540 kick confusing x(

[The_Awesome_User]

allright so in my dojang there is a kick called 540 crescent kick and basically you jump straight up, and spin 360, throw a crescent kick with what was your back leg, finish the 540 with the kick. In all the YouTube tutorials I have seen every one steps forward and jumps with the front leg, kicks with the front leg, and lands with the front leg.

Are these different kicks or are they just different variations?

What sort of exercises could I do to get better at doing 540s?

 

[TrueJim]

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that there is not "a" 540 or "a" 720...there are different kinds of 540s, different kinds of 720s, etc. As you point out, the variations seems to hinge largely on (1) which leg launches you into the air, (2) which leg actually kicks, (3) which leg you land on.

Tornado Kick - Taekwondo Wiki

 

[Dirty Dog]

A (insert degrees here) kick just means you rotate that far. And frankly, I think most of them are more gymnastics than martial art.



Sent from an old fashioned 300 baud acoustic modem by whistling into the handset. Really.

 

[The_Awesome_User]

Never mind. I talked to one of the higher instructors and the one I saw was basically a tornado crescent were you land on the kicking leg. The one I am learning is a jump spin 540.(both legs jump)

 

[TSDTexan]

Someone said tornado kick?
Good mechanics tutorial

 

[Earl Weiss]

FWIW I have seen all sorts of things called "X" degree of rotation. Oftentimes the rotation is done while one foot is on the ground which IMO is misleading. That would mean I could could start with my right foot back, spin around 2x on my left foot and then jump and kick with the right foot only being in the air 180 degrees and call it a "900".

 

[Gnarlie]

FWIW I have seen all sorts of things called "X" degree of rotation. Oftentimes the rotation is done while one foot is on the ground which IMO is misleading. That would mean I could could start with my right foot back, spin around 2x on my left foot and then jump and kick with the right foot only being in the air 180 degrees and call it a "900".

I think it is only ever 180 out of the however many degrees total that are done with one foot on the ground, which IMO is correct, with the following reasoning...

A normal dollyo chagi on the ground moves through 180 degrees.

The so-called tornado kick must then move through 360 degrees. It would not make sense to call it a 180 degree kick IMO.

The 540 hook is essentially a tornado kick with an extra half turn and hook while still in the air.

I don't see any problem with all of the above, which is standard denomination in TKD.

I do see a problem with the so-called cheat 720 (tricking denomination), which is used to denote the 540 hook with a step forward on the ground to gain momentum. Misleading as it goes beyond 180 on the ground, hence the addition of 'cheat'.

 

[Earl Weiss]

As with many MA and TKD things agreement as to semantics is an unresolveable issue. However, I will throw this ut there anyway. Since any rear leg kick turning rearword or forward to the front is a 180 degree rotation of the body, there is no need to denote it as such by degree of rotation. When Jumping you can make a 1/2 or full rotation in the air so you would designate the degree of rotation. Of course if you were in the air 1.5 or 2 full rotations you could designate that as well. I just don't see any need (and consider it confusing) for combining the degrees of rotation on the ground which could be a high number to those in the air which are much more limited when talking about a single technique.

Similarly "Tornado" kick means different things in different places / systems.

Going back to the OP, I think it very diffccult to address the mechanics of such a technique without a video illustration.