crescent kicks

[bawang]

whats the chinese name for crescent kick? i don kno wat u guys talking about

[Subitai]

A thread with no fighting or ranting??? Who are you guys and what did you do with KFM????

Haha Right on, love when it's discussed like that!

You guys pretty much "nailed" everything I was gonna say.
I wouldn't even think about doing it in a venue where the guy could shoot and/or crash me.

But if it was all stand up ...yeah it's tricky if you set it up right, blamo outta nowhere!

For a head shot...When the arms are up, blocking or just generally obscurring the vision during an exchange... time it right and he doesn't see it coming.

I wouldn't from LONG range to close the gap though...it's not really long range to begin with and yet you see people messing around doing it. It's all good fun but a good way to get your leg caught and if you have pants on, all the easier to grab you.

[RisingCrane]

whats the chinese name for crescent kick? i don kno wat u guys talking about

內蓮踢
外蓮踢

Personally, I use them as a dynamic stretch in my warmup, but for fighting I prefer round kicks.

[Judge Pen]

I see them more for clearing and advancing. If you work a crescent kick against a heavy bag, then you will quickly understand its limitations. I liked the comment about it being a WTF reactionary kick as it clears space and can draw an opponents guard toward the kick and open up other areas for other techniques.

I also have had good luck with it as a counter to a front sweep in using the momentum of the sweep to give a boost to an outside crescent kick.

My teacher also taught neck sweeping or reaping techniques, but I never felt like I was strong, fast or flexible enough to make that application realistic so I discounted it in my personal toolbox.

[GeneChing]

In BSL, crescent kicks are used in concert with the hand slap. It works sort of like a double punch to the temples. Usually someone will only block one of the attacks, the kick or the slap, so the other gets through. This is seldom a finishing move, but it can force an opening for a follow-up combo.

There's a Songshan Shaolin application that deploys an inside crescent as a sort of qinna move against the opponent's trapped arm. Basically, you lock the wrist and drop the crescent on the arm to hyperextend the elbow. It's one of those insane Songshan apps that I've seen a monk get to work, but I couldn't quite get there well enough to be comfortable with it. Sure looked cool tho, and the uke went down hard.

[Kellen Bassette]

I think the outside crescent kick is an awesome sparring/fighting technique. A lot of people think it's too weak; and for most it is; but if you develop, you can easily get knock out power by bringing it across the jaw. The version I like requires chambering the knee, as a front kick, (or most other kicks.) Not to be confused with a full circle outside crescent kick, i.e. "stretch kick."

It's real tough to work on a heavy bag, because it causes too much strain on the knee, (for me anyways), but it's awesome to train on the Thai Pads. I also work it on this octagon shaped "Uppercut" bag I use, works much better than a regular heavy bag.

I know a lot of guys who thought it was impractical until they really drilled it on the Thai Pads. You can feel the power once you get it down, providing your quick and limber enough.

I like to use it to the jaw, off my lead leg. If you pick the front knee straight up there's very little telegraph.

As to the inside crescent kick...hard to land because it's so telegraphic. I was taught to use it to knock the guard down, but this is tough to do. Works real nice as a fake. Just lob it out in the air then follow with spinning crescent/back/hook, whatever. If your good enough with your kicks and balance, using the inside crescent as a fake and turning the same leg into a sidekick, (swallowtail kick,) is a pretty gnarly move.

[Kellen Bassette]

I got to comment on the hand slapping too...love that as a training method. Some of the reasons I've been told/discovered...The hand is used as a target. If you can't hit your hand, how are you going to hit some one in the head?

This really works for helping focus, especially with beginners. You'll see people lobbing sloppy kicks into nowhere, but to hit your hand properly forces you to use good form and posture. It really improves the technique and the focus.

