# Question about the Shin kick



## Slihn (Dec 6, 2006)

When you all throw shin kicks do you throw them at a 45 degree angle or straight across.I have seen it done both ways and I am wondering which one is more effective.


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## xjrrrdx (Dec 6, 2006)

My instructor tells us a 45* to make your shin bone like an axe on the soft tissue / nerve right above the knee.


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## Phadrus00 (Dec 7, 2006)

Slihn said:


> When you all throw shin kicks do you throw them at a 45 degree angle or straight across.I have seen it done both ways and I am wondering which one is more effective.


 
I have found that they are both valuable in different situations.  I tend to kick at about 90 deg when I am targetting the ribs.  When I am shooting for the head against a standing opponent or a when they have bent forward due to a previous blow then I tend to fire at a 45 deg upward angle to catch their face square on.  Finally if I am targetting their leg I will strike with a downward 45 angle as the previous poster suggested, creating an "axe" effect on the leg.

It's ALL good!  *grin*

Rob


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## Andrew Green (Dec 7, 2006)

All of the above.

You can kick upwards, level, and downwards.  Depends on what you are hitting, what angle it is at, and what you are planning on doing with the kick.  It's also partially dependent on your range, and even your flexibility.

Best bet is to learn to throw it at different angles and different ranges


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## xjrrrdx (Dec 7, 2006)

Mine was more towards kicking the front legs thigh.I have found it to hurt me more if the opponent kind of chops down rather than a straight angled shot.

As far as angles go, the leg i try to come at a 45* angle, ribs are 90* and the head I am still not flexible enough I tend to hit the shoulder/neck area haha, so I dont hit there until I get my felxibility a littler better.


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## Rybot (Dec 7, 2006)

I am still rather inflexible but I have noticed that my leg kicks go downward on an angle while my rib/midsection kicks are more straight on.

Funny you mention this because I was just starting to notice this trend in my kicks!


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## MA-Caver (Dec 7, 2006)

I normally try to go at 45 degrees and try to aim just below the knee joint hoping to blow it out... if not then I'll try to snap that leg ... any method is effective if done correctly.


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## wee_blondie (Dec 8, 2006)

Andrew Green said:


> All of the above.
> Best bet is to learn to throw it at different angles and different ranges


 
Agreed.  Learn all you can!  (and it means you get to kick more stuff!)


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## Slihn (Dec 8, 2006)

Andrew Green said:


> All of the above.
> 
> You can kick upwards, level, and downwards. Depends on what you are hitting, what angle it is at, and what you are planning on doing with the kick. It's also partially dependent on your range, and even your flexibility.
> 
> Best bet is to learn to throw it at different angles and different ranges


 

..you know,thats right about the angles.I try to mix up my tatics while sparring.I am going to try to typically throw 45 degree angles while doing low or mid level kick to my oppoent ;while he is balanced and I will use the more powerful horizional kick when I have knocked my opponet off-balance or at anytime where he is not able to counter correctly.

I see some guys using the downward 45 degree angle while throw a leg kick,but I am very skeptical about that because it just seems like all the oppoent his to do is lift his leg and your shins are history.


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## thaistyle (Dec 10, 2006)

Both.  They are both part of the trademark Thai roundkick.  Mainly it depends on your target as to which kick to use.  I use 45 degree if I kicking close to the body/ribs and across to hit neck/head or legs but this is just what I prefer.  One of my old instructors could do 45 degree to head up close with his opponent.


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## bitesizemidgee (Dec 10, 2006)

My master has been teaching us to kick at 90 degrees above the belt, and 45 degrees on any area of the legs, though I am sure different situations require different approaches. It doesn't seem like a 45 degree shin kick to the leg would do half as much damage as if it were coming straight on, but he said the force of it comes from the pivot, and if we were to practice the difference on each other we would feel why this is. The trick is if you can get that pivot down fluently, I've fallen on my face quite a few times trying to condition this response.


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## Giorgio (Dec 23, 2006)

i tend to throw 45 degree upwards to the ribs, as my kicks just come out faster that way, and are harder to avoid. With low kicks, i tend to go for 45 degrees downwards. If I'm lucky enough to get an opening for a head kick, I want to get in there as fast as possible, so again I strike at 45 degrees upwards. Come to think of it, I'm almost never 90 degrees perpendicular. Am i wacked?


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## Slihn (Dec 23, 2006)

Giorgio said:


> i tend to throw 45 degree upwards to the ribs, as my kicks just come out faster that way, and are harder to avoid. With low kicks, i tend to go for 45 degrees downwards. If I'm lucky enough to get an opening for a head kick, I want to get in there as fast as possible, so again I strike at 45 degrees upwards. Come to think of it, I'm almost never 90 degrees perpendicular. Am i wacked?


 
                                     No you are not "Wacked" lol...yeah the 45 degree kick is alot faster.The body mechanics of the kick gives it a direct path to the target unlike the 90 degree kick.At first it would seem like the 90 degree kick would generate power but when you slow the kick down and pay close attention to the body mechanics involved the 90 degree kick comes up and then swings over making two different paths to follow,which means that orginal momentum(and power) of the kick is now lost and there the kick has to be reaccelerated after the orginal initiation of the kick has already taken place.Not to say that you cannot regenerate power if the orginal momentum is gone,its just that all of the enegry used to initiate the kick is loss when turning the leg over (diffcult to explain but easly seen  when training in front of a mirror).

(With that being said I still do think that the 90 degree kick may be useful against an oppoent ribs in some special cases)


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