This is a quick Sylvie’s Tips on something I’ve rediscovered for my training. The main tip actually comes from when I trained with the great Kaensak Sor. Ploenjit at AMA in New Jersey several years ago. He would have me get close to and kick the wall, instead of a bag or a pad, in order to force my whole shin to line up in a parallel fashion (perpendicular to the extended kick angle some use striking the side of a target, and not the 45 degree landing angle that is common, instead flat against the target, knee bent). It really helps your hips turn over. But because I haven’t had a padded wall for a while, and mostly because I just forgot about this great drill, I let this correction drill go. As I say in the video the first big advancement I had in controlling my kick was when Sakmongkol taught me the Floating Block. Lately though, I figured that I could bring back the Kaensak drill, only using the uppercut corner pad that is in a lot of gyms. You could still do the drill with control on a non-padded wall, without force and slowly, but it helps to be able to kick something.
My personal addition to this drill comes in the landing. I found that when I started up with the drill again, and kicked hard enough, I was over-rotating back in my landing position. You want to land neutral, exactly where you started. I found that if I extend my had out straight to the pad afterwards it automatically corrected the rotation of my return of the kick.
In the time I’ve been using this drill I’ve added a lot more snap on my kick, and more control. Experiment with it and see how it feels for you. You can always write in and let me know.
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