Hi
What excercises can you recommend to improve the kicking speed and power?
Thank you in advance!
Printable View
Hi
What excercises can you recommend to improve the kicking speed and power?
Thank you in advance!
Power comes from the ability to contract a muscle. If you want to develop strength, you need to get strong. The best way to do this is things like snatches, deadlifts, and squats. The next thing you need is technique. You literally need both these things.
A big strong leg muscle without technique won't be able to do what you want.
A guy with great technique who doesn't have strength won't be able to do what you want. Do quadriceps exercises (and hips and everything else) to develop the ability to generate a lot of force, and repeat your kicks over and over to get the technique you want. When you have BOTH of these things, you will be formidable. The next thing you asked about was speed. As far as I know, there aren't really any tips to increase speed. I do not know if "reaction speed" can be improved, and I'm not sure if you can really "train to kick faster." You can have more efficient movement, which will equate to faster movement, however. For me to give you a way to kick as strong and as fast as possible, I would recommend doing a powerlifting style routine, or something designed to gain strength without so much size unless that's what you want, and I would train kicks like normal. There is a believe in martial arts (not so much anymore) that weight lifting is bad, and mass is bad. Weight lifting doesn't make you slow, and it doesn't make you inflexible, or anything else. It makes you strong. But it's only some of the answer. You need technique. A powerlifter has the potential to strike very hard. But if he has never studied striking, he won't be able to do it very effectively. A skinny boxer who has never weight lifted but is a good boxer will have great technique and be able to hit hard, but not roughly as hard as if he lifted weights. If you take a powerlifter who has practiced boxing for years, that guy will be able to hit hard. Therefore, the answer to your question is do things that make you stronger all over, and train your techniques to get better at them.
A couple of bodyweight drills and exercises you can do are:
1) Bodyweight squat and as you come up, one leg will do a front kick and then rechamber and set down. Perform another squat and alternate the kicking leg as you come up.
2) Very similar but do lunges (either in place or walking lunges) and do a front kick at the end.
I also would get a kettlebell and "hook" my foot/toes (curling the toes back) and then lift it into the chamber position and hold it for a couple of seconds and set it down. Using lighter kettlebells, I would do the same thing, but also execute a front kick SLOWLY and under control.
Okinawans/Japanese used to use "iron sandals" that they would wear. The modern equivalent would be ankle weights to wear while doing kicks and footwork.
Also, just basic strength training like squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts. If you have a gym or the equipment, leg extensions really mimic the front kick motion.
To be clear, kicking with ankle weights is damaging. So is running with ankle weights.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin73
If you want to do slow kicks with light ankle weights that might be ok, but it's not really going to make you kick harder. Let me explain.
Doing a slow movement with light weight is going to build endurance for doing a slow movement with light weight. This won't translate to explosive power, and it won't increase your total strength any. There is no real purpose to do a slow movement with light weight if your goal is strength development. I would be willing to bet that two people, one who only does normal kicks against pads or whatever, and the other guy who does the kicks against pads and who does slow movements with ankle weights, they are both going to kick exactly the same force. The closest analogy I can give is that, if your goal is to be a sprinter, running long distances does nothing to help, because the energy systems involved are so different. If you want to kick harder, make your muscles able to generate more power. Do this by lifting heavy weights (deadlift, squat). If you want to kick faster, just practice kicking.
Doing bodyweight squats is ok if you don't want to lift weights or don't have access to them. They will develop strength until you get past a certain rep range, in which case they will just develop endurance in the legs (which may improve your fighting). Think of it like this. Consider a total beginner who can only do 10 bodyweight squats and who can only squat 50 pounds. If this guy does bodyweight squats, when he gets from 10 to 20 bodyweight squats he will probably be able to squat slightly more weight. When he gets to 30 bodyweight squats he will probably be able to squat a little more weight. When he gets to 2 or 3 sets of 20 or 30 bodyweight squats, he will probably be able to squat a little more weight. If he gets to 50 or 100 or 200 or 300 bodyweight squats, it won't make him squat extraneous weight. Thus, your training should be based around your objectives.
Something is better than nothing, but if your goal is to kick as hard as possible, you need:
1) proper body mechanics
2) the ability to generate power
The first can be achieved by training
The second can be achieved by weight lifting
This is my overly verbose explanation of what is basically a basic question :p
I second everything that's been said up to this point and I would add sprinting and plyometrics to your workouts.
You need flexibility for power and speed so find a good stretching routine or do yoga.
You also need a good coach to teach you form, and then Reps upon Reps of kicking pads and bags with a focus of adding power and speed.
And lastly, single-leg RDLs. Not sure if it helps power and speed, but it improves balance which is essential to good kicking.
No disagreement there and agree with what you posted.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronFist
Notice, that I did say "slowly" when talking about doing the kicks with weights.
I also made beginner recommendations and ones that didn't require access to a gym. If the OP doesn't have access to weights/gym, then the BW is the way to go. You can do strength progressions with just your body weight and get VERY strong. For example, one legged pistol squats.
But, I'd also willing to bet that we would agree that it is also very hard to give quick advice on a topic like this without turning it into a VERY long post and/or explaining the choice given.
True, but no one ever said anything about not having weights :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Kevin73
I'd even recommend against kicking slowly with weights. It's not really going to do anything except feel hard.
Even punching with weights, doing it fast is a terrible idea, and slow, won't do anything to make you punch tougher. It will just make you better at punching slowly having weights in your hand.
The limiting factor to kicking hard and fast doesn't have anything to do with the muscles being trained by kicking slowly weight ankle weights. Kicking power comes from hips, quads, lower legs. Make those muscles as strong as possible and repeat your kicking form and you'll kick hard and fast.