Side Kick Analysis 2nd Part

This is a good side kick technique, definitely an above average technique.
But we are going to talk about the corrections needed to make it even more perfect.
The first thing you can see is that there is an alignment between Kicking leg, Supporting leg and the Torso. Lets look at the kicking leg first, the right leg.

KICKING LEG ANALYSIS:

From the pictures, it looks like the leg is not completely abducted. There is more room for abduction.
The reason for not having full abduction can be strength or flexibility. The muscles that can be tight here are:
ADDUCTOR MAGNUS:
ADDUCTOR BREVIS:
ADDUCTOR LONGUS:
It can be PECTINEUS:
It can also be QUADRATUS FEMORIS,
which is a lateral rotator but in this position it can prevent full abduction.
If the body is falling away from the kicking leg, it can also be getting in the way of flexibility.
If the body is bent towards the kicking leg, then the joint is shortened at the lower spine & most likely not preventing the abduction & extention of the hip.
Do you want to improve your Side Kick techniques? Click on the BUY NOW BUTTON below to get started!
In term of strength issue, it makes sense to check foot if the flexibility is there.
If the flexibility of muscles just mentioned is zero then strength can be an issue. But if the flexibility is not there then we should not even test for strength in that range if you never had the flexibility to get into that range.
Assuming the flexibility was cleared then the muscles that are not stronge enough in short range to do full abduction would be:
  • GLUTEUS MEDIUS
  • TENSOR FACIAL LATA
  • GLUTEUS MAXIMUS (upper part)
Having short range contraction specially of the muscles not commonly used is very difficult. And its very polished athletes that have that strength, that control in the short range.

TORSO ANALYSIS:

Its hard to see exactly how much lateral flexion there is in the torso but there is definitely a room for more lateral flexion.
With lateral flexion ofcourse, the body will come up as well as the shoulders. You can see the shoulders are pretty low here. Just like the kicking leg, the trunk contracts in the short range here on the kicking side. So the muscle on the kicking side,

EXTERNAL OBLIQUE:

INTERNAL OBLIQUE:

RECTUS ABDOMINIS:

PSOAS MINOR:

SPINAL EXTENSORS:

QUADRATUS LUMBORUM:

All these muscles contract to bring the body up to keep the torso up higher than the kick. Interestingly enough, these muscles have to be flexible as well but on the left side, the non kicking side.
While, in demonstration it looks good to keep the torso up, in fighting it makes a big difference between able to move or punch right after the kick or not. Short delays make a big difference in fighting and for that reason, its very important for a fighter using a side kick to have good strength and flexibility in the trunk.

SUPPORTING LEG ANALYSIS:

The kick shown looks like trying to gain as much flexibility from the supporting leg.
In other words, the focus of this kick is the height of the kicking foot which of-course comes from the supporting leg.
You can see the turn out of the supporting leg.
Meaning that the hip joint will not resist the height of the kick.
It looks like, because the body dropped away from the kick so much, it’s the flexibility of the supporting leg that is getting in the way & not so much the strength of it.
If you saw a kick where the body is up & the kicking leg is more abducted then it would look like its possibly the strength because there is more control. But this kick looks like it has a little bit less control & the goal is to bring the leg up as high as possible & for that reason it would have came up higher if there was more flexibility in the supporting leg.
Of-course strength always help but if there is limit of flexibility, no amount of strength can compensate for lack of flexibility in this kick.

In general, ADDUCTOR MAGNUS:

And MEDIAL HAMSTRINGS (SEMITENDINOSUS & SEMIMEMBRANOSUS):
are what resist the height in the kick like this. So, to increase the height of this kick, it is important to focus on the medial hamstrings of the supporting leg.
Developing just the supporting leg will allow this kick to be 100% vertical,
but the body is still going to be down.
So, working on the flexibility and strength of the core is important.
And to make the kick look a little bit sharper, the strength & flexibility of the kicking leg will help.

So this is a general analysis just going by the picture without specifically testing each muscle’s strength & flexibility.

SIDE KICK COMPLETE BUNDLE

On the street or in the ring, it can stop the opponent cold. How come it’s only rarely used to it’s full effectiveness. A large part of the equation to utilize the kick fully, is found in the set up. The more powerful the kick (or punch), the more shifting of mass is needed.

This means longer trajectory. For this reason, it is easier to detect. Thus making it less effective. Very few fighters can keep scoring with a side kick outright. Just like very few fighters can keep throwing a straight right and landing each time.Power shots require a set up.

This combo includes the following programs:
Side Kick Height Development
Technical Kicking Leg Development
Trunk Flexibility and Strength Development
Side Kick Power Development
Side Kick Speed Development
Side Kick Precision & Accuracy
Flying Side Kick

The programs were designed by Paul Zaichik, martial arts and kinesiology expert, founder of ElasticSteel in 2005.

Paul Zaichik and his team have been perfecting martial arts training since then, and here we bring you all this distilled knowledge to make you and unstoppable kicking machine.

Side Kick Height Development

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.

Side Kick: Technical Kicking Leg Development

Ideally developing the kicking leg should take place even before a single kick is thrown. However that’s not possible for most people. Everyone who lands on this page, has already thrown kicks.

Side Kick and Side Line Kicks: Trunk Flexibility and Strength Development for Optimum Kicks Development

If your torso is strong and flexible the kick is hard to see when it’s coming. If the trunk is stiff and weak, it will drop before the kick is initiated. It can be seen a mile away.

Thus is takes less effort to throw a kick when the torso does not have to make a trip to the corner store and back every time the leg comes up. Yes, it’s that important and that’s why we made a program for it.

