Another question that I got several times that I wanted to address is, "Paul, you keep saying and explaining that the height of the kick comes from the supporting leg. And I understand what you're saying there, but how do I que my students? What do I tell them? To engage the supporting leg? Because the way my students are kicking, is they are kicking without trying to use the supporting leg."

So, the first part of the answer to that question is, before we get to the cue, you can't use what you don't have. If your students don't have the strength and flexibility of the supporting leg. (And of course, as we know, the height of the kick depends on the supporting leg.) Not only flexibility, but also strength. You can cue them all you want, but if their supporting leg is not properly prepared for the kick, your cues are not going to do much. If anything, if you give proper cues and force them to use the muscles that are not properly prepared, you might get them injured.

For this reason, you have to develop that supporting leg first. And we have a whole
program focusing on just that. We wouldn't have a program for the supporting
leg if all you needed to do was cue.

Queues are usually somehow trained a little bit. As you may know, the part of model learning is to explain to a person what a queue is before you start saying that queue. Like sometimes when a person punches, people say put the shoulder into it. But, it only works if they know what you mean by "put the shoulder into it". If they don't know what that means, they will do something with maybe the shoulder girdle. Move it some way, but not the proper way.

The cue for the sidekick to use the supporting leg is "hip up or hip hike" one or the other. Before using that cue, you have to show a person that they have to raise the kicking hip. In other words, the pelvis on the kicking side has to come up. Not just the kicking leg, but also the pelvis.

Pelvis has to come up. Of course, for the pelvis to come up and for this to be done
properly the supporting leg has to turn out. So, depending on how you do the
sidekick. Either you turn out and do a hip hike at the extension of the kick,
or you do a turn out and hip hike at the chamber of the kick.

As you can see, you have to teach that, so that when you give them that reminder, that cue "hip up or hip hike", they understand what you're talking about and they do it. But you have to practice it first.

I personally do the kicks both ways depending on what they are needed for. So I can move my hip and do a turn out at the extension of the kick. Or I can move my hip and do a turn out at the chamber of the kick.

Some styles are open to both. Some styles dictate that it should be done just this way or just that way, and that's up to you. But no matter what happens, that side of the pelvis on a kicking side must come up. And that is the cue that must be
practiced, and then given.

If you practice that properly, all you have to do is give that cue a few times and people understand it. And then you don't even need to give that cue anymore. Unless someone comes to your place and trains very rarely, then you may need to remind that more often. But for most people that, have regular training, they quickly internalize it.

But please remember, you cannot give that cue if your students don't have the strength and flexibility in a supporting leg, because the muscles lengthen while they're being tensed. This is called the centric contraction and you have to train for this because it's not a normal daily activity. And the muscles must be
strengthened and lengthened and then neurologically conditioned to do it
properly.

So, if you're interested in the supporting leg program for yourself or your students, take a look below. And if you have any questions feel free to connect!

Kicking height of the side line kicks, depends on the flexibility of the supporting leg or standing leg. In order to throw a high kick, the kicking side of the pelvis must tilt up. If the pelvic does not tilt, the kicking hip abduct no more than 45 degrees.

This means that a kick will be thrown no higher than the knee. Even a kick to the groin requires 90 degrees abduction (abduction is lifting of the leg to the side).

So the pelvic position must change. Once the pelvis moves, the flexibility of the supporting leg comes into play. Of course not just flexibility, but also strength.

To test if you need this program:

Does your kicking foot travel much higher, if the torso is dropped away? Or does your kicking foot not go any higher, with torso dropped?

If the foot comes up high, you don’t need this program. You need this one (click here for more information).