Maximum Reach

MAXIMUM REACH

 

Look at any promotional poster or video and you will often find in the main that promotional photos show a person performing a high kick that often goes much higher than the persons own head and in some cases aimed skyward to highlight their flexibility when kicking.

 

 

In the case of close combat styles that focus on what some would term as 'infighting' methods the kick will be shown as targeting their opponents legs due to being in a close combat situation.

High kicks and low infighting kicks are both valid methods of fighting for both the competition event and street defence but when it comes to performing a maximum reach kick it is the waist level kick that is the most practical when it comes to reaching your opponent with a foot strike while at the same time keeping out of range of your attackers hand strikes.

 

Anyone involved in the martial arts will be aware that the kick is a more longer reaching way of striking someone while avoiding counter punches but increasing the height of the kick to the face area will in fact reduce the distance between yourself and the person you are fighting the more higher the kick goes. In the case of lower kicking methods this is also the case. The lower the kick the less of a reach it as got.

 

To test out this situation simply stand with feet together in front of a wall and lift your arm so that it is at shoulder level. Now move forward until the tips of your fingers are just about touching the wall while standing with legs and feet together. From that position you will find that if you lift or lower your arm, contact will be lost with the wall. The more you lower or lift your arm in fact the greater the gap between your hand and the wall will happen.

 

Performing this very same test of range with your leg you will find that a front positioned kick at waist level with make contact with the wall but a lower or higher kick will fail to reach in just the same way.

 

Based on the simple fact that a waist level kick gives you the best level of reach you could throw a front kick, or a side kick, at that level against someone lunging forward with a punch in a most effective way and it would be far more reaching and practical than a high kick to the head for example.