Hook Kicks

[Chizikunbo]

The second picture looks quite flash I agree but it also doesn't look like the hook kick I know, the first picture is more like it. We were taught to bend the knee more though hence the hook of the name. I have to say no kick I do can ever be described as flashy lmao! I wish! I can kick the 4 year olds to the head and that's it, if I do a hook kick to the thigh ( or liver can just manage that depending of the height of who I'm fighting) of my opponent though it's as good as a roundhouse, maybe better as my heel is harder. Kicking low though is good, less chance of them missing or getting caught.

I could see it being somewhat effective at the thigh level, with the full hook extension, but I am not in favor of any kick to the head level LOL mid-torso (solar plexus) is really as high as it ever needed with any kick IMHO...But yeah, I was taught to do it with the full hook as well, about a 90 degree bend at the knee...
--josh

 

[Ella]

Im still gonna say its flash, and not an effective kick for actual usage...that is in the korean way of doing it...I have seen the way JKD people do this and its not as bad, but still not a preferred kick of mine...

Well yes, if you throw it way up to the head it IS just flash. Is there some reason everyone seems to be excluding the possiblity of a hook kick to the groin, or even better, the knee?

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I thought the option went without saying. Anyone else?

 

[Zero]

Thanks forthe pics, I thought this was what you meant by the hook as this is exactly what we call it and as we deploy it.

Have always found it a favorite in competition - full contact and when young sport karate. Is so decieving and beautiful to execute as you can do a couple of front foot snap kicks to the head and then if blocked bring up the knee of the front foot again but instead blast out a hook kick and catch them on the unprotected side of the jaw - with the heel (always in contact) and it's lights out - far more powerful than a hook punch. If just sparing then the flat of the foot as in the pic.

To be honest not a kick I ever use down low as can utilise leg attacks with the shin to the knee tendons/joints and thigh nerves for more devastating power and can use the knuckles of the foot, like a front snap kick to get behind at the calves and traditional front kick to the groin/lower abdomen.

The front foot hook kick is also a brilliant in close kick - can be executed as I hope you know far closer than the pics! If trading in close you can after a couple of punches just step out ever so slightly and get the knee up and hook the heel right pack in a pulling motion into the jaw or temple (to me the jaw is favoured as the heel can get in behind the jaw and really rip it out and around = lights out!!!)

Despite what people say and I have trained and fought in wrestling, grapling (judo and jujitsu) and strike fighting and fought in free style and mma, I have used the hook kick (once!) in defense for my protection succesfully.
I guess it is a dangerous thing to say to novices and controversial but I have always rated the kick in self defence. In the non-sanctioned fights I have used head kicks and although in the street fights I have generally used leg attackss and then punches, elbows for upper body attack the high kick is not just some 'flashy' or in the ring move but an all around deadly weapon - but sure you gotta take the environment, assailent(s) timing and distance into account!!.

The punch is of course the fastest to the face/head but with much training the high kick off the front (not back as in roundhouse) foot is bloody fast and deceiving. The front kick to the head is not the same as punching someone's foot - crapola! Try to punch my foot, sure you'll get a knee in the face. But I have been kicked - and kicked many others - in the head enough to dispute that comment outright.

One of my head trainers is a police officer who's job for the last 10 years is in the court house prison cells, bringing crooks up and stopping fights and trouble - I have visited where he works and it is a grim, horrible place. A frightening place to have to work!! This guy has taken out crooks - not in the cells with mutliple hoods - but on the street with head kicks (and has competed in full contact throughout Asia); if any body know's the business of fighting and ending fights it's him. He rates high kicks (in the right moment) and so do I.

Well, glad to get that out!!

 

[Hand Sword]

Tez, That is a hook kick. As I said, I don't like, or use them.

 

[Tez3]

Perhaps we should have a sticky with all the various names for kicks, strikes etc so we know what we are talking about lol! ( I didn't search to see if the was one already!)
I think what it comes down to is that we all do moves we are comfortable which is why we get people saying they rate one move and not another while some hate that first move and love the other one. I can't kick at all high, so my favourite moves are never going to be high kicks, I love backhands as mine are pretty good, I like knee strikes MT style and roundhouse kicks MT style.
Like the discussions on which MA is the best I think the best or most effective moves are ones you are comfortable in your competance with in, which means we are always going to have interesting discussions!

