BODYBUILDING NUTRITION BASICS

I learned this type of kick some forty years ago in Kwon Bup Korean Martial Arts. This was the forerunner of modern day Tae KwonDo, and the unfortunate truth is that these kicks aren’t practiced anymore. Why, I don’t know, because this type of kick is the hardest kick, the fastest kick you will ever see.

I call this move, doesn’t what martial art you do, the pop kick. Whether you do a snap, a side, or a wheel, the basic principle doesn’t change. You replace the left foot with the right foot, and kick with the left foot…this all has to occur at the same instant.

By same time I mean that the left foot and the right foot start together, and the right foot hits the ground at the same time the left foot impacts. By doing it in this fashion the whole body gets smaller at the same time, then the whole body explodes. This causes a very pure energy pop in the energy center, which is a point a couple of inches below the navel, which is also called the tan tien.

In addition to the purity of explosion you will feel in the energy center, which will tend to concentrate energy in the kick, you will experience a sudden weight on your standing leg at the same moment you experience weight in the leg you are kicking with. This sudden weight tends to make the explosion of energy very precise, even as it increases the violence. This will really increase the energy of your technique.

If you are executing this move with a snap kick, make sure you get the knee high up so that the foot doesn’t slide up the front of the target, but rather comes in straight. If you are doing a side kick, make sure that the weight of the hips really goes into the target. If you are doing a wheel kick, make sure you get the hips and kick up to a true horizontal plane.

The fourth technique would be a spin pop to the rear, and uses the side kick. You would practice all four kicks against a wall, learning how to lift legs simultaneously, and place the feet on the wall and the ground at the same time. You don’t have to hit the wall with power, save that for a bag, control will actually give you more power in the end.

We used to have all kinds of entry moves to make these kicks work. We would angle our stance as we slapped the attacker’s hands, and the we would do it subtle, and then be in the kick before the target knew what we were doing. As we invested time and sweat the explosion would get more pure and more full of energy.

Make sure you use this technique in a variety of stances, and you will have a much larger arsenal of martial arts weapons. This is a great technique to practice, and it is born of the successful merger of karate power and TKD kicks. Japanese martial arts or Korean martial arts, this is the hardest kick, and the fastest kick, and perhaps the most effective leg technique I know.

Read the latest articles and get some truly hard core information on how to have the strongest kicks you can have at Punch ‘Em Out. 2

Al Case Fitness Fitness, hardest kick, Kang Duk Won, karate, kenpo, knock out, korean karate, kung fu, kwon bup, powerful kick, powerful punch, self defense, shaolin, strongest punch, tae kwon do

Many people walk to the corner mall, walk into their Korean Martial Arts dojo, and train in nice, neat uniforms, watching themselves in wall sized mirrors, kick soft and well hung bags, and think that they are doing hard core Tae Kwon Do. These people should learn some beginnings of Korean Karate. They will find that that polite block and kick combo they are practicing was born in hell, perfected in hades, and then things got nasty.

Just to let you know, this bit of scribble is speaking of the history of the kwans from Korea of the fifties. This includes the nine major kwans, which are Sung Moo Kwan, Chang Moo Kwan, Chung Du Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Yun Moo Kwan, Han Moo Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Kang Duk Won, Jung Do Kwan. There are other Kwans that grew from these nine, but these nine are the main ones.

Korea is a rugged, little spit of land, about half the size of California,sticking out from the Asian continent. It is a land equal in plains and eternal mountain ranges. It experiences extremes of typhoonal rains, siberian cold, and brain broiling heat.

Throughout its history, Korea has been embroiled in countless wars. The Japanese held sway during the first half of the last century, and in the early fifties Korea became the battleground between the free world and communist forces. Thus, this small bit of land came under the boot heel of million man armies, and the people were in constant flight, or killed outright.

The communist forces attacked first, causing a mass exodus the length of the peninsula. Peasants were made part of the vast communist army, given no weapons, and put into massive meat grinder attacks. If the peasants survived the exodus, or being forced to fight, they had to endure a winter with temperatures often at 30 degrees below zero.

Those that managed to survive the winters, and the spring offensive of the United Nations armies, continued with their study of the martial arts. That’s right, during all the death and disease, in spite of the weather and starvation, the nine kwans survived. Indeed, they thrived.

One tale that made me drop jaw in awe of these incredible people was that, when the war front approached, the students would pick up the planks of their dojos and head south. That’s right, they didn’t even nail the boards to the floor beams, because they knew they would have to flee, and they perfected their jumping, spinning kicks on unsecured, splintered, weathered boards. Got a splinter between your toes…pick it out and keep going, because that’s the martial arts.

So enjoy the fur lined bags and gaudy mirrors, and toast your designer water in appreciation. That Korean Karate you are studying was built by gods, and it is a legacy dripping with blood and death and tears. And when you bow…kow tow to the floor, your ancestors deserve it.

Al Case has delved into Korean martial arts 4O plus plus+ years. He has written a book and produced a video on the Kang Duk Won, and it is available at Monster Martial Arts.

Al Case Fitness Chang Moo Kwan, Chung Du Kwan, Fitness, Han Moo Kwan, Jung Do Kwan, Kang Duk Won, karate, Moo Duk Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, self defense, Sung Moo Kwan, tae kwon do, Yun Moo Kwan