Side Kick Power Development

Side Kick have been developed for power. It’s advantage is full mass acceleration, in direct like with the impact. Joint effort of the strongest muscle groups in the body. No weak link to give or buckle upon impact. All these factors compound a biomechanically advantageous “go to” weapon, when raw power is called for.


With power comes responsibility. I am not talking about “driving the person you kicked to the hospital” type responsibility. But responsibility to your own self. To your own body. The impact of the kick is severe and stress on joints accumulates over time. In order to strive under that stress the body must be properly conditioned to handle that impact.

Side Kick: Speed Development

Why “safe progression”? When it comes to speed training chances of injuries is very high. This does not apply only to side kick of course. Slowing the kick down is the moment when injuries happen. Every fast kick needs to be decelerated. (you are not throwing a rock or a ball, but your foot) So you need to pull the kick back. The faster you kick, the harder you need to pull it back. In case of the side kick the hip flexors and adductors do most of that “pulling back”.

Side Kick: Precision and Accuracy

Side kick is the kick known for it’s power. Side kick is also the least accurate kick of all kicks. Muscles used in the kick are large and powerful. Regulation of these muscles is called gross motor control. The opposite of GMC is fine motor control. The example of FMC is writing with a pen. Fine motor control is what is needed for accuracy. The two types of control rarely naturally co-exist. They are brought together through specialized training.

Flying Side Kick

This program shows a safe flying side kick progression and develops the height of the kick. The capacity to jump high while performing this kick is found in a proper takeoff. However, to do the kick safely multiple times, the landing is of greatest importance.
How high is their upper body during side line kicks?
Ok, enough said. In this program we focus on the flexibility and strength training of the torso. It’s not a six pack program... (however it will greatly develop the core), but body builder looking abs is not its primary purpose. The purpose is to improve every aspect of the Side Kick, Roundhouse Kick and Hook Kick.

Click on the BUY NOW BUTTON below to get started!

Please note: that these are not downloadable programs, nor are these programs available in DVD format. All our programs are Pre Recorded Online On Demand Video Strength & Flexibility Training Programs. Once you place your order, you will receive an email containing your login information on how to login to your very own online library which will contain all the programs that you purchase from us. This is an online library, which you can access any time that you wish from any device, phone, computer, ipad. There is no time limit for you to view your programs, you get to keep them in your library indefinitely, and access them any time, anywhere, and for as long as you want to!

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:

Adductors Strength & Flexibility
This program contains: 

Adductors are four muscles whose primary role is hip adduction. Adduction is pulling the limb toward the mid-line of the body.

Additionally some texts list Pectineus as an adductor. There are a number of other muscles that also adduct the leg. Most of those muscles are external rotators of the hip. Since most applications of abduction have a superimposed lateral rotation, additional adductors do not restrict abduction or horizontal abduction. The exception are medial hamstrings, which are internal rotators of the hip.
All Kick Master Combo
This Package includes:

Side Kick Training (7 programs)
1- Technical Kicking Leg Development
2- Trunk Flexibility and Strength for Optimum Kicking
3- Supporting Leg Training For Kicking Height
4- Precision and Accuracy
5- Speed Development
6- Power Development
7- Neutralizing Opponents Defense and Guard Penetration Set Ups
Roundhouse and Hook Kicks Training (4 programs)
1- Roundhouse Kick: Technical Kicking Leg Development
2- Roundhouse Kick: Speed Development
3- Roundhouse Kick: Power Development
4- Hook Kick: Power Development
Front Kick Training (5 programs)
1- Front Kick and Front Line Kicks: Technical Kicking Leg Development
2- Front Kick: Speed Development
3- Push Front Kick: Power Development
4- Axe Kick: Power Development
5- Ball of the Foot: Point of Impact
Advance Kick Training (4 programs)
1- Twist Kick Technical Kicking Leg Development
2- Flying Side Kick: Technique and Jumping Height Development
3- Scorpion Kick: Perfect form Development
4- Flying Split Scissors Kick, Two Direction Kick
Kick Retention Training
A specific video focusing on functional kick training.
Three Classic ElasticSteel Functional Strength And Conditioning Books
1- The Gravity Advantage
2- The Gravity Advantage Max
3- The Power of One
Two Extra Programs for Hand Conditioning
1- Fist Point of Impact: Wrist, Knuckles and Forearm Development
2- Palm Strike Strength and Flexibility Training
Complete Shoulder Flexion
This program contains: 

Being able to stretch the shoulder abductors and extensors, as well as scapula inferior rotators allows the arm to come up to at least vertical line. In many cases more than 180 degree is needed, in throwing sports for example, such as javelin, football and baseball. Same applied to serves in volleyball and rocket sports.

Don’t see what you want? Need help selecting a program? Want to buy more than one program? We can put together a one step checkout for you with all the programs that you wish to buy so you don't need to keep clicking the buy now button over and over again and can checkout one time with all the programs you need.
We’re here for you! Just send us an email to
info@easyflexibility.com describing your goals and we will help select the right program for you!

Enough time wasted!

Stop wasting time and money, risking your health, hitting plateaus,
wondering how to reach your goal instead of working towards it!

Start your ElasticSteel Side Kick Training Program right NOW and soon
it will be YOU knocking your opponents out with a kick in their head.
© ElasticSteel Corp., EasyFlexibility, Paul Zaichik, et. El., 2022. No part of the materials available through ElasticSteel.com, EasyFlexiiblity.com, site may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of Paul Zaichik EasyFlexibility.com, Elasticsteel.com.. Any other reproduction in any form without the permission of Paul Zaichik EasyFlexibility.com, Elasticsteel.com is prohibited. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Paul Zaichik, EasyFlexibility.com, Elasticsteel.com.
Previous article Side Kick Analysis 3rd Part
Next article Side Kick Analysis

Leave a comment

Comments must be approved before appearing

* Required fields