Karate: Jumping Kicks Part 1

To make your arsenal even more powerful, you need to learn how to do the jumping kicks. And here they are:

Tobi Mae Geri

One of the ways of doing it includes what we call the scissors, First, you jump up forward, pushing with, say, your left foot and bringing your right knee up to your chest. This is how you perform the scissors, your right leg goes down, while the left one kicks forward (or forward-up).

As usual, the hips are used to increase the range and power of this technique. The most important factor when doing this technique is the mental picture that you form on how to do it. There should be no separate phases of this technique, as it slow down the movement. Thus, practice doing it several times to remember the correct sequence, and then focus on the foot that will hit the target and send it to the target from the very first moment. That's right, even when you are bringing the knee to the chest, you must focus on the target. After all, you don't do it for the sake of bring the knee up.

Another version of this technique includes bringing up both knees. After you grouped your body like that, you can fly forward, without any concern about your opponent's actions, as well as all you vulnerable areas are protected. Again, focus on the target and on the sensation of your foot hitting on it.

The third version involves spinning. You can use it as the first technique in a combination, or after you have blocked the opponent's attack. You need to jump up and towards the target, spinning simultaneously, and bringing your knee to the chest. The knee to the chest will make you spin faster, so be careful.

There is one other way of performing mae tobi geri. This time, you replace ''bringing your knee to the chest'' with the mae geri. After the first mae geri reached its target, you need to perform the 'scissors'. The reverse motion of one leg going down should coincide with the other leg performing the kick. Focus on the scissors, or, better yet, on the target.