Friday, August 28, 2009

spin hook kick - otherwise known as how to fall on your .....

Our board break this quarter is a choice of either a back kick or a spin hook kick.   I've practiced the back kick enough that I can pretty easily break a board doing it.   Admittedly, I take it slow to make sure I have the technique correct but I can still do it.  In light of that, I've been trying to focus on my spin hook kick.   Tonight, we got to practice it.  Good thing my butt has a bit of padding.  
 
I perform the kick with my right leg usually.  My technique is basically to rotate clockwise to face backwards like I was going to do a back kick, pause and take a look over my right shoulder to eye the target, and then shoot my leg out similar to a back kick but to the opponent's right (my left) and rotate to do the kick.  The problem I have is getting the rotation as I'm doing it while still maintaining my balance and control.   I have a tendency to be high over the target. When I am high over the target, I get off balance and have my left foot slip out from under me.  Because of the rotation, I land on my butt.   This has happened more than once.

During board breaking, we usually have a couple of holders while we line up and take turns.   When I was at the back of the line, I just kept practicing and practicing the kick itself.   I figured out that if I just tried to keep the kick a little lower and not try for the height, I had a lot more control over the kick and my balance.   I believe that if I just keep practicing the technique, the height to the kick will come as I get more comfortable with it.

The question is now whether or not I have the guts to do the spin hook kick during the test in a little over 2 weeks or if I will just fall back to the back kick which I'm very comfortable doing.

We also do a spin hook kick during 1 of our kicking combinations: back leg round house, spin hook kick, punch-punch, repeat in other direction.   I have trouble with doing the kick with my left leg where I know I'm not getting anywhere near enough speed and height on it.   It's something I have to spend extra practice time on before the test.

I did get that black recommended stripe tonight at least.  

1 comment:

Bil Repenning said...

Congrats on the stripe!