The Four Steps of Learning How to do some Real and Serious Kicking!
Kicks are one of the best and most powerful martial arts weapons you can ever develop. Not only are kicks extremely good for the cardio, giving an instant sweat during a work out, but they are one of the most powerful weapons you can have if you are ever in a fight. After all, most people in the world don't don't have the faintest idea as to how to use their legs, and if you do have an idea...you've got an instant advantage.
Of course, kicks take a little extra hard work if they are going to develop into something you can be proud of. But if you take your time, train properly and regularly, and do learn the types of kicks in a certain pattern...you can have power busting kicks of the most magnificent order. That said, let's go over the proper order of how to develop these kicks.
The first kick is merely stand and kick. No stances, you can even put your hand on the wall, and do them moderate speed. The idea here is to look at your legs and how your body has to move to generate them.
The second kick is going to be done from stationary stances. Take a kick like a simple front snap kick, low level to begin, higher as you get better, and learn how to apply it from the rear leg while standing in a front stance. Go through all the stances you know, one by one, kicking with the foot you are not standing on.
The third kick is to use the leg which holds the most weight in your stance. This means you kick with the leg supporting the most weight. Again, go through your stances, do them one at a time, but this time figure out how to hop so that the leg you are standing on executes the kick, and the leg you do not have weight on replaces the leg you are standing on.
The fourth kick is to explore the direction you are kicking in. This is going to require some quick contortions of the body. Simply do the third kick, described in the last paragraph, but this time kick first north, then set up and do the kick to the west, then the east, then the south.
Now, some things to remember as you go through these four stages. Don't be one of these ten kick and quit people. Do a hundred kicks, two hundred, three hundred.
The idea is to make your legs as agile as your hands. So practice your kicks and learn how to do a lot of relaxing. Soon your kicks will be light and easy, second nature, and able to end any fight with a mere flick.