Slow controlled kicks.

[jobo]

I've had good success regaining what flexibility I used to have (again, back about 17 years) through dynamic leg stretches like leg swings. These are like the warm-up you see a football (US) kicker doing before going on the field. I do them forward, backward, and to the side. I'll also do things like walking lunges (with as deep a step as I can manage) and side lunges, if my knees allow it that day. When I do give in to my desire for static stretches at the beginning of an exercise, I shorten them to a couple of seconds - slow enough to avoid "bouncing" them, but it avoids the natural tension that comes from static stretches. After a warm-up, static stretching. That combination has done well for me.

I'm probably going to seek a PT for some advice on which tissues are most limiting my hip movements, get some recommendations on exercises to stretch them. I discovered earlier this year, for example, that I wasn't paying enough attention to my iliotibial band, which is damnably hard to get at, and I'd been missing in my stretching.

quite encouraged by my stretching/ kicking practise today, don't get me wrong its still rubbish, but slightly less rubbishy.

did a variation of the stretching on the Wallace vid, followed by some ballistic stretching as you recommended. where I throw my leg up as far as possible and then back as far as possible whilst touching the toes on my standing foot, and then i could almost touch my toes on both feet and the kick looked a little better. Though it won't be much use till I can do it with out hanging on to a piece of rope for ballance and don't need an hours warm up

 

[jobo]

quite encouraged by my stretching/ kicking practise today, don't get me wrong its still rubbish, but slightly less rubbishy.

did a variation of the stretching on the Wallace vid, followed by some ballistic stretching as you recommended. where I throw my leg up as far as possible and then back as far as possible whilst touching the toes on my standing foot, and then i could almost touch my toes on both feet and the kick looked a little better. Though it won't be much use till I can do it with out hanging on to a piece of rope for ballance and don't need an hours warm up

making great progress now, my balance assisted side kick is up to about 4 and a half feet for my left and 4ft for my rights, up from about 10in as my starting point, the kicks having a little sting in them.
unassisted maybe 3ft or 2and a half with real,sting. So a real good kick in the thigh is feasable

 

[Gerry Seymour]

making great progress now, my balance assisted side kick is up to about 4 and a half feet for my left and 4ft for my rights, up from about 10in as my starting point, the kicks having a little sting in them.
unassisted maybe 3ft or 2and a half with real,sting. So a real good kick in the thigh is feasable

Nice progress, Jobo. What is the comparison period (how long ago was the "10in")? What did you change to get those results?

 

[Ironbear24]

making great progress now, my balance assisted side kick is up to about 4 and a half feet for my left and 4ft for my rights, up from about 10in as my starting point, the kicks having a little sting in them.
unassisted maybe 3ft or 2and a half with real,sting. So a real good kick in the thigh is feasable

Great job man!!! You just have to be consistent with it and you will get there. I believe everyone could so long as they remind disciplined to keep up with it.

Before you know it you will be kicking people in the head.

 

[Balrog]

believe me I'm not much better than someone who is dead, to be fair in the general scheme of things I'm not that bad for a 78 yo, but the problem is I'm 58 and want to be able to do kicks with out the instructor and the 20odd year olds I share a class with laughing at me, which they do quite a lot

I have a serious issue with flexability around my hips and legs in general, which means my front kick is low, really low and my side kick isn't a kick at all. I cant get even close to touching my toes or get in the start position in that vid, where the legs are at a 90 degree angle. In fact I can't sit on the floor with my legs,straight out with out falling over backwards.

I put at least an hour stretching' in a day and I'm making a little process, i but not in the way that makes any noticable difference to my kicks.

Me, too. I am 68 and have arthritis, so stretching just isn't that productive any more. But I still do it because you gotta.

A couple that have helped me are stretches for the hamstrings and lower back. After getting warmed up, I set my feet about shoulder width apart, lock the knees, grab my opposite elbows, then slowly lean over as far as I can and just hang for 10-15 seconds. To come up, bend the knees, put your hands on them and push back up. Wait a few seconds, then repeat. I find that the 3rd or 4th time, I'm going lower than the 1st.

After that, I get flat on my back. Take the right leg, cross it over the left and reach as far to the left with it as I can. However, as I'm doing that, I try to keep my shoulders touching the floor. Hold that for 10-15 seconds, then switch to the other side.

Have fun!

 

[Prostar]

I use the short end of a picnic table. Just pick the leg up, walk the kick slowly across the table and extend at the other side. Do it all in slo-mo. This causes you to form the kick well, or kick the table.

 

[jobo]

Nice progress, Jobo. What is the comparison period (how long ago was the "10in")? What did you change to get those results?

only three weeks to go from 10" to over 4ft
its really been trial and error and trying to work out what's actually going wrong.
as I can understand the problem, I have tightness down the whole posterior's chain and always have had but not to this degree. I have tight lats, which are pulling my pelvis out of line which gives Me anteria pelvic tilt.
The mis alignment of the pelvis is giving me tight hamstrings and the tight ham strings are giving tight calves. The tight hamstrings are making my hips tight. In addition my hip flexors are short which is further pulling my pelvis out.or they may be short because of the tilt?

