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On page 116 of the book, the instinctive defense against front kick is shown. It’s the one where you are in a passive stance, arms down, as the kick is rising to the groin it is deflected with the left hand. This is said to be the most instinctive way to defend against a rising kick.
I know this is how we always practice it and it seems to make a lot of sense at first. It certainly seems as if deflecting the kick in that manner would be the fastest way to defend in that situation. But is it really the most instinctive?
I once heard another explanation, in which it was said that when a kick rises to the groin, the most instinctive way to defend would be to scoot back your hips as far as possible and cross your arms in front of your body, trying to instinctively block the rising kick. If that were to be your reaction, then the kick defense shown on page 118, the scooping defense, would apply, since your right arm has already crossed the kick’s path and all you need to do now is scoop it past you.
I suppose your instinctive motion would depend on the path the kick – or other threat – is taking. For example, I could imagine that if something is coming straight towards you, such as a push kick, or even a punch or a stick/bayonet, the defense on p116, of just deflecting it to the side with one arm, may likely be the most instinctive motion. However, if the kick is rising, as it would be during a groin kick, it makes sense to me that one would instinctively scoot back the hips and cross the arms, in which case the other defense (p118) would make more sense.
Any comments?
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GiantkillerYou would think twisting your hips left or right while blocking would work too. Taking the punishment to the side of your thigh/calf instead of your hands (lessen the chance to damage bones) would make more sense. Seems to naturally put your right leg while in a passive stance (if spinning to right) in a fighting stance to counter attack.
Well, I’m basically talking about what your most instinctive reaction would be if a kick (or other threat, such as an errant soccer ball), would rise up to your groin area or maybe midsection. I think, instinctively, people will tend to cross their arms in front of their body and scoot back their hips to stop the kick/threat.
Of course, that action alone might not be sufficient to stop a kick and could even injure or break your bones. But if that’s what you’ll do instinctively, it would be easy to train yourself to \”improve\” upon your instinctive reaction, by adding a body defense and the scooping motion to it, thereby redirecting the kick past you (and not taking any impact on the bones). With your arms crossed and hips back, you are already in the perfect position to do this motion.
Since in KM we usually try to take instinctive motions and then \”improve\” them to make a better defense (raising your arms in defense against a stab into a 360 block for example), using the scooping defense as an instinctive defense (as opposed to or in addition to the other one shown in the book) might make sense.
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GiantkillerI have a comment – I hate missing this defense 😯
😛
Sorry – I have nothing of value to add – I instinctively go with my hands, though prefer redirecting with my shins (Don’t like my hands being away from my face / head) … Unfortunately, I’ve had trouble with this simple defense both with both legs and arms … 😕
I’d really like to master the stop kick – Anyone volunteer to kick me in the groin so I can practice? 8)
The instinct isn’t to cross your arms, IMHO. It’s to put your hands down, palms down, almost like you are trying to push at the kick, while your hips go back. This is the movement we try to improve on. In the technique, the hands move in the instinctive way, just farther…instead of stopping at the groin, one sweeps across and the other comes up to the face. The hips, instead of popping back, pivot so that you can go into a fit. Under stress, students still pop their hips back sometimes. This makes a successful defense, but doesn’t allow for the strongest counters.
Sorry, I suppose I shouldn’t have said \”arms\”, it’s true, it’s really more the hands, but they do still cross, so they can form a sort of instinctive shield. Obviously, the shield alone would not be enough for a strong defense, but once the hands are crossed like that and the hips are back (which also brings the upper body down a bit), they are basically right in front of the rising kick (actually the right hand, being crossed over the left, would be slightly past the path of the rising kick). From there it’s only a slight adjustment to reach out a bit further with the right hand and make that sweeping motion (while also blading your body as you do this).
An instinctive motion is obviously very fast, just like pulling your hand back when you touch a very hot object for example. I wonder if it could be changed in the middle of the motion as I understand you are saying? It seems as though, to build that instinctive shield, the fingers of both hands would be turned up and then come across, while in the instinctive kick defense (the one shown on p 116) the fingers would stay pointed down while sweeping across. Also one hand would sweep across, while the other would come up higher for a punch, which seems to be an adjustment in the middle of the instinctive motion.
I don’t know, it seems that if the kick (or other object such as a stick or bayonet) was coming straight forward, the thought of sweeping it to one side with the hand would be the most instinctive motion and would mimick the instinctive defense on p 116. However, if the kick is rising and you are building this instinctive shield with your hands, maybe it would be simpler to learn (and faster) to allow your body to do the complete instinctive motion (without changing any aspect of it), and then continue on with the sweep.
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GiantkillerBack when I was taking martial arts I remeber blocking some kicks with another kick or raising you knee to the inside to protect your groin area. You see this alot in Mui Thai.
We do those defenses, too, but the idea behind the instinctive block is that you don’t see the kick coming ’til it’s very late and so you don’t have time to go with a better technique. You just react, the way an untrained person would naturally do, and then \”improve\” that natural reaction slightly to make it a stronger defense.
In the defense shown in the book, you just sweep the kick away with your fingers pointed down, which looks like the quickest and easiest way to defend. However, it seems that as a natural reaction to a groin kick many people will scoot back their hips and cross their hands to try and block the kick. If you did this, it seems like an easier and quicker \”improvement\” to that natural motion would be to just add the scooping hand defense and then blade your body as you move in to counter. As your natural reaction only takes a split second, this could be done quickly and effectively. The other defense (fingers pointed downwards, sweeping across) could work well, too, but if your reaction happens to be that you scoot your hips back and cross your hands you may be out of position for that defense to work and then the scooping defense might work better. Anyway, maybe just a different way of doing this.
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Giantkiller
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