 

[Zero]

No disrespect to the likes of Tez3 who can't get their kicks up high but Tez3, is this due to injury or some condition or just lack of flexibility or effort/training in this area?

I admit that the body is an arsenal of weapons without the use of high kicks but is always good to have a varied repertoire and a punch although better in close and slightly quicker, there is nothing as devastating for a quick knockout as a shin of foot to the jaw/temple!

On this note, have you and those in similar position ever tried 'kinetic stretching'/ This is instead of traditional cold stretching and running for yonks and then stretching out etc. I will dig up some links/pics if you haven't ried this and don't know what I'm mumbling about.

Basically it involves morning and night doing leg raises (swings), back, front and sideways and doing high knee-ups that get the muscles used to the range of motion required. If you can get your knee high and chambered then you can actually do high mawashis, roundhouses and snap and hook kicks with limited leg/hamstring and quad flexibility. It also means you are going around in a state where you don't have to do warm ups to avoid fear of tearing muscle and can execute 95% high kicks at will.

As a result there are guys in my club back home that can't do splits and all that ****** flexibility stuff but can kick a 6ft4' guy in the head.

 

[Tez3]

Zero, I'm just old! ( In early fifties) I've been doing MA for 15 years now, loads of stretching etc but I just never get there!

I would love it if you could post up those stretches though, for once I'd love to be able to kick high - well highish!
I do MMA now so don't need to kick high but it would be so cool to be able to!

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I could definitely see a hook kick to the side of the jaw work in self defense, espeacially with the lead leg and me being a high kicker (and with boots on). It is all about the timing and I'm not one to ignore an opportunity when it presents itself, but I find the opportunities to be few and far between. Risk vs Gain thing. The consequences if you fail, I think leave you in a worse position than a failed punch but there's so many possible scenarios it's hard to say. I practice it a lot on the heavy bag. As far as toe-knuckles, count me out.

 

[kidswarrior]

Zero, I'm just old! ( In early fifties) I've been doing MA for 15 years now, loads of stretching etc but I just never get there!

I would love it if you could post up those stretches though, for once I'd love to be able to kick high - well highish!
I do MMA now so don't need to kick high but it would be so cool to be able to!

Nah, you're not old!! Life begins at 50. It's just that our bodies didn't get the Memo.

 

[searcher]

Just to clarify here. My hook kick is a snappy kick with a little bit of "roundhouse action" in it. It is not the stiff-legged variety I have seen many try to use. Mine is more like a whip and not like a tree limb.


Just so we are on the same page.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I call the "dead leg" one a swing kick. Takes practice (what doesn't) but can be a strong kick. Hook kick=hook kick. I concur.

 

[searcher]

my reason for posting my clarification is that I have had students to the log style and call it a hook kick. I correct them according to the way I teach, not saying the other way is wrong, and they tend to like it a bit better.

The snappier version tends to inflict knockouts more so than the other style.

 

[chinto]

well as a kick to say a knee or a groin yes, but head and such is not what i would do. but then there are other kicks i would use first for such uses in most cercomstances. but then I am an okinawan stylist, and so come from a diferent back ground then some of the other people.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

Incidentally, a spinning hook kick is pretty fast as far as spinning kicks go. Kinda like carrying groceries in your ferarri though.

 

[Zero]

Chinto - interesting comment; my karate is goju ryu okinawan and the hook kick as described by Em MacIntosh is a favourite of one of our senseis and a kick which most in the club train to execute and use in both sport and full contact.

 

[searcher]

I am with zero. My Chito-ryu is very Okinawan, though it is typically considered Japanese and we use the hook I described.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

I'm a fellow chito-ryu karateka but we do canadian chito-kai. Some changes have been going on lately. When I first started I had never heard of a hook kick. I learned the hook kick outside the chito ryu dojo. When I came back they were training it.

 

[chinto]

Chinto - interesting comment; my karate is goju ryu okinawan and the hook kick as described by Em MacIntosh is a favourite of one of our senseis and a kick which most in the club train to execute and use in both sport and full contact.

oh we know the kick, but I would use it on the street low with the heel, rather then high. but it is not a kick I tend to use. each of us have favorite techniques for things, but on the street especialy I would not sugest kicking high. In turnement it would be good as its 'flashy' and hard for the judges to miss at all. but self defence situation keep the kicks low and fast. would be good for say a nasty knee or even groin or ankle kick on the street though.

 

[chinto]

oh by the way I'm a Shobayashi Shorin Ryu student