SO, I sit on a low style (I do this out doors) in what would be a horse stance if I wasn't sat on something. And keep moving my lower back around and down to my chin on my knee. Round and round to free up the lats, as it gets easier, I move my hip further apart to make it hard again and free up the hips.
I do this for about half an hour, I take a cup of coffee. Then I walk about 200 yards on my tip toes to free up my ankles to a low fence, about 3ft high , I put one leg on top and stretch my hip flexors, whilst standing on tip toes, ballet style with the other leg.
then throw a rope round the fence for balanced and do really slow kicks to land my foot on the top rail,hold for a few SEC's to stretch the hips, 20 each leg

then another few hundred yards to a higher fence, rope round again , then 20 kicks with power as high as I can get them.
then off to the adventure play ground were they have a dip bar, I do leg swings with one leg whilst touching the toes on the other, holding it out backwards to work my glutes, using the dip bar for balance, then lay my leg along the bar for a last strech

this seems to be working, my proper kicks are getting higher and more powerful, just need to lose the rope now

 

[jobo]

thanks for the encouragement, but I'm 6months into serious stretching with another year before that of less serious stretching and I'm barely above knee height , if I can get to waist height il call it quits

well a quick up date
I've been toiling away with my hip flex ability since this thread back in June, with little or no process, then at tonight's class a did a cracking side kick up under the,arm pit of my partner and then a snap kick up at,chest height, that's a good three foot higher than I've,done before, really chuffed.

Now my problem is i can only do side kicks with my left leg and snap kicks with my right, plenty more work to do.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

well a quick up date
I've been toiling away with my hip flex ability since this thread back in June, with little or no process, then at tonight's class a did a cracking side kick up under the,arm pit of my partner and then a snap kick up at,chest height, that's a good three foot higher than I've,done before, really chuffed.

Now my problem is i can only do side kicks with my left leg and snap kicks with my right, plenty more work to do.

Just don't let your sparring partners figure that out, unless you're as good as Bill Wallace.

 

[FighterTwister]

Some great Leg stretching and training videos put out by Gingerninjatrickster on YouTube..........

Check out his Youtube Channel heaps of great stuff Click this link here:- GingerNinjaTrickster

 

[Ironbear24]

well a quick up date
I've been toiling away with my hip flex ability since this thread back in June, with little or no process, then at tonight's class a did a cracking side kick up under the,arm pit of my partner and then a snap kick up at,chest height, that's a good three foot higher than I've,done before, really chuffed.

Now my problem is i can only do side kicks with my left leg and snap kicks with my right, plenty more work to do.

Just keep those stretches up, diligence and doing them at least 3-4 days a week is key, try to give yourself sessions of static stretching sets of a total of at least half an hour.

 

[jobo]

Some great Leg stretching and training videos put out by Gingerninjatrickster on YouTube..........

Check out his Youtube Channel heaps of great stuff Click this link here:- GingerNinjaTrickster

yes, thanks, those are more or less the techniques i use,.
but I'm all ways sceptical of taking advice from someone who is very young AND very bendy. I doubt he has ever had to struggle with having very nearly no hip flexability and a life time of miss alignment injuries and inballances to fix before he can even begin to get a decent range of motion. I'm betting he started ma when he was very small and has been able to do the splits of two chairs since he can remember.

I'm A) old and b) have a life time of issues to fix.
what ever muscles i use to raise my leg has wasted away to nothing as its not been used in 45 years, so Ive to very slowly build up the strengh in those, so i can even raise the leg, before i can get to flexability issues. And that really isn't easy in its self.

hip flexability like all human atributes, is distributed in line with a bell curve, that is for every person who can throw their leg right up to the sky, there are an equal number of people for whom that is an impossibility. People who can, can't see why people who can't, can't, its easy for them.

i have determination and a realistic target, that doesn't include ever being able to do what he can do.

if you have a vid of an old codger who couldn't get out of a chair through muscle weakness who can now do the splits off two chairs, id be interested to see it

 

[Gerry Seymour]

yes, thanks, those are more or less the techniques i use,.
but I'm all ways sceptical of taking advice from someone who is very young AND very bendy. I doubt he has ever had to struggle with having very nearly no hip flexability and a life time of miss alignment injuries and inballances to fix before he can even begin to get a decent range of motion. I'm betting he started ma when he was very small and has been able to do the splits of two chairs since he can remember.

