WHEN WILL I UNDERSTAND THE HOOK KICK?

[pegkerr]

We were doing spin hook kicks last night. I felt like such a klutz. It was as if my body just couldn't get the sequence: first chamber, then extend, then whip the leg across. All the while spinning on your supporting leg.

My only comfort is cold comfort indeed: the other red belt who was there last night was having an even harder time than me. She wasn't chambering at all. She had the flu, however, which was a valid excuse.

How long until my body gets how to do this kick without me consciously thinking about the mechanics? It is as if the part of my brain that controls this kick has had a ministroke or something. It is so odd, this sensation that every time I do this kick, I have to figure it out all over again. Weird.

Comments

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about front crossovers in skating. The concept seems so simple, but the arm/shoulder position is the opposite of what feels natural and I just can't get the balance shift when you switch feet. In short, it's not too hard to do a BAD crossover, but extremely hard to do anything close to a GOOD one.

Is the hook kick the same as roundhouse? What is chambering?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

The hook kick and roundhouse kick (what my dojo calls the round kick) are different. Chambering is bringing your knee and/or your foot close to your body, in preparation for the kick; this gives the kick more power. In the roundhouse kick chamber, your hip is straight and turned over but the knee is bent. You straighten the leg, swishing it forward, just beyond the center line of your body, and then swish it back, ending it bent before setting it down. In the hook kick, you start with a different chambering position, with the knee bent AND the leg bent back toward your body. The leg shoots straight out to the side and then at full extension, the knee bends with a snap as you hit the opponent; in other words, the momentum goes in the opposite position than it does in the round kick. It's hard to put into words, and this is probably a lousy description; I should probably just show you the difference next time I see you.

If I ever figure out the hook kick, that is.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

If it feels better, Sensei walked by me the other day as we were practicing hook kicks with Sempai, and said, "Oh, that's supposed to be a hook kick?"

I wanted to melt into the floor.

[moodyduck.livejournal.com]

My instructor likes to say "I thought you said you'd been practicing that?" Usually he's joking...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Every once in a while I accidentally do a really respectable (for me) hook kick, and I say "Yeah, that felt right, maybe I'm getting it!" Then I try another and screw it up like always.

FWIW the instructors all say that hooks, especially spin hooks, are about the hardest kicks to do well.

OTOH, there's a guy who's recently rejoined our studio, black belt, who has been in dozens of competitions in the past, who could be making demonstration videos; his kicks all look perfect and effortless. He likes to spar standing on one leg (sometimes). He can move in and kick me almost before I know he's moving, and even standing on one leg I've never seen him wobble.

When some of us were having trouble the other day, the oldest instructor said "You've all seen xxxxx work. Well, let me tell you, when he started, he was so clumsy he could barely walk without tripping. But he kept at it and he worked his butt off and practiced everything 10,000 times if he did them once. Nothing is easy."

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

I sympathize; I know exactly what you mean. After 3 years of karate, and getting a purple belt in my style, the hook kicks still felt awkward and just plain *wrong*. And I was good at the other kicks! I remember feeling like that about the roundhouse kicks at first too, but something just clicked into place after about a year.

I wanted to say too, I enjoy reading your posts about karate (and seeing the occasional pictures). I stopped practicing about two years ago when I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter, and just never went back. I really *miss* it sometimes, and now the dojo I was at is on "permanent" hiatus. :(