We warmed up with 八方蹴り happō geri.
We continue our study of 破術九法 hajutsu kyūhō with 蹴砕 keri kudaki. There are four basic forms to this kihon. The first is a 蹴り打ち keri uchi against a punch. It is important that after you kill the punch this way, you fill the vacuum this creates in the kukan. I like to fill it with more strikes.
Next, the opponent kicks and you deliver a 蹴り上げ keri age. Then as the opponent attempts to regain his balance, we stomp with a 踵り当て kakatori ate to deaden his leg. Of course this requires that you have good balance yourself! Hatsumi Sensei often kicks this way- where one kick turns into two or three without ever touching the ground.
Again the opponent kicks and we deliver a 足指拳 sokushi ken to 金的 kinteki. This 打ち上げ uchiage should catch him by surprise. It interrupts the attack in a way that left my opponents leaping into the air like startled gazelles.
For the last kihon, our opponent kicks and we deliver an 足折り砕き ashi ori kudaki to his support leg. This is done as a 掬蹴 sukui geri, which is a scooping kick. It is very dangerous in practice, because it can break the ankle or dislocate the knee. Sometimes we even ride the leg down to control.
To demonstrate something more dynamic than the training drills, I used the kata 蹴朴 sokuboku. This normally uses a rising 蹴り打ち keri uchi to disarm the swordsman. But I did henka using all four of the keri kudaki.
Hatsumi Sensei taught us that when we fall out of our kick, or even just place the foot back on the ground, that is an attack. This placement is a kick to the kukan. A strategic taking of space that overwhelms the opponent.
Soke said to consider each kick as setting a trap. Your opponent’s reaction to the kick is what you are after. So you set the trap with your kick, then spring it by attacking the kukan.
Of Note: Somewhere between Men and Boys