I'm A) old and b) have a life time of issues to fix.
what ever muscles i use to raise my leg has wasted away to nothing as its not been used in 45 years, so Ive to very slowly build up the strengh in those, so i can even raise the leg, before i can get to flexability issues. And that really isn't easy in its self.

hip flexability like all human atributes, is distributed in line with a bell curve, that is for every person who can throw their leg right up to the sky, there are an equal number of people for whom that is an impossibility. People who can, can't see why people who can't, can't, its easy for them.

i have determination and a realistic target, that doesn't include ever being able to do what he can do.

if you have a vid of an old codger who couldn't get out of a chair through muscle weakness who can now do the splits off two chairs, id be interested to see it

I agree with your skepticism of someone who has what appears to be easy flexibility. I have that problem with ukemi, myself. People expect me to be able to teach it well, because mine is quite good. In fact, I never struggled with it, and have trouble figuring out how to get from "wrong" to "right" sometimes. Sometimes, I have to spend time finding ways to subtly mess up my falls and rolls, to reverse-engineer their problems so I can solve them. So, for flexibility, I'd rather learn from someone who specializes in helping the inflexible (especially those over 30) become flexible in the right areas.

 

[Ironbear24]

I agree with your skepticism of someone who has what appears to be easy flexibility. I have that problem with ukemi, myself. People expect me to be able to teach it well, because mine is quite good. In fact, I never struggled with it, and have trouble figuring out how to get from "wrong" to "right" sometimes. Sometimes, I have to spend time finding ways to subtly mess up my falls and rolls, to reverse-engineer their problems so I can solve them. So, for flexibility, I'd rather learn from someone who specializes in helping the inflexible (especially those over 30) become flexible in the right areas.

I have this problem with teaching someone how to do a roundhouse kick, they stumble about and have trouble doing it at all, rotating too much and throwing the kick late, too early ect.

Here I am scratching my head thinking "why don't they just do it?"

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I have this problem with teaching someone how to do a roundhouse kick, they stumble about and have trouble doing it at all, rotating too much and throwing the kick late, too early ect.

Here I am scratching my head thinking "why don't they just do it?"

That's it, exactly. I have that problem, especially with front rolls and side falls. I can't really remember ever struggling with them. With the side fall, my Judo instructor showed me a few times, and then I just always knew how. They got better as they needed to, over time, because I used them a lot. Mind you, it helped that I learned my first side fall at 13 - none of my students have that luxury.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

roundhouse kick, ... rotating too much and throwing the kick late, too early ect.

If you let your

1. body rotation to pull your leg, you will get the maximum kicking power. But your body rotation will telegraph your kick. Since there is delay there, your kick will be slow.
2. leg to go first and your body rotation follow with it, you will get the maximum speed. You don't telegraph your kick this way. Your kick maybe fast. Since you are not using body rotation, your power will be weak.

Something you do 1. Sometime you do 2. Most of the time you do 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, or ...

 

[Ironbear24]

(accidental double post.)

 

[Ironbear24]

That's it, exactly. I have that problem, especially with front rolls and side falls. I can't really remember ever struggling with them. With the side fall, my Judo instructor showed me a few times, and then I just always knew how. They got better as they needed to, over time, because I used them a lot. Mind you, it helped that I learned my first side fall at 13 - none of my students have that luxury.

You know what's a trip though? Try doing it a different way than you been doing it, it will be very difficult.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

You know what's a trip though? Try doing it a different way than you been doing it, it will be very difficult.

Don't I know! I actually decided to use a different back roll (feet are switched) when I started my program. It took me months to get that down.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

You know what's a trip though? Try doing it a different way than you been doing it, it will be very difficult.

Don't I know! I actually decided to use a different back roll (feet are switched) when I started my program. It took me months to get that down.

 

[jobo]

I agree with your skepticism of someone who has what appears to be easy flexibility. I have that problem with ukemi, myself. People expect me to be able to teach it well, because mine is quite good. In fact, I never struggled with it, and have trouble figuring out how to get from "wrong" to "right" sometimes. Sometimes, I have to spend time finding ways to subtly mess up my falls and rolls, to reverse-engineer their problems so I can solve them. So, for flexibility, I'd rather learn from someone who specializes in helping the inflexible (especially those over 30) become flexible in the right areas.

yes vid made for older inflexable people is much needed.

the problem with all the ones I've seen are they are,aimed at people who can kick very high to get them to kick even higher

and they all seem to focus on stretching the abductor muscles,

now,whilst the,abductors might be a restriction to a middle aged beginner, they are not half of the problem, the tightness might just as much come from the ankles, the calfs , the knees the quads or the hamstrings, might be made worse by pelvic tilt, may not be tightness at all, it may be a strengh /muscle development issue, or all those or non of those and a neurological lock on the movement you desire .

you can sit on the floor,stretching your abductors for months and it won't make any,difference, i know I've tried

 

[Gerry Seymour]

yes vid made for older inflexable people is much needed.

the problem with all the ones I've seen are they are,aimed at people who can kick very high to get them to kick even higher

and they all seem to focus on stretching the abductor muscles,

now,whilst the,abductors might be a restriction to a middle aged beginner, they are not half of the problem, the tightness might just as much come from the ankles, the calfs , the knees the quads or the hamstrings, might be made worse by pelvic tilt, may not be tightness at all, it may be a strengh /muscle development issue, or all those or non of those and a neurological lock on the movement you desire .

you can sit on the floor,stretching your abductors for months and it won't make any,difference, i know I've tried

Agreed. Hip flexors and hamstrings are more my problem, and how.