Hook Kick- which muscle is my weakest link?

[Faye]

My hook kicks are very weak.. when I do it on the air, it looks okay.. but my instructor sometimes make us do the kick over a bag, and you're suppose to see the knee moved from one side to the other entirely, almost making a half circle.. sorry, my description sucks. What she's saying is that if you're doing it right, eg for right leg hook, start from side kick position, after my hook, my knee should come all the way over to the right when I'm done.. I can only dothis when I'm doing slow kicks.. it seems like i don't have the muscle to do that, if I do slow kick with one hand holding on to the wall, i'm fine...

is there a way to practice this?

Thanks!

 

[Tony]

I recently bought a book by Hee Il Cho on kicks and it is very good on what muscles are used and the trainign you need to do in order to improve your kicks. basically in Hook kicks you have to use your hips and your thigh muscles. Try doing an outward crescent kick and then at the last minute change it to a hook and see what happens. Thats what my instructor does when he teaches beginners. By the way I have only been to one Taekwondo class. I study Shaolin Long Fist but we do practice a lot of the kicks you may see in Taekwondo but not so much of the flashy stuff. Hope that helps!

 

[CAP10]

It took me a few years to get happy with my hook kick. In the end I found my (and most of our students') weakest link was the shoulders. If your shoulders rotate away from your kick then all the power disappears because your upper body absorbs the blow. Try to rotate your shoulders in the same direction that your foot is hooking. They might not actually rotate that way, but you will at least be able to succeed in keeping them stationary. It's like pushing off of a stationary wall instead of pushing off of something on wheels. You'll launch better off the solid object.

As a rule of thumb, I think most of the "tricks" to making kicks work tend to lie somewhere other than the kicking leg itself.

Hope this helps you out some.

 

[TigerWoman]

Everyone is weak at high kicks at first. It just takes repetition. In order to get my side kick higher, I practice and still do doubles-knee-head 100 per leg. First you start holding the bag, then practice side kicks away from the bag balancing and hitting it. Then practice air kicking at a target suspended-both side and hook. Hold the side kick for a 1-2 count to build that muscle. For the hook, you need to build up your side quad muscle, hamstrings which do the snapping and your glutes which alot of the lifting, also oblique abdominals need to be strong for core and balance. And this is assuming you have flexibility already. We usually have to do spin heel before we do hook. It does take awhile. TW

 

[FearlessFreep]

Try doing an outward crescent kick and then at the last minute change it to a hook and see what happens. Thats what my instructor does when he teaches beginners.

Kinda funny because I made up that kick once and actually tried it in a sparring clas one day and then showed my instructor. He advised against it because of something about losing power in the direction change.

 

[TigerWoman]

Try doing an outward crescent kick and then at the last minute change it to a hook and see what happens. Thats what my instructor does when he teaches beginners.

Kinda funny because I made up that kick once and actually tried it in a sparring clas one day and then showed my instructor. He advised against it because of something about losing power in the direction change.

That's true because a sidekick and hook kick is done with the leg/foot facing backwards so the force is directed back on that plane and the balance-stability is there. A crescent is done frontally to strike with the blade of the foot, can't twist your body/supporting leg all around to get the hip up to go the other direction for a hook with the heel. The direction of the snap would be different as well and would be difficult to attain and also difficult to get enough snap. It's like changing kicks in midstream and as your instructor said, power is lost. TW

 

[TX_BB]

Try this!

Divide your kick into smaller sections and work on the problem areas.

Two exercises you may want to try to build the muscles in the leg for a hook kick. 1) Single or double leg calf raises 2) Standing side leg raise or knee raise.

 

[rutherford]

Sorry to intrude on your forum.

I'm perhaps lucky in that my instructor is very good at hook kicks. I don't know if they're practiced much by other bujinkan instructors, but they're part of the curriculum where I study.

And I've found that they're the kicks that come most naturally to my personal movements, so I'm really interested in the discussion. The hip rotation is especially comfortable for me. To the degree where if I try to throw a side kick, I have trouble not rotating my hip and hooking at the point of impact.

What's your warmup routine like? I feel very comfortable drawing huge figure 8's with my legs, and that seems to be a similar movement. I do this a lot in my daily excercise practice, and I think that has something to do with it. Try it, and let me know.

 

[jdinca]

My hook kicks are very weak.. when I do it on the air, it looks okay.. but my instructor sometimes make us do the kick over a bag, and you're suppose to see the knee moved from one side to the other entirely, almost making a half circle.. sorry, my description sucks. What she's saying is that if you're doing it right, eg for right leg hook, start from side kick position, after my hook, my knee should come all the way over to the right when I'm done.. I can only dothis when I'm doing slow kicks.. it seems like i don't have the muscle to do that, if I do slow kick with one hand holding on to the wall, i'm fine...

is there a way to practice this?

