Spinning Hook Kicks

[Faye]

One of those flashy kicks- I don't seem to get them right, and I know I'm suppose to go back to my instructor, but can someone please give me some pointers?
My problem is I don't know at what angle do I extend the kick (the side kick motion), and when to "hook it".

When doing a right leg kick, i have my right leg in the back, pushing my left leg to spin, and I sort of execute my kick to the left of my tarket (the side kick part), and then hook it back, but it looks awkward. The thing is that it is difficult to practice spinning kicks slow....
Please advise.

 

[TigerWoman]

Hi Faye,
The spin hook or heel is the first difficult kick. It takes alot of practice, at least it did me. This is how I do it: for a right heel hook--
face right at 90° to the target - be able to extend your arm and barely touch the edge, two feet forward-pointing the same as your body is easier than a regular short stance.

Now turn your left foot to face back from the target (180°) and at the same time lift your right leg in close by the side of your leg, do a high side kick but this time your target is high and just a little to the left of the target. You kick this pretend target with your heel (your toe is pointed back past the target more than a side kick) and immediately hook while your leg is extended right into the target going across horizontally. If you lack in flexibility like most at this stage, you can bend forward a little toward the back facing away.The object is to be relaxed until the last moment of the hook when you tense. Keep your toe pointed back so you don't hit the achilles part, it should be just on the under part of your foot. Hope that helps. TW

 

[Zepp]

Faye,
Tigerwoman's advice is good, and it seems like you understand the mechanics of how to do the kick, so I think you'll get it with a little more practice. The angle to extend your leg will vary by each person, so I think it'd be wrong to give a number of degrees. You just need to feel it out. But if you want more help breaking it down, here's how I learned to do a spinning hook (along with spinning wheel kick, spinning outside crescent, etc.).

The first thing with any kind of spinning kick is that you have to get your head around first to see your target, so I make sure my head turns before the rest of my body. From there, you can practice by breaking it into steps: 1) Turn head, 2) turn body, 3) throw kick. (You just have to go through the steps fast enough to have some momentum for the kick.)

Another way is to practice with only a half-spin. Stand with your back to your target, in a fighting stance with your kicking foot forward, and go from there. It might also help to try practicing regular hook kicks. I think throwing a regular hook kick with power (by pulling your hip through) is harder than throwing a decent spinning hook.

Hope I've been helpful.

 

[the_kicking_fiend]

One of those flashy kicks- I don't seem to get them right, and I know I'm suppose to go back to my instructor, but can someone please give me some pointers?
My problem is I don't know at what angle do I extend the kick (the side kick motion), and when to "hook it".

When doing a right leg kick, i have my right leg in the back, pushing my left leg to spin, and I sort of execute my kick to the left of my tarket (the side kick part), and then hook it back, but it looks awkward. The thing is that it is difficult to practice spinning kicks slow....
Please advise.

I found this kick very difficult too at first. I actualy found it more natural to use my left leg despite being right footed. I believe this is because I'm use to spinning that way following a right legged technique. Anyway, the key to this technique is the same principle problem that many different martial artists from different arts need to pick up. I recently noticed the same problem in my recent training in bojutsu during a spinning technique, I just couldn't develop the power... at first.

The key to all of these spinning techniques is coiling the body. You must imagine your body is an elastic spring. Turn as far round as you can without doing the kick or moving your feet, doing this develops a lot of potential energy in your spring body. Then let your leg catch up with the rest of your upper body. The leg will then move very quickly round, just hold it up straight and let your twisted body do the work of moving the leg round. Since your leg is now moving so fast you will find it much easier to continue the kick all the way round to your target and finally execute the hook.

As for what angle to bring the leg up, I suggest your start out doing it very early (this is how I learned). After a lot of practise and development, I found I could execute the technique later and later until today I feel it's one of my most powerful and impressive techniques.

Remember, the key is to coil the body first and execute the kick second.

This will also allow you to see your opponent before the leg swings round, which is of course how a good reverse technique should be executed.

d

 

[The Kai]

Here's a method that's a little off beat.

Start with your left foot forward in a fighting stance. Turn to face 6 o'clock and drop to your left knee (right kneel towards 6 o'clock). Pivot on your left knee to deliver hook kick. Does a lot to devolp the "arc" and timiig, oh and yes you will roll onto your left hip as you kick;
(credits to KSN DeAlba)
Todd

 

[TKD USA]

This kick wasn't that hard for me it was the spin crescent kick that gave me trouble. Anyway First learn how to spin with your kicking leg chambered about to do the kick then do the kick a little bit faster and then at full speed. Also for extra power stand in a back stance and turn your front foot's heel and make it point to your opponent. At this point your body should be coiled and then like the kicking fiend said, just lift your leg up and it will catch up with the rest of your body, keep your body up straight and you would have done what is a spin whip kick.
Hope this helps.

 

[Tony]

The way my instructor showed us how to do hook kicks is to firts do a front kick then turn your body and your foot sideways and swing your the heel of your foot outwards.

 

[MichiganTKD]

The way we always did spinning hook or back roundhouse was to maximize the spin and hip rotator torque, while minimizing the knee action. Basically, you torque your shoulders and hips around until you can see the target, then rotate your hip joint and contact with either the bottom of the foot or the heel. Knee flexion is minimal. It all comes from the waist. I've seen guys get leveled with it. My Instructor had possibly the greatest back roundhouse I've seen yet.

 

[Tae-Kwon-DoMaster]

were is the tournament at what state and city please tell me

 

[Rob Broad]

Whenever you are doing a spinning kick always remember to aim with your heal. You at at the target with the heal of the pivoting legm, this allows you to guage when the kick should extend and come back into you opponent.

