prv5kickspecifictraining5

The importance of kick-specific training.

Dear martial artists,

In this news letter, I would like to take apart a certain concept, which has become a
household name to many of you. Dynamic flexibility is it's renowned name. What is
dynamic flexibility? It's flexibility in motion, the type of flexibility, which is speed specific. In
the past decade many athletes have replaced sitting on the floor and reaching for their
toes, with standing leg raises. The idea is that if you kick in motion, you must stretch in
motion. Sounds fair and to a degree logical, however, if we were to investigate further, we
may find that all is not as simple as it seems.

Let's take a concrete example - a roundhouse kick.
What would most of us do, in order to improve the height of this kick? -
This question implies a preconditioned response: Perform some dynamic stretching,
what else? Just lift the leg sideways and the flexibility is bound to develop. It all sounds
good and simple. But if we consider some logic, we may see a slightly different picture.
Let's investigate the following question;
Does the side leg raise (Pic. 1) enervate the musculoskeletal apparatus the same way
that a roundhouse kick does? The answer is: No.

Before we even start, let's take a simple Kinesiology pop quiz.

When you throw a side line kick with your right leg, which leg is stretched more? The
answer is: the left leg. If you don't believe me, try the chamber stretch (Pic. 2) and see
which leg feels the stretch the most.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's get back to side line kicks, our example being the
roundhouse kick and the side leg raises (lifts).

Three basic differences between a kick and a raise (lift) can be cited, so let's look at both
of them.

1. Time interval:

Think about the leg raise (lift). The leg goes up, and the leg comes down. The time spent
in the deepest stretch position is minimal. Basically the leg comes up and immediately
goes right back down, but what about the dynamic strech of the kick?

Well, you start by pointing the knee at the target; at this time the supporting leg attains the
maximum stretch. You then execute the kick, re-chamber, and bring the leg down. Only as
you start to bring the leg down to pre-kick stance does the stretch begins to decrease.

Don't you think that during all three phases (1.chamber, 2. execution of the kick, 3.
re-chamber.) the muscles stay streched a bit longer than, during a leg raise? At this point
your have probably agreed with me that the muscles are stretched slightly longer during
the kick, then during the leg raise. Even though the difference may be in tenths of the
second, on the physiological level, numerous reactions take place in that short time
interval. Thus, if you have followed my reasoning, you've just seen how a time interval for a
leg raise and kick differ.

2. Muscle length control.

Let's look at the leg raise again - leg goes up, leg comes down. The distance between
the origin and insertion of the muscle is lengthened on the way up, and shortened on the
way down - plain and simple.

Doesn't the same thing happen during the kick? The answer is again; No! As we
chamber, the distance between the origin and insertion it increases. During the execution
and re-chamber, the length of the muscles of the supporting leg stays the same, and
when the kicking foot (leg) is brought back to the original position, the muscles recover to
its starting length. Thus, as you can see, the cycle then becomes: lengthen, maintain the
length, and shorten. That's quite different from a leg raise, where the cycle is mostly
lengthen and shorten.

3. Stabilization against gravity.

How much control does it take to raise (lift) a leg? It takes some control, but not much. All
you have to do is contract the abductors on the way up. If you want to slow down the
returning phase of the (lift) raise, you can contract the abductors on the way down. By the
way, abductors are the muscles responsible for lifting your leg sideways and are located
above the head of the femur.

And what about the muscle control required for executing a kick? Let's take a look. The
abductors contract as the chamber comes up and knee points at the target. The
abductors maintain their contraction and length as the kick is executed and the leg is
re-chambered. And finally the abductors lengthen as the kicking leg returns to its original
position to the floor.

So as you can see the key difference between the raise and the kick is stabilization. The
raise doesn't require much stabilization, but the kick does. In other words, you can't kick if
you can't hold the leg up. As a matter of fact this phenomenon can be seen in most novice
students. Many beginners either lack the strength or control to hold up the chamber of the
kick. For this reason a beginner's kick can sometimes resemble a leg raise, lacking the
proper kicking form.

So there we have it. Leg raise (lift) and dynamic flexibility training is not enough. Don't get
me wrong, there are benefits. Dynamic flexibility is an important part of the kicking
program, but it's not the platinum key that unlocks all doors. To get into the desired castle
you may need more than one key.

Kick-specific training is a complete approach to kicking techniques. Flexibility and
strength must be specific in terms of kicking speed, neural control and joint position to
achieve the best results.

Great luck training,

PAUL