Thanks!

That sounds like an awfully big range of motion. Although we're a kenpo school, we do incorporate all of the TKD kicks into our system. Our heel hook chambers with the knee pointed to the corner and only comes a little past center. At the most, 100 degrees of range.

 

[FearlessFreep]

I think there are two executions of this kick; one basically starts as a sidekick but is off to the side and then pulls the heel back toward the target. The other I guess is more of a wide sweeping, arching movement.

What I was told that is so powerful about this kick is that you get a lot of big muscle groups working. The muscles in the upper leg/butt/etc...pulling the whole leg, and the then muscles pulling the foot itself in. It's two seperate pulls, one 'big' (leg)and one '(foot) little' and combined they get a lot of speed and power into the strike.

Although I confess I often get this confused (and may have here) with a 'spinng heel rake' and I've been taught there is a abother variant where you slap the target with the ball of the foot instead

 

[jdinca]

Two executions would explain it. Your first description is the one we do. As for muscle involvement, you bet. The hamstring and gluteus are huge muscles.

 

[FearlessFreep]

The first is what I try to do when practicing technique. The second is probably closer to what I do when working the drill line and in a hurry.....(I think the first takes more coordination)

 

[rutherford]

I'm not sure that power is really the reason to use this kick. The timing is also really nice for confusing your opponent. It's like throwing a curve ball.

 

[FearlessFreep]

I don't think power was really mentioned as the reason to use this kick, just that it happens to be a powerful kick from the mechanics


I don't think *any* kick is used solely because of the power. Each kick as a purpose and like I mentioned about height vs power, first you pick what you want to accomplish, then you pick the target to accomplish that, then you pick the kick that will hit that target, then you do it, hard! Well, youcan change up the order a bit I suppose, but the point is that a kick should be used with a purpose toward a goal, not just 'power'

 

[Marginal]

That sounds like an awfully big range of motion. Although we're a kenpo school, we do incorporate all of the TKD kicks into our system. Our heel hook chambers with the knee pointed to the corner and only comes a little past center. At the most, 100 degrees of range.

The way we're taught to do a hook, the ideal arc should travel from shoulder to shoulder. Contact point being in the center. One approach to getting a larger range of motion is to chamber to the side, almost like a roundhouse (chambers horizontally vs the more vertical chamber position for a side kick, or a back kick.) The wider range of motion lends the kick more penetrative power.

 

[jdinca]

The way we're taught to do a hook, the ideal arc should travel from shoulder to shoulder. Contact point being in the center. One approach to getting a larger range of motion is to chamber to the side, almost like a roundhouse (chambers horizontally vs the more vertical chamber position for a side kick, or a back kick.) The wider range of motion lends the kick more penetrative power.

The heel moving from shoulder to shoulder sounds right. I made a mistake in talking about where the knee is when the kick is chambered. The knee will be pointed more towards the right, with the heel being just to the left of center. At the end of the kick, the knee has traveled just past center.

If it works, go with it!

 

[jdinca]

I'm not sure that power is really the reason to use this kick. The timing is also really nice for confusing your opponent. It's like throwing a curve ball.

Remember that power comes from speed. Whipping the heel across using big muscles and body mechanics generates a lot of speed and power, as a result.

 

[Brother John]

My hook kicks are very weak.. when I do it on the air, it looks okay.. but my instructor sometimes make us do the kick over a bag, and you're suppose to see the knee moved from one side to the other entirely, almost making a half circle.. sorry, my description sucks. What she's saying is that if you're doing it right, eg for right leg hook, start from side kick position, after my hook, my knee should come all the way over to the right when I'm done.. I can only dothis when I'm doing slow kicks.. it seems like i don't have the muscle to do that, if I do slow kick with one hand holding on to the wall, i'm fine...

is there a way to practice this?

Thanks!

Hip extensors
Erector Spinae (lower back)
Obliques & Serratus

just my educated guess......and it's common.

Your Brother
John

 

[bluemtn]

When I started out in MA, I had problems with that kick too, mostly to do with being unnatural for the hips. Finally (after breaking it down) I got it. I just did the hooks like a side kick (chambering), and it ended up going as high as I and the instructor wanted it to.

 

[Faye]

I think i'm gonna try slow kicks first, the hip motion is hard for me..
i have no problem moving my knee past the center target a bit, it's getting to the other end that is my challenge...

Thanks for all the info!