Questions First: What do you want to know about kicks?

[dvcochran]

He's not chambering, he's kicking straight through the chamber. In certain styles, you're not taught to chamber, but just to swing direcrtly through. So even if you're seeing a transition that you can identify as a chamber, its not the intent of the striker, nor how it's practiced.

Read @pdg 's comment below. If he was keeping his leg straight as you imply the opponent could just step in and jam the kick. He is chambering.

 

[dvcochran]

The ground has a great deal to do with the extra power of a jumping kick, equal and opposite forces and all that, the more energy you Transfer into the ground the more equal and opposite energy is returned in to your body you body then has X kj more energy in it, which if you can channel a % percentage of in to your kick means a harder kick. No ground , no extra energy

Try kicking stood on a mattress, to see how much energy is comming from your standing/ jumping leg

As I said, I don't know why you would stand and jump kick although I have seen it done. Running jump, yes. Of course if you are standing and kicking the ground gives friction to provide resistance. I can see gaining momentum from jumping forward though. There would be some loss from kicking on a mattress from compression. Jumping on a mattress would make for a cushy landing.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Read @pdg 's comment below. If he was keeping his leg straight as you imply the opponent could just step in and jam the kick. He is chambering.

You can jam a chambered kick too.

 

[dvcochran]

You can jam a chambered kick too.

True. I was just trying to make the point that the guy in the video is doing a form of a chamber.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

To chamber a kick is like to

- raise your fist,
- move your fist back behind your head,
- you then punch out.

In a fight, you may not have the luxury to do that much "compressing" before 'releasing". What you have done just violate the "shortest distance between 2 points" guideline.

If you and your opponent have the same speed. You chamber your kick but he doesn't. If you two start the kick at the same time, his kick will get you first.

 

[pdg]

To chamber a kick is like to

- raise your fist,
- move your fist back behind your head,
- you then punch out.

In a fight, you may not have the luxury to do that much "compressing" before 'releasing". What you have done just violate the "shortest distance between 2 points" guideline.

If you and your opponent have the same speed. You chamber your kick but he doesn't. If you two start the kick at the same time, his kick will get you first.

OK, this is useful. This shows very well where the confusion comes in.

That isn't my definition of "chamber" for a strike. That's more like "wind up".

For a start, I don't punch from behind my head. It's slow and telegraphs it.

For a kick in a live situation, I wouldn't "lift, retract, twist, release" (which is how I have to assume you interpret chamber) for the same reasons. Also, because that's not what I'd call a chamber.

 

[dvcochran]

To chamber a kick is like to

- raise your fist,
- move your fist back behind your head,
- you then punch out.

In a fight, you may not have the luxury to do that much "compressing" before 'releasing". What you have done just violate the "shortest distance between 2 points" guideline.

If you and your opponent have the same speed. You chamber your kick but he doesn't. If you two start the kick at the same time, his kick will get you first.

In the purest sense of the theorem I would agree, put practically it would not work that way. The exception may be a kick below the belt.

 

[geezer]

To chamber a kick is like to

- raise your fist,
- move your fist back behind your head,
- you then punch out.

In a fight, you may not have the luxury to do that much "compressing" before 'releasing". What you have done just violate the "shortest distance between 2 points" guideline.

If you and your opponent have the same speed. You chamber your kick but he doesn't. If you two start the kick at the same time, his kick will get you first.

For a Shuai-Chiao and Longfist guy who says he hasn't done Wing Chun since his grad school days many decades ago, you still sound a lot like a Wing Chun guy, John!

Like you, we are constantly saying, "No retraction!" and "Every step a kick, every kick a step!", and of course, we never pull back before punching, instead we say, "Others walk the bow, we walk the string" since, "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line". And finally, just as you said above, we use efficiency to "Start later, arrive first!"

So ...I guess this kinda thinking is not just WC stuff, but used in a lot of Chinese Martial Arts!

BTW the "every kick a step" thing, where we extend our kick and then drop it firmly to the ground, is essential to maintaining our forward pressure and closing. It doesn't mess up our stances or leave us particularly vulnerable to a sweep, since our stances are very different from TKD and Karate, being more back weighted. Personally, I find grapplers to be more of a threat at the range we favor. And boxers. Yep, boxers hurt.