What would you say is the best stance for delivering and practicing the side kick from if there even is one?
Hi GojuSotokan, I've moved this thread to the karate forum (given your username) where it belongs more than in the articles section, and where you'll get more responses Mitch
Start in whatever your beginning stance is: Then you bring your back foot up to where your front foot is, make sure the rear foot is at a 90 degree angle from the Center line, then bring your front foot up and execute the kick. On the way down it looks similar. In junFan kickboxing it looks like a pendulum. Of course failing this you could look up one of the million Gideon on YouTube about it.
Personally I prefer to work them on the spot as I'm doing in this old video. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbiqC-XH8k"]Slow Kicking - YouTube[/ame]
I feel like that question is backward. You're presumably not going to change stance for the sake of one kick. So the question is "how do I side kick from my default sparring stance?" That's the one I struggled with. As Van Zandt said, the best stance for side kick is side-on. But I wouldn't use that stance for anything other than side kick and its variations. So I don't use it at all. So it became a question of practicing throwing a decent side kick from the more squared-on stance I was using.
For practicing the kick, you should be getting as close as possible to how you would deliver the kick. As Ap Oweyn said, that will generally be facing your training partner (real or imaginary) with your body facing them as it would be in kumite (i.e. with both your arms available for punching or defending - not side-on). For karate, this would generally involve starting from your guard position, raising your knee to the front as if you were going to do a mae geri, then extending your kicking leg as your supporting foot rotates 180 degrees to face away from your opponent. To practice and build up your leg strength, do the same thing but slowly.
Kind of begs the question why you bothered with them at all. That sentence looks like it could be interpreted as a bit snarky, but it's not meant to be. It's a genuine technical question.
No, I know what you mean. Honestly, I don't throw them much for that very reason. Though, if I do, it's off of a jab (generally a jab-cross-jab combo) to take the other guy's attention off what my hips and foot placement are doing.
In Wado-ryu our Sokuto geri (Nearest thing we have to classic side kick) is performed from regular fighting stance. We throw the kick with the first 2/3rd like mae geri - converting to a side kick in the last 3rd. Fast and a good power generator too. Gary
From the man... [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRF9fZ8Swfo"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRF9fZ8Swfo[/ame] Although teh real answer should be "what does your style/sensei teach you to do?" if you are looking at it from anything other than a "smash his face in most efficiently" perspective