and there were many classes where the hour was spent only kicking. 50 - 100 repetitions per leg, then change and same again, at the time it was a killer, but the benefits were certainly there.
Heres one training trick we used, : Take one plastic chair (the common hall type/public chair) turn its back towards you. In stance weight on back leg , forward leg light, place your forward foot on the floor in line with the back of the chair. Proceed to practice your forward heel kick by lifting the knee and kicking out over the top of the back of the chair. The idea is to develop the technique of lifting knee, extending leg and bring leg back with knee up ready for another.
Another training technique, is to get a heavy bag, stand quite close and lift knee to place foot flat against bottom part of bag, now thrust forward hard with the foot, pushing the bag out and away, Keep the leg up and use the same foot to stop the back swing of the bag, ...helps with rooting for kicking.
To develop power in Wing Chun kicking, one needs strong upper leg muscles, for quick lift and hard thrust, the secret is getting the knee up high.
Cool! That's very similar to how we train. Plus isometrics. Man that's killer. We put a kicking bag and strap it to a tree and while keeping the leg in the kicking position continiously push repeatedly against the pad and tree. You get used to that kind of pressure, a large muscluar leg will not be hard to handle.
We also use kicks to cancel out an opponents kicking attacks. Or bong girk and Yap girk (spelling's probably off) which is a whole nutter deal.
We've been training to kick closer to the opponent, as in when grabbed by someone. It is VERY possible and effective. You also have your knees. Heck, when someone grabbs you firmly, your only option may be to kick.
As for MT roundhouses. I'm lazy, so I really prefer heel kick to stop that from landing. It's faster, more effecient, and keeps my shins from being totalled.
But, the point of all this kicking talk, is that it is cruitial to have it combined with arms, stepping and forward pressure. (don't refer to force, tends to make people tense up when instructing).
I guess I've gotten the answer to my question in this thread. It really seems that most WC/WT practitioners neglect the legwork and focus too much on hands. Which is fine, if your the same size or bigger than an attacker. And after a few years of hands training, sure, you could defeat a larger attacker. But that's alot of effort and time. Just saying it'd be twice as effective if you use all of your body to defend and attack.
Plus, you don't always have to kick the knee, there's the inner theigh, and the groin. And once their down a notch, there is the head, face, neck, etc.
In a fight I'm just saying use everything you've got. (Your arms and legs)
Just a girl's point of view.
