If you’re not integrating one of three similar kicks into your striking and combatives training, you are missing a powerful method of confusing your attacker and opening other targets that just might save your life.
Specifically, attacking the high line (with punches) and suddenly moving the counterattack to the low line (with a low kick) can be very potent. Obviously distance and angle play key roles in this process, and kicking while in punching range might seem foreign to some, the results are highly effective.
The three kicks I referred to above are – the lead leg groin kick, the lead leg cut kick, and the lead leg round kick made to the attackers lead leg. For the purposes of our discussion around the topic of self-defense, we can discard the cut kick for now. However, in each of these kicks, weight transfer (especially as felt and experienced in the feet) is a vital component of the process.
Specifically, punching in combinations (i.e. right, left, right, left) also shifts the weight into the opposite foot as the punch finishes its path to the target. This is one example of how to capture weight transfer to facilitate one of the kicks mentioned above. For this discussion, let’s explore the lead leg (left) round kick to the attackers lead leg (about knee height). Further, let’s use a simple combination to examine the concept – left straight, right straight, left straight (that turns into a forward cover of the attacker’s left hand).
The weight transfer in this process, allows the defender to step at an angle outside the attacker’s lead leg with his/her right foot (while the last left straight punch evolves into a forward cover of the attacker’s left hand) to set up a lead leg round kick as the weight leaves the kicking leg and moves into the stepping leg. The opportunity to follow-up with additional combatives once the lead leg round kick has landed are plentiful (although this kick, when landed perfectly, can stop the fight and disable the attacker’s ability to move effectively). Any outcome that disables the attacker and changes/alters his/her platforms dramatically should be utilized to escape the situation before higher force threats emerge (assuming that there are not other priorities/persons that are in your care).
Check out the quick video below to see more!
