AXE KICK

I'll be very honest with you, I never wanted to be a professional competitor. My first fascination with Karate (at the impressionable age of 14) was always 1) self protection and 2) the idea of mastering a fascinating and complex art and doing amazing things with my own body that a lot of people cannot do.

As of late that 2nd reason has been growing bigger and bigger to the point where it almost completely overshadows the 1st motivation and I wish to spend the rest of my days learning and trying to master everything that has to do with Karate including exploring, learning and incorporating ideas, drills, fighting philosophies from other styles of Karate.

As for self defense/self protection, my formula is basically:

1). Awareness
2). Avoidance and hard targeting
3). Deescalation
4). Preemptive attack
5). Prioritize the use of weapons and tools over empty handed combat
6). Do just enough to stop the threat and get the hell out of there (no need to go over board or stick around)

if you spend your entire life training and learning a martial art, at some point, you have to teach what you have learned to people. You know what I mean?
 
2) the idea of mastering a fascinating and complex art and doing amazing things with my own body that a lot of people cannot do.

You can get that with bath salts and cocaine

if you spend your entire life training and learning a martial art, at some point, you have to teach what you have learned to people. You know what I mean?
Mentorship is in our DNA, its a very normal thing.
 
if you spend your entire life training and learning a martial art, at some point, you have to teach what you have learned to people. You know what I mean?

Yes, I know and I agree. Besides, I've always been the type of person to always want to give to others and share what I have. If I can financially afford to get away with it I'd rather teach for free (if I do teach). By doing it that way we can also reserve the right to deny teaching someone if we deem them to have a sociopathic character.

You can get that with bath salts and cocaine

One turns you into a crazed zombie in Miami and the other one makes you throw dollys into bus windows. Think I'll pass.
 
Yes, I know and I agree. Besides, I've always been the type of person to always want to give to others and share what I have. If I can financially afford to get away with it I'd rather teach for free (if I do teach). By doing it that way we can also reserve the right to deny teaching someone if we deem them to have a sociopathic character.



One turns you into a crazed zombie in Miami and the other one makes you throw dollys into bus windows. Think I'll pass.
Immunity to teasers and manhandle 5 cops 4 weight classes above you

And you can KO a bus
 
You "bring it up" the same way you start every TKD/karate kick, by chambering your kicking leg.
 
Immunity to teasers and manhandle 5 cops 4 weight classes above you

And you can KO a bus

So they're like a super serum that'll turn me into a villainous type Captain Murica? Sheeeeiit, sign me up!
 
You "bring it up" the same way you start every TKD/karate kick, by chambering your kicking leg.

can everyone elaborate on this more?

I was throwing it straight legged rather than chambering.

chamgering it doesnt make sense to me. it looks alot more like a straight leg swing.
 
Immunity to teasers and manhandle 5 cops 4 weight classes above you

And you can KO a bus

Don't KO the bus because the Nog bros. will get mad & kill you.
 
Yes, I know and I agree. Besides, I've always been the type of person to always want to give to others and share what I have. If I can financially afford to get away with it I'd rather teach for free (if I do teach). By doing it that way we can also reserve the right to deny teaching someone if we deem them to have a sociopathic character.



One turns you into a crazed zombie in Miami and the other one makes you throw dollys into bus windows. Think I'll pass.

What gives the game away regarding being sociopathic........

I only ask because I keep getting chucked out of Karate gyms when I turn up with a Katana to class?
 
can everyone elaborate on this more?

I was throwing it straight legged rather than chambering.

chamgering it doesnt make sense to me. it looks alot more like a straight leg swing.

It should always be chambered. For starters the kick is much quicker when chambered and has the snap needed to get it past your opponent's guard with power. Also, it is not telegraphed when chambered AND when you chamber your leg there is far less the likelyhood of your kicking leg getting caught mid stride (coming or going). It is near impossible to get the kick around your opponent's guard without chambering it and makes the execution quite difficult and clumsy. If you haven't done so already you should really study Andy Hug's technique as closely as you possibly can to see what I mean.

I think the MT in you is what makes you not want to chamber your leg for this kick. While there are some kicks between MT and Karate that can be chambered for speed but not as much power (mawashi geri and mae geri in Karate) and others delivered directly to your target without chambering for more power but less speed (round kick and teep kick in MT) there are certain techniques in Karate that are almost always delivered with snap via chambering such as the side kick, crescent kicks (for those Karate styles that use it) and the axe kick.

What gives the game away regarding being sociopathic........

I only ask because I keep getting chucked out of Karate gyms when I turn up with a Katana to class?

That seems normal to me. I was thinking more along the lines of when I attended a Kung Fu class with my Ninja gear on complete with shuriken, hand claws, smoke bombs, grappling hook, Ninja-To and a hit list. The only skills I lacked at the time were the ability to slip out of handcuffs and escape police cars. I'm still working on that.
 
It should always be chambered. For starters the kick is much quicker when chambered and has the snap needed to get it past your opponent's guard with power. Also, it is not telegraphed when chambered AND when you chamber your leg there is far less the likelyhood of your kicking leg getting caught mid stride (coming or going). It is near impossible to get the kick around your opponent's guard without chambering it and makes the execution quite difficult and clumsy. If you haven't done so already you should really study Andy Hug's technique as closely as you possibly can to see what I mean.

