freep meant using the pivoting action of your supporting foot to drive the kick. (If that's not what he meant, then I'm confused too.)

 

[Indomitable Spirit]

so the idea is to distract them right? and keep their focus away from the leg i'm gonna strike with. for example if i threw a backfist and quickly did a roundhouse or something? am i along the right lines?
oh yeah and about that tunnel vision i heard someone talking about that before but what does it mean?
yeah the pivoting action makes sense now.

thanks guys

 

[Zepp]

so the idea is to distract them right? and keep their focus away from the leg i'm gonna strike with. for example if i threw a backfist and quickly did a roundhouse or something? am i along the right lines?

That's the right idea.

oh yeah and about that tunnel vision i heard someone talking about that before but what does it mean?

Tunnel vision simply means focusing your vision on something in front of you, and not allowing yourself to see whatever else would normally be in your field of vision. As if you were staring through a small tunnel.

 

[Indomitable Spirit]

yeah i see now. so when they go into tunnel vision does it look like they are daydreaming or just looking directly infront?

 

[TX_BB]

I'm sorry if I have miss understood the question but, if you are trying to eliminate your telegraphs the first thing I'd do is borrow or rent a Video Camera and record both your sparring sessions and the first 3 techniques you use most often in sparring. Watch these tapes after time has elapsed and critque yourself. Generally fighters have bad habbits that just need to be cleaned up and this is a process just like rinse, lather, repeat....

 

[FearlessFreep]

I think by "driving from the toe" Freep meant

I meant springing from the kicking foot, using the toes/ball of the foor to launch of the floor. Really being concious of using the kicking foot to launch the knee forward, rather than just liftin the leg up from above (with the hip flexor and quad), driving it from below with the toes, ball, calves. Yes you will left with the quad and hip flexor, but if you start it from the toe, you wil get a faster spring and put less wear on your quads/hips, meaning you will stay stronger, longer into a match.

Try this: Stand in walking stance. Now, keep you front foot perfecty flat, parallel to the ground. Lift your leg up to knee about waist high. Do this 10, 20, 50 times or more, just to feel what your leg has to do to lift itself. Now, stand in the same stance but instead of keeping your foor flat, push your toes/ball of foot downward with force as you lift your leg. This gets the calf invovled (as the calf muscle will pull the heel which is what drives the toes down) You will this a lot easier to do, driving with the foot up instead of just lift with the quad/hip, and you'll be able to get your knee up faster and not get fatigued as soon.

THe more I remember to spring off the kicking foot to really drive the kicking knee up quickly, the faster and more powerfully I can kick.

oh yeah and about that tunnel vision i heard someone talking about that before but what does it mean?

Well, basically, if the opponent is staring to intently at your hips, looking for movememnt, come from a direction they don't expect. For example, if they are watching you expecting a rear side roundhouse, instead of turning in for the roundhouse, turn out and throw a spinning back kick. This shouldn't catch someone paying attention, but may catch someone off guard, but could catch someone who's lulled into a certain expectation.

Ideally, you want your eyes kinda pointed towards the center of the dobock/hogu (solar pexus) cause most movement wil realy start their, but you don't want to focus too much, keep your eyes 'wide' in that your peripheral vision can pick up hip and shoulder movment (all sides equally)

Another thing to try is to do a quick switch stance right before kicking; can catch them not expecting an attack as you swicth (but you need to laucnh the rear-leg kick immediately as your foot touches. Basicaly the switch stances changes your orientation and before you opponent can think, react, you use the momentum of the switch to drive off the rear foot for the kick, so it's important to do it quickly.

I know this doesn't realy answer your initial question much of kicking more explosivey, but there are a lot of ways (feints, swictch stances, fake kicks, not moving uneccessarily) that can obscure your real attack

 

[MJS]

Seeing that this is a double kick, you may want to try throwing a few kicks to the body to set up the kick to the head. Get them thinking that you're just going to the body and fire one up to the head.

Like anything, being effective in the ring takes time.

You've already received some great advice. Keep up the hard work! :asian:

Mike

 

[FearlessFreep]

I actually (and take my advice with a huge block of salt because I'm still a beginner) use a double kick with no intention of the first one even scoring, simply because if it's quick, they will block the first one and that will open them up for the second. The first is a decoy

 

[Indomitable Spirit]

thanks for the advise guys! this is really helpful and i'm already seeing how this can work out for me. fearless freep thanks for explaining what you meant about driving from the toe and for the focus point. i'm always looking at the opponents hips lol! but its more about trickery by making them think certain things from what you guys have told me. i dont need to have explosiveness!

thanks.

 

[Zepp]

You're welcome spirit. But make sure you keep working on speed and power (explosiveness) as well.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Agreed, a lot of this conversation has been based on ways of using what you have smarter, more strategically, but everything will work better if it is faster and more powerful, so be sure to work both aspects, the mental (tactics and strategy) and the physical (power and speed)

 

[Miles]

I'm sorry if I have miss understood the question but, if you are trying to eliminate your telegraphs the first thing I'd do is borrow or rent a Video Camera and record both your sparring sessions and the first 3 techniques you use most often in sparring. Watch these tapes after time has elapsed and critque yourself. Generally fighters have bad habbits that just need to be cleaned up and this is a process just like rinse, lather, repeat....

This is great advice! In this technological age, you can get a digital camera/video camera for less than $100-I got one at Target and then bought a better memory card for like $30. Hearing someone telling you what you are doing wrong is nothing like seeing it on video.

Miles

 

[greyghost]

I am a definite "kicker" in sparring. I use a mirror to fix my telegraphs at first, breaking it all down to find flaws. Then I turn to the heavy bag plus the mirror to see the kick is still concealed at first when applied with "wheit" behind it. This way I can see right away what I am doing and fix it.

The suggestions involving lead-leg slip kicks are great.

And of course, repetition, repetition, repetition. Speed is a by-product all that repetition.