The hook kick is the sister to the round house kick. A method I use for helping people better understand the mechanics of this kick is to have the throw a slow roundhouse kick, and then have them pull the foot back by executing a hook kick. This teaches the muscles how to reflexively throw the kick. Once the muscles understand it better you brain will shut off and you will be able to execute the spinning hook kick much easier.

 

[Zepp]

Well Faye, you've certainly heard from the peanut gallery on this one. Has any of the advice we've given you been particularly helpful?

 

[Gary Crawford]

Definatly ALOT of good advice!Especially Zepp and Tigarwoman.When my son was trying to learn it.He did ok doing it with a kicking target held at a distance,but actually landing it in a sparring match was the problem.I noticed that most of his competitors backed straight up when they read his kick.I tried a little experiment with him that fortunatly worked.I made him start his kick up close to his target and before his oponent could get away WHAM! He nailed them!

 

[Han-Mi]

If you try to do a crescent kick but, lean back and turn sideways, you will turn it intop a hook kick. So follow the same sweeping motion of the outside crescent kick. In order to get the right hook in the kick, you might try using 2 pads placed apart, I used this to get one of my students to do a full hook kick instead of just up and down. I'm not great at describing it, I hope I helped anyway.

 

[glad2bhere]

I didn't see anyone else mention this so I throw it out for what it is worth.


Please remember that the hip socket, much like the shoulder socket is not designed for doing what you are asking it to do. The hip socket is designed to bear weight and not for throwing the leg out and away from the bodys' center-line. If you need an example consider the amount of stress a Major League pitcher puts on his shoulder throwing a Baseball. This does not mean you cannot train the body to take this sort of stress only that I would keep two things in mind.

a.) That you will need to work extra hard to condition the body to deal well with these new skills AND to maintain them over time. It is important to remember that the same amount of stretching that you do for height and flexibility also "loosens" the hip socket and, after a fashion makes the socket less stable. In this way your training walks a thin line between flexibility and stability as you train. Prepare yourself to lose these skills albeit slowly as you age. These are relatively young persons' techniques.

b.) Even with conditioning these are probably not going to be the sorts of kicks that you want to do high numbers of reps with. Given the unique stressors to the hip joint even one or two injuries dramatically reduces the level of performance. I would make avoiding injury a Number One priority so that you can enjoy optimal performance for as long as your natural aging process and life-style will allow. FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

 

[Faye]

These are all extremely helpful to me I do have a basic question in regards to a hook kick (take out the spinning part). I was taught to execute the side kick to the left of the target (right leg hook), and then hook and bring the knee all the way to the right. But someone else was teaching the hook kick, and he said to execute the side kick, and then bring the leg straight (not bending like a round house) , hit target with heel, and then after you bring your knee all the way to the right, then hook it like in the last chamber step of round house. this is very puzzling to me, and it is very difficult to apply force to. Can someone please shed some light here?

 

[bluemtn]

That sounds a bit akward, and not as powerful. I always hooked it in after the foot went out.

 

[glad2bhere]

Dear Faye:

I think you need to step back for a moment and take a breath. I am concerned that you may be starting to mix and match disparate techniques and that could get you very confused very quickly.

Some people call a spinning heel kick a spinning hook kick but to my way of practice we are talking about two very different techniques beccause we have two very different executions based on two very different goals.

A spinning heel kick is a ballistic kick which once set in motion is based on full-commitment and follow through. It is at once a very powerful AND very tricky technique requiring a full 360 turn, a reasonably straight but unlocked leg and full contact with the back of the heel without jeopardizing the Achilles Tendon.

The Spinning Hook Kick is probably intended as an alternative for those situations where a target attempts to block the spinning heel kick with a double outside block. This can be a very fine (and painful) counter to the spinning heel kick if ones' timing is finely honed. The hook kick allows a misplaced block to be "wrapped around" allowing an otherwise straight leg to collapse at the knee.

The Hook Kick is as you describe it and like its Roundhouse sibling is a "sacrifice kick" in S-D applications and a reasonable alternative for getting around a partners' defenses in sport application. Where I am getting concerned for you is to make sure you are practicing what you say you are practicing and not saying one thing and doing another. Does this make sense? Please accpet my apology if I have mis-read your posts. If I am wrong noone should be better pleased than I. :asian:

Best Wishes,

Bruce

 

[Faye]

I'm very confused, not by you. I remember asking one of the black belts in class and she told me that some people hook right after they hit the target (that is kicking in the air with imaginary target), and i've been doing it that way because it's kind of hard for me to carry my leg (unhook) all the way pass the target...and i hope i did not develop some bad habits already. This is basic hook kick i'm talking about , sans the spinning....

 

[glad2bhere]

Speaking for myself I would call that approach a "bad habit". The hook can certainly be done by imagining a Side Kick puntuated with a sudden flex of the leg at the knee. Where we would part company is that for me the side kick is executed PAST the target and the leg flexed to make contact, rather than executing the sidekick, making contact and THEN flexing the leg. Maybe this is of some help?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

 

[Zepp]

Faye, I don't know if you're still confused, but Bruce's last two explanations are confusing me, so here's my answer: A hook kick, according to every Tae Kwon Doist and most karateka I've ever discussed it with involves hooking your leg before you impact your target. A heel/wheel kick hits with the heel, like a hook kick, but the leg is straight when it impacts the target. Whether or not someone hooks their leg after hitting their target doesn't affect what kind of kick it is.