If you practice martial arts, the kicks are an essential part of your arsenals; more people start to practice martial arts to gain security and grow up personally and emotively.
In Disciplines like Taekwondo, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, mastering different kicks will give you an incredible advantage over your opponents.
For that reason, I decided to summarize all the types of kicks present in the martial arts world, giving you an in-depth overview of the different types of kicks that you can practice and use during your sparring and training session.
The kicks in martial arts can be divided into 6 main categories:
- Front kicks
- Side kicks
- Roundhouse kicks
- Back kicks
- Hook kicks
- Crescent kicks
Each of these categories has its purpose, and different types of kiks are used in other circumstances.
Considering the incredible amount of kicks present in the martial arts, to give a more organized view, we decide to explain each category of kicks and then list all the kicks separately.
Front kicks
Front kicks are considered the base of kicks; they took a substantial part of the types of kicks present in martial arts.
Due to the natural movements of these kicks, the front kicks are types of kicks that are usually explained to newbies.
If you sometimes assist in a Muay Thai combat event, you notice that a fighter uses a front kick to keep the opponent away.
One of the primary functions of the front kick is to defend your distance from an opponent and attack.
The front kicks can be used in real-life scenarios and may be very helpful in aggression during street fighting.
List of Front kicks present in martial arts
- Penetrating Front Kick
- Upward Front Kick
- Straight-leg Upward Kick
- Front Leg Front Kick
- Side Front Kick
- Heel Front Kick
- Hopping Front Kick
- Tilted Heel Front Kick
- Outward-tilted Front Kick
- Inward-tilted Front Kick
- Foot Blade Front Kick
- Oblique Front Kick
- Instep Angular Front (Lotus) Kick
- Switch Front Kick
- Lift Kick
- Phantom Groin Kick
- Drop Front Kick
- Drop Twin Front Kick
SIDEKICKS
If the first part of the kicks were focused on the front kicks, now it is time to speak about the sidekicks.
The sidekicks may be considered the most powerful kicks that are present in martial arts. But to achieve this adjective, a person needs to train hard and master it.
Due mainly to how a sidekick is delivered, all the upper body movements are transferred to the feet, making the sidekick one of the most powerful martial arts kicks.
They are not kicks that are learned initially, but they will come after mastering some of the front kicks viewed before.
Sidekicks are perfect for attacking at a long-distance or counter-attack when your opponents are coming from attack you.
List of sidekicks present in martial arts
- Penetrating Side Kick
- Upward Side Kick
- Front Leg Side Kick
- Universal Chamber Side Kick
- Bent-body Side Kick
- Front Chamber Side Kick
- Back Side Kick
- Oblique Back Side Kick
- Spin-back Side Kick
- Hand-on-the-floor Side Kick
- Kneeling-up Side Kick
- Drop Side Kick
Roundhouse kicks
Roundhouse kicks are more modern kicks if we compare them to the previous one. In fact, in traditional martial arts like karate, there aren’t many of them present.
Instead, roundhouse kicks are widely used in more modern martial arts, like MMA, Taekwondo.
The purpose of the roundhouse kicks is to hit on the sides of the opponent. If you want to master these kicks, you should prepare yourself to improve flexibility and speed.
Mastering the roundhouse kicks requires you a lot of training, but you will have a powerful weapon ready to be used during your martial arts matches once you have it.
List of Roundhouse kicks present in martial arts
- Full Roundhouse Kick
- Small Roundhouse Kick
- Front Leg Roundhouse Kick
- Universal Chamber Roundhouse Kick
- Hopping Roundhouse Kick
- Oblique Roundhouse Kick
- Straight Leg Roundhouse Kick
- Downward Roundhouse Kick
- Bent-body Long Roundhouse Kick
- Spin-back Roundhouse Kick
- 360 Spin-back Roundhouse Kick
- Switch Roundhouse Kick
- Heel Roundhouse Kick
- Drop Roundhouse Kick
- Drop Twin Roundhouse Kick
- Rear Leg Drop Roundhouse Kick
- Kneeling Up Roundhouse Kick
Back kicks
Back kicks make part of the most common types of kicks used in the martial arts world. This is mainly due to the use that these kicks have in the movies.
Back kicks are present in almost all martial arts, and they are mighty kicks. At first, seen by an untrained eye, they may seem inefficient in comparition of other types of kicks; but this is not the case.
Back kicks are even more powerful than regular sidekicks because they use the body’s rotation and involve the use of back and gluteus muscles.
The negative point of using back kicks is that you will lose eye contact with your target and be exposed to your opponent.
They need more time to be mastered concerning the others types of kicks already mentioned.
In the martial arts world, there are many variations of back kicks, and these are:
List of Back kicks present in martial arts
- Penetrating Back Kick
- Short Back Kick
- Spin-back Back Kick
- Spin-forward Back Kick
- Low Back Kick
- uppercut Back Kick
- upward Hook Back Kick
- Spin-forward Hook Back Kick
- Downward Back Kick
- Back Ghost Lift Kick
- Drop Back Kick
- Drop Hooking Back Kick
- Drop Overhead Back Kick
- Double Drop Back Kick
- One-legged Drop Back Kick
Hook kicks
Hooks kicks may also be categorized as modern types of kicks. They are absent from the traditional Chinese and Japanese martial arts.
They may be considered difficult kicks to be performed, and in the majority of the case, to achieve a hook kick perfectly, you have to train it many times.
Hook kicks are mainly based on speed, and they are not powerful as others types of kicks. Anyway, they have some points of advantage; for example, they are very effectively used to surprise the opponent.
Also, for the other types of kicks mentioned before, hook kicks requires flexibility and timing, but most importantly, a lot of training.
There are many types of hook kicks in martial arts; for that reason, I decided to list them all.
List of Hook Kicks present in martial arts
- Straight Leg Hook Kick
- Hooked Hook Kick
- Front Leg Hook Kick
- Spin-back Hook Kick
- Universal Chamber Hook Kick
- Oblique Hook Kick
- Half-pivot Hook Kick
- Downward Hook Kick
- Bent-body Hook Kick
- Bent-body Spin-back Hook Kick
- hand-on-the-floor Hook Kick
- Hand-on-the-floor Spinning
- Back Hook Kick
- Oblique Spin-back Hook Kick
- Drop Hook Kick
- Drop Spin-back Hook Kick
- Drop Spin-back Downward
- High Hook Kick
- Small Heel Back Hook Kick
Crescent kicks
Crescent kicks are not so common in modern martial arts, while you will find it very frequently in most traditional martial arts.
Crescent kicks are a very versatile type of kicks; in fact, they can be used in a close range and at large distances.
The main point of application for that types of kicks is variable, as they can be delivered in all the parts of the body, such as the groin, limbs, and so on.
The most common martial arts that use crescent kicks are capoeira, Taekwondo, and Kung fu.
Anyway, if with minor frequency in the last period, some types of crescent kicks were also visible in some MMA matches, where the fighters take advantage of the surprise effect of these types of kicks.
List of Crescent kicks present in martial arts
- Crescent Kick
- Front Leg Crescent Kick
- Outside Crescent Kick
- Front Leg Outside Crescent Kick
- Downward Heel Kick
- Switch Downward Heel Kick
- Outward Ghost Groin Kick
- Spin-back Outside Crescent Kick
- Spin-back Downward Heel Kick
- 360 Spin Crescent Kick
CONCLUSION
This is all about the most common types of kicks used in martial arts; use this article to take inspiration to learn new types of kicks. I hope that you found this article helpful and that you will use it in the best manner possible to improve your kicks, learning new types of kicks.
