Round up of Kicking (diary entry)

14.01.15 Tonight’s lesson continued my client’s previous interlude into combative kicking. We built off last week and brought in more boxing as well as knees and elbows. The session began with some agility work using the cones, incorporating shadow boxing. We then did some dynamic stretching, which is my preferred pre-training stretch. The exercises - which included skipping knee raises, swing kicks, crescent kicks, one-legged bodyweight dead lifts and side kicks – are great for directly engaging the muscles involved in kicking and the fighter gets to work on his posture, stance and guard. Next we moved on the focus mitts and concentrated on boxing combinations. After building these up we looked at how kicks can follow on from hand strikes. We then ran back through variations on the front kick, including the Newton’s cradle advance and different angles (stamping and piercing). This brought us onto the front leg side kick again. We then covered the round kick, increasing height and looking at the rotational movement required to get better penetration into the strike. Knees and elbows were then covered with attention behind paid to referencing targets with the free hand. We took a long look at application, expressing the importance of range dependence. The session finished with a few functional fitness exercises to look better development of muscularity in relation to the execution of kicks. This included work with the resistance bands for front kick, round kick and front knee strike. I also introduced my client to power cleans on the barbell to encourage explosive striking.