Take a second and visualize the two of them kicking side by side. What do you see? One will have his torso up and one will have it down. Torso position is what makes or breaks the 3 sideline kicks.

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.

How can I improve my kick?

Over the years many people would ask me to look at their kicks. Even the high kickers. “What can I do to improve my kick?” they asked. “Torso, your torso position”, was a very common response. Most fighters kick and punch. The better positioned the upper body during the kick, the shorter the pause between a kick and a punch. Or punch and a kick for that matter.

Whether you are a pro fighter or you just train for your enjoyment, you know that the faster you can follow up with your hands after the kick, the more chances you will score.

A very flexible torso is what keeps your punches closer to the target, right after the kick.

Finally, there is the look of the kick, of how the form appears. A kick looks much better when the head is not brushing the floor on the high kick. Think of great competitors with awesome techniques.

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.

Do you need this program?

Let’s see. Stand up and extend a Side Kick waist level. With your finger tips touch the outside part of your leg. Perfect kick dictates finger tips touching half way between your knee and your ankle. If you can do that, you don’t need this program. If you can’t touch that, either your strength is off or your flexibility, which means that you need this program.

To understand the kicking leg, think of a barbell push jerk. That’s when you hold the barbell on your upper chest, in standing position. You use a short leg push to accelerate the bar up and extend the arms over your head.

The little leg jerk is done because the arms are not strong enough to press the weight with assistance. The arms, in this case, is the kicking leg. Would you try to do a push jerk or even a basic shoulder press, if you can’t lift your arms all the way up to vertical position, because you lack shoulder mobility? Of course you would not.

What if your shoulder was not strong enough to even hold your arms there, would you add additional weight? Of course not. And yet people kick without having proper range of motion or strength.

There is no way a proper technique can ever be developed. Never an optimum power, or speed or accuracy. Why? Because your body is more concerned about you not getting injured, than about “mastering” the skill.

A proper side kick performing leg, requires flexibility in the muscles that prevent abduction (lifting the leg to the side) and prevent medial rotation. (Abduction and medial rotation is what your kicking leg is doing, during side line kicks.) While the medial rotators and adductors need to be strong.

But, not just generally strong. They must be strong in short range. (Short range is where muscle is completely flexed) Also strong hip and knee flexors (to have a good chamber). A beginner who starts kicking, can’t possibly have this.

Unless it’s a new generation of beginners, who now train with various certified instructors in ElasticSteel method.

Side Kick has been developed for power. It’s advantage is full mass acceleration, indirect 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.

Conditioning is the first part of this program. Just a few well selected exercises, will prepare you to kick hard and feel good doing it.

Next comes the acceleration. Force is mass times acceleration. (F=MxA) One of the two variables, (the mass) does not change much. However, we know that two people with the same weight, can kick at very different levels of power. Why is it so? The answer is: acceleration is the key.

The second part of this program focuses on acceleration. Here you learn how to quickly drive the mass into the target.

Finally there is supporting structure work. A kick is not just the kicking leg. The supporting (standing) leg gets the power from the floor. Small increase in functional strength of the non-kicking leg, does wonders for the power of the kick.

In this program you will learn how to develop a powerful side kick. And how to properly train the supporting structures, both for accelerations and stability.

Do you need this program?

If you have a powerful side kick, you don’t need it. If you side kick is not strong. You need it.

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”.

Most people don’t have their decelerator muscles strong enough to contract at high speed. More so in stretched position of those muscles. (Which is where they end up, at the full extension of he kick) And if you sit allot, you are in for even more trouble. (Sitting tightens the hip flexors and adductors)

So here is how it works. Your body likes your muscles healthy ( and not torn.) No Surprise there. If it lets you kick fast, you will tear the muscles. It’s like attaching a rock to a weak string and throwing the rock hard, the string will break. For this reason, your body won’t let you kick fast. There are ways to trick the system of course and do a specific warm up. In that case you will kick faster. ---- ONE TIME! After that you will be very sore at best or injured at worst. Do this few times and chronic injury is guaranteed.

First you need full range of motion in the decelerator muscles. Then you need to strengthen them. Make them stronger first while moving slow and then fast. Finally, you need to work on the kicks assisted by artificial deceleration. Moving from easiest range to the most challenging range. Step by step.

Do you need this program?

To answer that question. Ask yourself; Are you throwing your side kick fast? If you are, then you just wasted 5 minutes reading this. (Unless you learned something new) You don’t need this program. If your side kick is not as fast as you want it to be, then you need this program.

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.

Being able to place an accurate kick make the difference between “I felt it, it hurts” vs “lights out…” A side kick to the solar plexus missed by an just a little is not as effective. Same for other targets. Knee, jaw, etc. To get full use out of a side kick’s raw power, it must hit the intended target.

The striking surface or point of impact for the side kick is either the heel or the edge of the foot. Heel is more powerful. If you are going to train for accuracy, you might as well go for the all the marbles and focus on maximum returns.

The program focuses on the heel. However all the exercises are easily convertible to the edge of the foot, in case you prefer to strike with that point of impact.

First a heel must be established by the nervous system as the point of impact. This simply means that your body needs to know where you heel is when throwing the side kick. The program starts with this.

Next step is trajectory. In technicality any mastered trajectory can lead to accuracy. It can be a semi-circle of any radius or a straight line. As long as the line of kick is exactly repeated every time, the accuracy will be developed. Having said that, we focus on developing a straight line. (From point A, where heel is at chamber positon to point B, where the target is.)

Place a dot on the target and kick it. Can you hit the dot? Are you slowing the kick down? If you can hit the dot at will, without sacrificing speed and power. Congratulations! You got to send us a video. You definitely don’t need this program.

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.

Conditioning for the flying jump kick involves strength and plyometric exercises. Ideally, you should land from a height above the one you can reach with the kick. This compensates for other forces. The horizontal vectors and lack of attention paid to the landing in favor of focus on the kick extension.

Our Flying Jump Kick program will show you a safe flying jump kick progression and will help you develop the height of your kick.

Think you don’t need this program? Think again! Let’s be honest, who wouldn't love to throw a flying kick like Bruce Lee.

If you're already knocking off your opponents like Bruce Lee then you don’t need this. If not, what are you waiting for?