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It would seem that high kicks are falling out of fashion these days. Back in the seventies and eighties when martial arts movie stars were kicking heads left, right and center the high kick was thought to be the ultimate expression of martial arts. High kicks were considered to be the pinnacle of technique by many (mostly non-martial artist’s it has to be said). If you could kick someone in the head you were a real martial artist, because only real martial artist’s could kick that high. So the thinking went anyway.
These days we know different. With MMA dominating our media and TV screens the low kick has made its presence known to many and it is widely considered to be the way the go, especially in street self defense situations. The sentiment now is that high kicks are just too risky and plain dangerous to use in fights, real or competitive. The one time symbol of the martial arts, the high kick, has now been shunned by many and left out in the cold along with the “karate chop” and the “flying kick”.
Is all this criticism justified though? I was prompted to write this article after reading something that John Zimmer posted on his My Self Defense blog. John wrote an article extolling the virtues of the low kick whilst also more or less dismissing the high kick as being of little value in most situations. So I thought I would look at both kicks a little more closely in this article and see which one comes out on top and to see if high kicks really are of little use outside of the movies.
The low kick.
Let’s start from the bottom up. The low kick can be any kick that is aimed below your opponent’s waist. The legs and groin are usually targeted with this kick, but in different ways. Probably the most popular low kick within the martial arts is the shin kick to your opponent’s thigh, a kick which is now a staple technique within the MMA scene. This kick is borrowed from Muay Thai and can be very powerful indeed, depending on how skilled you are at doing it. Muay Thai practitioners are known for rolling glass bottles up and down their shin bone to raise and condition the bone itself so that it becomes tough enough to do real damage. I have seen Muay Thai guys break several baseball bats tied together with this kick, and that’s breaking the thick part of the bats, not the thin end. If someone can do that with one kick, imagine the damage they could do to your leg.
Other low kicks include the snap kick to the groin, the low side-kick to the shin or knee and a straight leg kick (choko-geri) to the kneecap. All of these kicks can be quite devastating in their own way.
What all low kicks have in common is that they are all excellent for street self defense purposes. There are three main reasons for this.
Firstly they allow you to control the distance a bit more between you and your opponent which means you don’t have to risk stepping in too close for a punch or any other short range technique and run the risk of getting hit. With a low kick, as John already pointed out in his article, you can fire it out quickly, distracting your opponent and giving you the chance to run of before your opponent knows what’s happening. This is one of the best self-defence tactics there is in my opinion because there is no messing about involved. You just kick and run. And if you kick properly and with accuracy, targeting your kick at your opponent’s knee or thigh then your opponent shouldn’t be able to run after you, leaving you enough time to get out of dodge.
Secondly, low kicks are very powerful, as I’ve already stated. One good kick to your opponent’s leg can be enough to end the fight. It can put them down so they don’t get back up again. This is especially useful if you are up against multiple opponents, a situation were time is very much of the essence. You won’t have time to land more than one technique on any one opponent, simply because they would all be on top of you before you know it. So a well timed and well executed low kick can be very useful for putting at least one of them down and out quickly.
Thirdly, low kicks are the ultimate equal opportunities technique, meaning it doesn’t matter what size or build the person you’re using them against are. A powerful low kick to the side of the knee is enough to topple anyone, big or small, since joints are joints. They are the weakest part of anyone’s leg. In fact, the bigger and heavier your opponent, the weaker their legs are likely to be because they have to support so much weight. Given this, a small person could easily cut down a giant with the right application of technique.
So low kicks seem to have all the bases covered. They are fast, deadly and almost anyone can do them. Does this therefore mean that the relegated high kick, the former torch bearer for the martial arts in general, should be phased out and reclassified as old-fashioned and useless? Let’s find out.
High Kicks
High kicks like round houses and side kicks to the head used to be the kind of techniques that motivated people to go into the martial arts in the first place. Who didn’t watch Bruce Lee movies and think to themselves how awesome it would be to be able to kick like that? I certainly did. In fact I made it my mission to learn how to kick like Bruce Lee. Over the years, high kicking became my favourite past time. I would spend many hours of practice just kicking the bag with high round house kicks, side kicks, hook kicks and spinning kicks. I loved doing them and the better I became at them the more I relied on them in sparring, more so than punching. To this day, it is still the case that I favour high kicks over punching. I can’t help it. I just love doing them.
Right away I should mention here that high kicks will only work if you are good at doing them, if you know how to execute them properly. They therefore take a lot more practice and overall skill than your average low kick. Get them right though and they are worth the amount of effort you have to put into them to get them right.
Another point I’d like to add is that there is no point doing them of the back foot. High kicks especially must be thrown of your leading leg to avoid telegraphing them to your opponent. Any kick done of the front leg is going to be significantly faster than one done of the back leg. (I talked about this in a previous post that you should read if you are interested in learning how to kick properly, especially high kicks.)
I think in terms of sparring in the dojo or competing in kickboxing matches, the high kick is still extremely effective at catching opponents. I have had more success with high kicks in this respect than I have had with any other technique. Again though, the actual effectiveness of the kicks largely depends on how good you are at doing them. I wouldn’t recommend them until you are skilled enough at them, otherwise you’ll just be leaving yourself too open to counter-attack.
Street Self Defense
Trying to use high kicks in a street self defense situation is not recommended for one simple and very important reason: they are just too risky. There is no room for error in a violent confrontation on the street. Make one mistake and it could prove to be your last. There are so many things going against using high kicks in a real fight. You could easily loose your balance for one. The clothes you wear on the street could also restrict your movement (try doing a head kick in a pair of jeans- not that easy is it?). High kicks are also much more difficult to execute compared to low kicks. Do you really want to be asking yourself why you even attempted that high round house kick as your being driven to hospital in an ambulance? Course not. So why take the risk?
This is not to say that high kicks cannot be effective in a street self defense situation. They can. On two separate occasions I have used high kicks in a real fight to good effect, but only because I didn’t think about what I was doing. Sometimes you just react and that’s all there is to it. In my case, because I am a natural kicker the first thing I did was kick and luckily enough it worked out. If I had time to think about my reaction I probably would have did a different technique. John at My Self Defence blog has told me the same thing. He did the door for two years and says sometimes he fought like he was sparring. You just do what comes naturally to you and if that means firing of high kicks then so be it.
If kicking high comes to you that naturally then you’re probably skilled enough to make the kicks work. I remember reading an interview years ago with Master Sken, a Muay Thai master, and in it he told a story about the time he was confronted by this big guy who wanted to take him on there and then in a fight. Master Sken just smiled when he heard that and then did a jumping spin kick that whizzed by just short of the other guy’s nose. When he had gotten over the shock the big guy apologised and walked of. So you see, such kicks can be of use in a volatile situation, but only if you are skilled enough at doing them.
High or Low?
So it would seem that low kicks have the edge when it comes to self-defence. They would be the kick of choice for most people in such a situation.
It would be foolish to write of high kicks as being useless however. Like all other techniques they can be made to work if the person doing them is skilled enough and confident enough to try them.
My advice is this: if kicking high comes naturally to you then do it; if kicking high is not a natural thing to you then work to make it so or else do something else instead.
Just remember. No technique is useless, only the person doing it.
Further and Recommended Reading:
Low Kicks: Aiming Low For Maximum Punishment In Unarmed Combat
Complete Kicking: The Ultimate Guide to Kicks for Martial Arts Self-defense & Combat Sports