I think the MT in you is what makes you not want to chamber your leg for this kick. While there are some kicks between MT and Karate that can be chambered for speed but not as much power (mawashi geri and mae geri in Karate) and others delivered directly to your target without chambering for more power but less speed (round kick and teep kick in MT) there are certain techniques in Karate that are almost always delivered with snap via chambering such as the side kick, crescent kicks (for those Karate styles that use it) and the axe kick.



That seems normal to me. I was thinking more along the lines of when I attended a Kung Fu class with my Ninja gear on complete with shuriken, hand claws, smoke bombs, grappling hook, Ninja-To and a hit list. The only skills I lacked at the time were the ability to slip out of handcuffs and escape police cars. I'm still working on that.

If your getting caught by the police your doing it wrong......
 
If your getting caught by the police your doing it wrong......

Well, when you're learning from shitty books written by Ashida Kim like I did then you're already starting off on the wrong path. I've since upgraded to Dim Mak and the Death Touch.
 
Well, when you're learning from shitty books written by Ashida Kim like I did then you're already starting off on the wrong path. I've since upgraded to Dim Mak and the Death Touch.

i dont see a chamber



 
i dont see a chamber





Yeah, I see your point. I personally cannot do it without chambering my leg (although the axe kick is not something I regularly practice, let alone use in kumite). If you feel more comfortable w/out the chamber then I say go for it. I've only ever been taught this kick formally in two different styles (TaeKwonDo and Kyokushin) and in both schools in which I was taught this technique was always with a chamber. One thing I do remember my Kyokushin CI said to me about chambering the leg is that it makes it near impossible for your opponent to guess if you're going to deliver the kick from the outside or from the inside (and now that I think about it perhaps that is the principle reason for chambering the kicking leg).

The only other piece of advice I can offer is, if you really would like to make the axe kick your own and want to bring yourself to the late Andy Hug's level with it, then do as he did and choose one leg to do it with and practice it to death (the late A. Hug did the kick exclusively with his left leg iirc). IMO practicing the kick with one leg will speed up the development and mastery of the technique via muscle memory and also allow you to be good at using it w/out the need to chamber your leg just as he did.

Lastly, it may help if you drill a technique most (if not all) Kyokushin and Kyokushin derived styles practice which is called mae keage geri. It's basically a rising front kick where you kick as far above your head as you possible can and it's done with a straight leg; no chambering. We do this at the beginning of every class during warm ups. There is also a side kick version of it as well (yoko keage). Here's what it looks like:

 
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get an ouija board and summon Andy Hug's ghost. ask him
 
Yeah, I see your point. I personally cannot do it without chambering my leg (although the axe kick is not something I regularly practice, let alone use in kumite). If you feel more comfortable w/out the chamber then I say go for it. I've only ever been taught this kick formally in two different styles (TaeKwonDo and Kyokushin) and in both schools in which I was taught this technique was always with a chamber. One thing I do remember my Kyokushin CI said to me about chambering the leg is that it makes it near impossible for your opponent to guess if you're going to deliver the kick from the outside or from the inside (and now that I think about it perhaps that is the principle reason for chambering the kicking leg).

The only other piece of advice I can offer is, if you really would like to make the axe kick your own and want to bring yourself to the late Andy Hug's level with it, then do as he did and choose one leg to do it with and practice it to death (the late A. Hug did the kick exclusively with his left leg iirc). IMO practicing the kick with one leg will speed up the development and mastery of the technique via muscle memory and also allow you to be good at using it w/out the need to chamber your leg just as he did.

Lastly, it may help if you drill a technique most (if not all) Kyokushin and Kyokushin derived styles practice which is called mae keage geri. It's basically a rising front kick where you kick as far above your head as you possible can and it's done with a straight leg; no chambering. We do this at the beginning of every class during warm ups. There is also a side kick version of it as well (yoko keage). Here's what it looks like:



thanks man, im willing to learn or at least look into chambering it as well. perhaps even learning to use it both ways. But I really cant understand how you would "chamber" it. maybe i dont have a good concept of the chamber. but its basically where you raise your leg first. so for example, to chamber the axe kick, i would look like im doing the crane kick from the karate kid kinda, am i right?
 
I really cant understand how you would "chamber" it. maybe i dont have a good concept of the chamber. but its basically where you raise your leg first. so for example, to chamber the axe kick, i would look like im doing the crane kick from the karate kid kinda, am i right?

Lol, that's a funny way to do it. Actually, if you were to chamber your kicking leg you would do it the same way for a (inside or outside) crescent kick as the mechanics and delivery between the two kicking techniques are very similar. Now, I wonder if there are people who regularly execute crescent kicks w/out chambering their kicking leg. :cool:
 
thanks man, im willing to learn or at least look into chambering it as well. perhaps even learning to use it both ways. But I really cant understand how you would "chamber" it. maybe i dont have a good concept of the chamber. but its basically where you raise your leg first. so for example, to chamber the axe kick, i would look like im doing the crane kick from the karate kid kinda, am i right?
The point of the chamber is to bring the hips over, at least thats how it was on the roundhouse kicks. I never did it with axe kicks inc. its inside/outside variations. Front kick was definitely chambered, I still use that one.
 
The point of the chamber is to bring the hips over, at least thats how it was on the roundhouse kicks.

I agree with you in principle. One of the functions of the chamber (in theory) is to help bring the hips over and get the kicking leg over or around your opponent's guard. But as @shincheckin pointed out the late Andy Hug was very successful at using the kick w/out chambering his kicking leg. As many of his fights I had seen in both knockdown Karate and K-1 I don't know how I missed keying in on him never chambering his kicking leg. :oops:
 
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