Most of us probably will remember the scene of the Bruce Lee movies, “Way of the Dragon, in the backyard of the restaurant, when with his sidekick he send to fly his partner while he was holding the shell. On that scene, we can see how much is effective the sidekick and the power that have.
What is the most powerful karate kick? The most powerful is the sidekick, thanks to the necessary alignment between the leg and the body, the kicking leg and the upper body are on one line during the kick, and like that the hips can transmit the whole body power to the kick.
How much is effective the side kick?
The side kick was the favourite kick of Bruce lee, and also one of the most written and documented on the jeet Kune do. Because of its power and stability, it is also the most effective stop-kick.
A typical application of side kick
The side kick if appropriately trained can give an enormous advantage, the things that bring this kick to be named the most powerful, is that if you prepare it with accuracy, ( and we will see soon), The chance to stop it are meagre.
One of the common use made of the side kick in karate is the following combination:
- Close the distance with a lunge and a high front/reverse punch combination
- while using the hip turn of the reverse punch to “liberate” the rear leg and start the chambering of the knee
- Hop slightly to close more distance if necessary, while chambering and kick
How to train the most powerful kick?
In order to reach the maximum of the power that you can make from this kick, the training as for every kick or punch is essential; you cannot pretend to kick fast and with power without proper training.
Now we take a look at some important advice to obtain the most powerful kick:
- The sidekick in order to become the most powerful must be predicated in a heavy bag
- You can try to practice the kick over a chair on your side to take the right height of the sidekick, to avoid practices the kick at a Lower Level.
- Practice the kick a lot from the ground with and without weighted ankles, until the burn is unbearable. This will develop all the essential small muscles in the hip that are difficult to establish otherwise.
- Flexibility is key—practice all types of splits! Flexibility drills with a partner will be beneficial.
- Drill for penetration power on padded target held by partner
- Squat and kick
Others powerful kick on karate
The Front Leg Side Kick
The front leg sidekick is a variation of the normal side kick, in general the front leg side kick is less powerful than the normal side kick, but in almost all the case is more fast to deliver.
The only difference on this kick is the footwork, now we will see:
How to do the front leg side kick
- Bring your rear leg forward and cross your legs while pivoting on your front foot and presenting Your side to your opponent
- The rear leg comes behind the front leg, to clear an open pathway for the front leg to chamber and kick. Do not raise your body. The head stays at constant.
- Do not stay cross-legged (ever!)—chamber immediately, bringing your knee as high as possible.
- Deliver the kick, in the form most suitable to the circumstances
- and chamber back
It is essential to pass to this kick after you are proficient with the classic version, In order to translate the same principles of stability.
Some important advice on front leg side kick
- The standing foot must be flat on the floor on impact.
- Make sure you do not bob when surging forward: head stays at the same height.
- Never cross legs with kicking leg behind.
Application of front leg sidekick
One of the most common applications on karate is used by combination some distraction method as for example the delivery of a punch,
To achieve the most potent kick by this combination, you have to ensure that the eyes of your opponent are direct to your punch, in this way the distraction is maximized.
Step for applying the most powerful front leg side kick
- Distraction of the opponent with a punch
- close the lunging stance with your rear foot
- Kick to the ribs, opened by your opponent’s raised hand
Training to improve front leg side kick
- This kick requires a lot of exercises to obtain a substantial result; some of the most used method to achieve the best result are:
- Kick under a tight rope just over your head, to train yourself to minimize dropping your head height.
- Kick the heavy bag with the pathway of your leg Repeat from various distances.
What is the most powerful kick?
Until now on this article, we analyse the side kick, that for the karate is considered the most powerful and efficient kick, if appropriately trained.
Anyway for answer to the question what is the most powerful kick? We must consider all the martial arts and here is the answer.
The most powerful kick is the taekwondo kick, thanks to some analysis make on lab a group of scientists was able to measure the power and velocity of the kick.
More in-depth, the scientists have analyzed the kick from four different martial arts :
- Kickboxing
- Taekwondo
- Capoeira
- karate
Here is the video:
As we con saw on the video the scientist using a heavy bag, where is applied an accelerometer, in the way that they can measure the force received by the kick.
Another instrument used on the video is a gadget on the leg of the martial artists to measure the velocity of rotation.
Results from the most powerful kicks
- Capoeira kick, speed 159 km/h and force applied to the heavy bag 816 kg
- Karate kick, the karate kick used for this trial was not the side kick, but a traditional front kick and the result was, speed 114 km/h and a force of 195 kg
- The muay Thai kick was delivered to the bag with a speed of 209 km/h, and a force of 635 kg
- The taekwondo kick was travelling at a rate of 219 km/h and incredible power of 1043 kg
So now that we analyze with scientific try, we can say that the taekwondo kick is the most powerful kick with a speed of 219 km/h and a force of 1043 kg.
Conclusion
During this article, we saw the most powerful kick on karate. How to do it and to train correctly to obtain the best result, we saw the two main differences in usage of the sidekick that as per Bruce lee and others martial artists are considered the most powerful if appropriately trained.
For my point of view, the most powerful kick is the kick that gives you the best results during a fight, for some person can be the side kick, from other the front kick.
We have to remember that the best combinations and the most powerful kick or punch are the ones that we train for a long and extended period of times, remembering what Bruce lee said: “I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times.”
This quote of Bruce Lee is perfect to understand that, if you want to hit the most powerful kick, you have to choose one of your knowledge and training on it every single day, only like that you can achieve the most powerful kick.
