Improve Your Kumite: Reset, Defend the Leg Kick, and Recoil

When you freeze, go back to one-two

“You get in there and you freeze. You either freeze or you get overwhelmed, one of those two.” Ask a room full of students how many have been there and every hand goes up.

My answer is a reset. “If I get in there and I just want to get regrounded or centered, maybe I did something that was a little bit bigger and I needed to get myself together, I’ll pull it back in and I’ll just go back to one-two. I’ll either step kick or one-two kick. That’s it. It’s that basic.”

People tell me that’s too easy. It isn’t. “That little routine is going to set you up for the big things.” Throw a one-two into a kick, switch sides and do it again, and you have thrown six techniques off a basic combination. Once you’re settled, the bigger things start to come out of it on their own: a spin, a step kick into a cross-side shita-tsuki. “All of a sudden you start playing a game, and it’s going to evolve.”

Stay active: roll

When I start really going, I move like I’m on rollers. Roll out, roll back in, keep rolling. Staying light and active on your feet keeps you from planting in front of someone and absorbing everything they throw. Add your spins later. First, just stay moving.

Defending the leg kick at Kyokushin range

Here is a question I get: why don’t Kyokushin fighters check leg kicks with the shin more often? We all check. But you won’t often see it in Kyokushin, and the reason is distance. “We’re predominantly pretty close here. Hard to start checking a kick when you’re that close.” In boxing gloves, out at longer range, I can see the hip start, time it, and lift the leg. Chest to chest, that window is mostly gone.

So we use three other options.

1. Brace the leg. When I see the hip fire, I push into him, lock down my leg with the knee braced over my toes, and the leg gets hard. He kicks, I take it on a solid leg and drop it. That’s my first line of defense.

2. Give him the glute. If I see a big kick coming and I can’t get away from it, I turn a little and let it land on the glute. Not so far that I give him my back. Just a small turn.

3. Step in and clear. When he kicks, I step in and clear, taking the space the kick needs.

If the distance is there, check it. Most of the time in Kyokushin, it won’t be.

The hand that covers and clears

“This hand, to me, is just everything.” On a step kick, one hand covers my face and the other clears. If his hand is in the way, I’ll grab it and pull it, or just clear it, and kick. That clearing hand also adds power, because the pull helps turn the body into the kick. The drill is short: one-two, step, clear, kick.

Open the foot so the hip can turn

This is where many of you run into a problem. You throw the one-two, step, and your toes are still pointing straight ahead. Then you kick, and the kick goes straight up. “There is no rotation of the hip, because the hip has no place to go. You have to open up the foot so it gives your hip a place to rotate.”

Make it automatic. One-two, the foot is already turned out, and the kick fires to the inside leg, the body, or the face. I cover this in more detail in how to kick with power.

Recoil and stay in the fight

When I kick, I recoil the heel back toward my glute and I keep fighting. “I don’t get stuck on this side. I see that happen with people all the time. They’ll throw the kick and they’re stuck here. You have to focus on the recoil.”

The reason is simple: you never know what that kick did. “Maybe he checked it. Maybe he just ate it. And now you’ve got to worry about a cross-side right coming in hot.” A kick that hangs in the air does you no good. He grabs it, or he hits you.

So the rhythm is recoil, drop, punch. “Don’t wait to punch.” When it’s clicking, it just fires. When it isn’t, it’s like a car with one spark plug off. You feel the hesitation.

The punch at the end of that chain is often a cross-side shita-tsuki. Bend the knees and don’t lean. The full breakdown is in shita-tsuki and the open-the-drawer drill.

There’s no messing up

One more thing from this lesson, because it may be the most important. “If you’re in a drill and that comes out, don’t be like, ah, I messed up. There’s no messing up. You’re in the process.” I would rather know you are firing something than watch you stop and apologize. I wrote more about that idea in you’re in the process.

Your stance is your statement

Everything above starts from kumite-dachi, the fighting stance. Here’s a short clip on it.

Watch: Kyokushin Karate Kumite Dachi Fighting Stance The Phoenix Way #karate #training #shorts #osu

Your hands come straight up. “It is your statement,” who you want to be at the moment you need victory. I describe it as the lion warrior saying “go away.” A good stance tells the other person you’re ready before you throw anything.

What to drill

1. One-two reset rounds. Light, continuous movement. Whenever you feel rushed, go back to one-two or one-two kick, then rebuild.

2. Leg-kick defense. Your partner throws light low kicks. Brace, give the glute, or step in and clear. Switch roles.

3. Cover and clear. One-two, step, clear the hand, kick. Check that the support foot opens every time.

4. Recoil and punch. One-two, kick, recoil, punch. No pause between the recoil and the punch.

You can work all of this in our adult class, and sparring is optional. You won’t have to spar or get hit if you don’t want to. OSU.