Kickboxing – How to Play?
Warm Up
First you need to oxygenate your blood by taking a deep breath. Do the side step, grapevine and little bit of jumping. Do toe tapping by reaching out and up with the help of a wide stance. It is good if you can reach the centreline of your body. Continue with some round house punches followed by transition from reaching up and out to the jabs.
Things to Remember
Following are a few pointers that will help in understanding the basics of playing this sport.
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Position of your chin should be tucked in and down.
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Instead of aiming for the target, try to aim behind the target.
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Keep your eyes inline towards the direction you are punching or kicking.
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For better results, while executing the punch, try to extend your shoulder as much as you can.
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For balancing your body and to improvise your muscle tone, keep your abdominals tight.
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To defend yourself, keep your fists in front of your face.
Boxer’s Stance Techniques
To keep the impact to a minimum level, stay light on your feet. Do not press hard against the floor with your heels. Try to centralise the whole weight of the body on your foot. If you are experiencing any joint pain or discomfort, then it is better to discontinue. It is not good to stay on a particular boxer’s stance for more than 5 minutes.
Basic Moves
In this section, we will learn the basic moves of kick boxing.
The Jab Punch
This is one of the most basic moves that the boxer must know to remain for a longer period in the stance. Apart from knockout, you can also win the match by earning points. Objective of the jab is to keep your opponents away from you. So let’s learn this technique in a step-by-step manner.
Note − Here we will discuss the left jab techniques. Right jab techniques are the reverse of this.
Face towards your opponent by placing your left foot in front of your right foot. This is because it is a common rule to put that side leg forward with which you want to jab and make sure that your hips are above your feet.
The position of your right hand should be in front of your chin in a defensive manner and it should be at higher level than your left. As the jab comes from the core, so transfer your weight with it with a slightest rotation while performing it to have a dynamic impact.
Although before the jab, your palms are nearby your chin, but once you start performing it with a corkscrew motion, your left palm should come down. Try to make the full extension of the arm during the jab and pull it back quickly as soon as you finish doing it. With the right amount of power and accurate precision a jab can be helpful in both defence and attack.
To distract your opponent, you can use the tapper jab. The process involves tapping your opponent’s glove with your left hand followed by uppercut to his body. Always be prepared for counter attack in this case. This means that, suppose you are in a situation where your opponent attacks you with his right hand, block it with your right. Now his left is unprotected and hence; use the jab through your left.
The Round House Kick
You may face some awkward situation when you might want to score point by attacking your opponent, but he would be protecting his front side with his fists. The only way you can attack him is from sideways and here you can use round house kick. Let’s analyse it in a detailed manner.
The first step is to get closer to your target. The more you are closer, the better will be the punch. Use that arm which is farther to your opponent. This is because it will help you in putting your shoulder and hips into action to have a powerful impact.
Your area of focus should be the side of your opponent’s body, near the kidneys. Aim through your first two knuckles and keep on concentrating till the finishing of your attack. From fist to shoulder, your body should form the shape of an arc. If you want to put your opponent in amore awkward situation, try to avoid his straight punch.
Your opponent may use knee kick or front kick to distract you from applying the round house kick. Prepare well in advance about all your moves.
The Power Punch
This is another strong move that will help you in scoring good points and to successfully punch away your opponent. Perform this stand in an oblique manner to your opponent. Keep one foot ahead and one foot back.
The chin should be tucked in and shoulders should be in relaxed mode. Always use the rearward arm to punch because through this you can use the weight and motion of your hips and shoulders to have a stronger impact.
Aim through the target not the target surface. Alignment of your first two knuckles should be done along with the target. Remember that your arm and shoulder should be aligned in a straight line. Your area of target should be lower part of nose and centre of rib cage below chest.
The Left Hook Punch
This is the most difficult punch in kickboxing but is equally effective enough to score you a perfect point. The initial process involves keeping your left leg in forward stance and right leg in backward. Transfer the whole weight of your body upon your left leg. Position your arms in such a manner that they will form tight right angle between them.
Now with a rotation of your left foot, twist the whole upper body. Fully extend your left arm so that you can punch across the front of the body. Extension of this punch should be made fully towards the right hand side. Use your right hand for your own defence. Your target should include nose, ribs, and jaws.
The Front Kick with Forward Leg
Keep one of your foot in forward and other being about 7-12 inches behind. Now transfer the whole weight to the rear leg. Now looking at your target, lift your knee to the highest possible position.
At your waist, try to lean backward slightly. Now extend the leg as much as you can but keep one thing in your mind that excess extension of the knee will not aid the process. Strike the target with the ball of your foot. After successful striking, return foot to the forward position.
In this type of a shot, your area of target should be groin, portion of body above waist, chin, and area below the kneecap.
The Front Kick with Rearward Leg
Keep one of your foot in forward and other being in 7-12 inches behind. Now transfer the whole weight to the front leg. Now looking at your target, lift your knee to that highest possible position. At your waist, try to lean backward slightly.
Now extend the leg as much as you can but remember that excess extension of the knee will not aid the process. Strike the target with the ball of your foot. After successful striking, return foot to the backward position. In this type of a shot, your area of target should be groin, portion of body above waist, chin, and the area below the kneecap.
The Side Kick – Left Kick
Put your feet apart having the distance of 7-12 inches. Put all your weight on the right side leg. Now looking at the target, lift your knee of the left leg slightly up and towards your side. From the waist side slightly move towards the right hand side. Point your toe away from the kick with a rotating action. As soon as you finish the turn, unload the knee.
Without hyperextending the knee, extend the left leg outward by maintaining a front stance. For the balancing purpose, you can lower your right arm to a side.
Maintain the toes in a downward direction and hit with the side blade of your foot. Soon after this, revert back the left foot to the side position.
The following table shows the area of target according to the position of your opponent.
| Position of the opponent | Area of target |
|---|---|
| Front of your opponent is facing you |
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| Side of the opponent is facing you |
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