matter how you launch the two versions, here are a few important points to watch out for when practicing alone:
Hit with the heel. Making contact with the toes or the ball of the foot is a sure way to get an injury.
Don’t look over your opposite shoulder when kicking as the severe twist may injure your spine.
Don’t “unwind” your body (returning to your original position) after you have executed a turning back kick. Instead, kick and drop your foot to the floor in front of you.
Make sure the trajectory is straight out from your rear, as opposed to turning too far and making the kick a turning side kick.
Don’t hook your leg on the return, as you do when roundhouse kicking.
Don’t lean too far away from the target. The impact will be reduced and it will knock you off balance.
Here are a few ways to practice the two basic back kicks by yourself to help improve your accuracy.
Kick at a spot on the wall (as shown in Fighter’s Fact Book)
Kick at your image in a mirror
Kick at a mark on a heavy bag
Kick at an object hanging from the ceiling: ball, wad of paper, rolled sock, hacky-sack, etc
Here are some fun and practical variations on the back kick. As with any new technique, especially those that are sensitive to balance, they might require a little extra work so that you don’t fall into a heap.
Touch Back Kick
This is an interesting back kick that is easier to do than it looks. Even if you are not flexible, you can kick chest high, even head high because of the way in which your body is aligned. Unless you are especially fast with it, you shouldn’t use it as a lead attack since you have to turn your back on your opponent and drop down into a relative precarious position to kick. It works especially well, however, when in the course of a fight your back is to the opponent and you are falling. It’s also effective when you are on the ground and your opponent rushes you.
Here are a few variations of the touch back kick. Be careful of the standing ones because even though the kick doesn’t require a great deal of flexibility, you can still strain your support leg. As an added caution, be careful the first few times you do the standing touch-back kick against a live opponent. Both of you will be surprise when your foot shoots up higher than you intended and your heel crunches your partner’s chin.
Lead-leg, Touch Back Kick
Stand before a mirror and square off against your image with your left foot forward. Snap your body hard to the right while angling it downward, touch the floor with your right hand and kick back with your left leg. Look along your left side to see the target.
From your left-leg-forward, on-guard position, turn to your right, lean down and touch the floor with your right hand and kick upward with your left leg.
Turning Touch Back Kick
Square off against your image in the mirror with your left leg forward. Although you should be looking in the area of your opponent’s chin, for the sake of developing accuracy, look at and aim for the center of your chest in the mirror. Turn the same way you do when executing a turning back kick, but as you turn, angle your upper body to the floor and touch it with one or both hands.
3 sets, 10 reps – both sides
On One Knee
Say you are on the ground, right knee down and left knee up, when the assailant advances on you from your front. Pivot hard away from him to your right as you pivot around on your right knee (your lower right leg will turn to the right, too). Touch the floor with both hands and kick upward with your left leg. Don’t expect to kick as high as you do when standing. Look along your left side to see the target, such as a mark on the wall.
3 sets of 10 reps — each side
Back Kick for Flexibility and Power
This two-part exercise will put stretch in your back kick, power in the muscles and build buns of steel. Yesss!
For flexibility Let’s begin with the stretch. Grab hold of a support and swing your right leg up behind you as high as you are able. Keep your leg stiff, lead with your heel and lean your upper body forward no more than 45 degrees.
1 set, 20 reps -- each leg
After you have completed one stretching set with each leg, move to the power-building portion of the exercise.
For power Hold onto your support as before and lift your leg up behind you, leading with your heel. This time, lift your leg slowly so that it’s muscle lifting your leg, not momentum. You won’t be able to go as high as you did with the flexibility phase, and that is okay. When you have reached your highest point, hold your leg in that position for 10 to 15 seconds without bending your upper body more than 45 degrees. If you get a knot in your butt, lower your leg, shake it out and continue with the next rep.
1 set, 10-15 reps — each leg
There are at least two methods to side kick that are considered basic: the snap version and the thrust. The snap kick uses the knee joint as a hinge to flip out the lower leg. I think snapping takes its toll on the knee joint, so much so that it might shorten the training careers of some fighters who have vulnerable knees to begin with. The problem is that they don’t always know they have vulnerable knees until they begin having problems. In some cases, that may be too late.
There are fighters who can do beautiful, high snap kicks, even over their opponents’ heads. But hey can’t hit the heavy bag hard with it. If your high snap kick is only for kata or demonstrations, you have to decide whether you want to pound the bag with it. But if you consider it a weapon for self-defense, you absolutely need to work with it on the heavy bag to know that you can deliver it with sufficient power to hurt or at least stop an assailant.
I only do snap side kicks to the shin and knee because my knees and hips complain bitterly when I try to snap higher. I use thrust side kicks for all targets higher than my opponent’s shins. A thrust might take a hair of a second longer to get to the target, but it’s much easier on the knees and causes much more damage to the target.
A police war story: I had a workout partner many years ago who was a cop and a black belt. He was a powerful guy, though slender, with a thrust side kick that could send a rhino rolling. One night a big drunk discovered this for himself when he burst out the back of the paddy wagon and rushed my friend. That thrust side kick of his nailed the drunk right under the armpit and literally lifted him in the air, just like those fake photos on the cover of karate magazines. But the drunk was flying
