Taekwondo is a martial art devoted to teaching the skills necessary to throw powerful punches as well as powerful kicks, and this is what we are going to center ourselves today, kicks.
At this point you probably noticed that your Taekwondo uniform is designed so you can extend your legs as much as your body and your needs allow, well this is because most taekwondo kicks are designed if you will, to reach further than any normal punch.
This is quite important as much as it is critical because it makes a taekwondo athlete a dangerous opponent when faced either in real life combat or in Olympic competition. Let us explain why. When you learn to throw taekwondo kicks, you learn to extend your offensive as much as you can, leaving your opponent with little room to reach you and of course contact you, either to hurt or to get a point.
In martial arts, especially Taekwondo, kicks can be used either as an offensive maneuver as well as a defensive tactic. Yes, I know you might be wondering how something like that can be possible, well, think about it, you’re in a taekwondo competition or an Olympic one, and you see your opponent coming at you, there’s a variety of kicks that you can use to not just stop him but to simultaneously hit back. And the more powerful the kick, the more are your chances of achieving victory. Also, bear in mind, if you get one kick in, the chance of getting another one after is high.
AN ALL-OUT ATTACK MODE
One of the things you learn the minute you wear your Taekwondo uniform is to be faster. And being faster means you can throw twice the kicks while your opponent can try to get one out.
Also, you need to remember that taekwondo teaches a variety of kicks that go to a variety of points in the body which means you learn to be able to hit not just one part of the body but several, like head, abdomen, ribs, and so on. This results in the possibility of connecting several kicks in sequence aiming at different parts of the body of your opponent.
Furthermore, in taekwondo there are several kicks that go high and are aerial in nature, this kind of kicks have two advantages in themselves, one, they are difficult if not impossible to block, second, at the same time as they are offensive, they are also defensive because when you throw an aerial kick, your opponent has little to no chance to block them, and the faster you threw them, the more likely it will be that they will hit your intended target.
Of course, you need to understand that to achieve the level of speed and accuracy necessary to throw the kind of Taekwondo kicks we have talked in this article you will need not just to practice them but also to work hard on your physical condition to have strong legs that will allow you to be as fast as you need and want to be.
So, next time you put on your Taekwondo uniform be prepared to learn how to kick and to kick fast.