One thing that always amazed me, sparring my Sifu, were how hard his hands were. He would block punches and kicks with these little "kick hands" just dropping the blade of the palm on the arm or leg, from a couple inches above and would cause some nasty bruising. Later on I would use the same technique to block and people would make that comment about my hands. I thought about it and realized a lot of it had to do with years of kicking my hands and slapping the ground during form work. It's really a type of Iron Palm conditioning and I believe it really hardens the hands, even if that's not what your focusing on.

I think that's one of the coolest things about Shaolin, all the exercises have so many different purposes...you never really train, just one thing. You train multiple things with one exercise.

[ShaolinDan]

I got to comment on the hand slapping too...love that as a training method. Some of the reasons I've been told/discovered...The hand is used as a target. If you can't hit your hand, how are you going to hit some one in the head?

This really works for helping focus, especially with beginners. You'll see people lobbing sloppy kicks into nowhere, but to hit your hand properly forces you to use good form and posture. It really improves the technique and the focus.

One thing that always amazed me, sparring my Sifu, were how hard his hands were. He would block punches and kicks with these little "kick hands" just dropping the blade of the palm on the arm or leg, from a couple inches above and would cause some nasty bruising. Later on I would use the same technique to block and people would make that comment about my hands. I thought about it and realized a lot of it had to do with years of kicking my hands and slapping the ground during form work. It's really a type of Iron Palm conditioning and I believe it really hardens the hands, even if that's not what your focusing on.

I think that's one of the coolest things about Shaolin, all the exercises have so many different purposes...you never really train, just one thing. You train multiple things with one exercise.

Absolutely!

[SPJ]

bai lian

or swing lotus

there are hand moves with any leg move.

inward is nei

outward is wai.

great.

leg moves do not stand alone.

that is.

[David Jamieson]

1 name, 2 words: Mirko Cro Cop

Crescent kick knock outs. He has them.

[SPJ]

people tend to think about strike only

actually

swing lotus leg or bai lian tui

it can be lateral hook to throw or uproot the opponent's lead leg while your hands are pulling or striking at the same time

etc etc etc

[Lucas]

Some punk came at me with a linoleum knife.

I crescent kicked it out of his hand.

my friend ambushed me with a wooden knife by bursting through a doorway as i was walking up to it, just for fun, its a thing we used to do. we liked to suprise attack each other out of the blue. but my auto response was a quick inside crescent and it actually worked. i kicked the back of his hand/wrist hard enough that he lost the knife. the up side to that is that with a crescent you arent having to turn your hips and you're essentially still squared. which was nice because he rushed me right after i kicked him and we went into a clinch. now i'm not saying this is what we should be doing, but this was reflex and it worked. maybe i got lucky, maybe my training paid off, maybe a bit of both.

so kind of like sanjuro mentioned. it was more of a WTF moment, that worked. it makes you feel good about your training, but you cant count on that to play out that way a second time.

[Bacon]

my friend ambushed me with a wooden knife by bursting through a doorway as i was walking up to it, just for fun, its a thing we used to do. we liked to suprise attack each other out of the blue. but my auto response was a quick inside crescent and it actually worked. i kicked the back of his hand/wrist hard enough that he lost the knife. the up side to that is that with a crescent you arent having to turn your hips and you're essentially still squared. which was nice because he rushed me right after i kicked him and we went into a clinch. now i'm not saying this is what we should be doing, but this was reflex and it worked. maybe i got lucky, maybe my training paid off, maybe a bit of both.

so kind of like sanjuro mentioned. it was more of a WTF moment, that worked. it makes you feel good about your training, but you cant count on that to play out that way a second time.

Especially if you don't have that element of surprise.

[YouKnowWho]

I did ask my longfist teacher about the application of the crescent kick when I was young. He said, "What if you are holding something in your arms such as your baby (you can't just throw it away) when you need to fight?"

[bawang]

I did ask my longfist teacher about the application of the crescent kick when I was young. He said, "What if you are holding something in your arms such as your baby (you can't just throw it away) when you need to fight?"

i would throw the baby at the enemy