Side kick

World championship team 2014 Kata women

The side kick ( Japanese 横蹴り , yoko geri , Kor.yeop chagi ) is a leg technique that is known from martial arts such as karate , taekwondo or kickboxing . Compared to the roundhouse kick , the body has to be twisted sideways towards the opponent before the kick is performed, as it is a sideways kick. For a maximum of energy transfer, the side kick hits the heel (Japanese sokumen kakato geri ), as the heel is in line with the body in the final phase of the kick and is therefore the optimal energy exit point for technique, strength and speed . You can do the side kick in different ways.

variants

Side kick with the back leg (Japanese ushiro ashi yoko geri )

While turning the body to the side, pull the knee of the back leg up so that the knee points almost 90 degrees away from the opponent. Then you stretch your leg powerfully towards the opponent and bend your upper body slightly in the opposite direction.

Side kick with the front leg (Japanese mae ashi yoko geri )

Performed like the side kick with the back leg, except that you kick with the front leg, which significantly shortens the turning phase. On the one hand, this allows faster execution of the entire sequence of movements, on the other hand, the acceleration of the kick is lower, which means that less energy is transmitted.

Jumping side kick

Similar to the side kick with the front leg. Here, however, the kick is preceded by a step in translation in order to bridge a greater distance to the opponent. This variant allows a large amount of energy to be transferred due to the step in translation, since the entire body mass is accelerated over a further path.

Flying side kick

The flying side kick (Japanese yoko tobi geri ) is a side kick with a lateral twisting of the rear leg during a start-up phase with a subsequent jump and extension of the leg. The majority of the energy transfer takes place via the accelerated body mass by running up and jumping off. The passive leg is usually angled for protection.

Spinning side kick

Also called a spinning back kick. Here you first turn 180 degrees, pull your leg in during the turn and, looking over your shoulder, push the pulled leg in the direction of the opponent. The movement is similar to a horse kick. After performing the kick, you continue to rotate and put the withdrawn kick leg in front, so that after the entire sequence of movements you are standing straight in front of the opponent and have finally performed a 360-degree rotation. If the right leg is behind in the fighting stance, you turn clockwise. If the left leg is behind, you turn counterclockwise.

Other variants

with the ball of the foot : Japanese sokumen koshi geri

with the sole of the foot : sokumen sokutei geri

Cut with the edge of the foot: sokuto fumikiri

Stamp kick with the edge of the foot: sokuto fumikomi

snapped with the edge of the foot outwards: sokuto keage

pushed out with the edge of the foot: sokuto kekomi

literature

Werner Lind : The dictionary of martial arts. China, Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, India, Mongolia, Philippines, Taiwan, etc. Sportverlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-328-00838-1 , ( Edition BSK ).
Albrecht Pflüger: Karate. Volume 1: Basics . Falken-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1969, ISBN 3-8068-0227-0