kicks in taekwondo? and knee injuries?

Question

when doing a 360 roundhouse, you stand on the ball of you feet for the initial turn right? does standing on your heel hurt the knee tendons? cuz i practiced a bit wrong yesterday and now my knees hurt when i stand on them with them straightened out fully and when i bend them all them way back.
also, when doing the other kicks do you stand on the heels or balls of your feet? like roundhouse and hook kick. do you stand on the ball of your feet when you are turning?

Answer 1

First off, never, EVER, turn on your heel. For some surfaces, notably, foam padding, one gets the feeling that the turn is much easier and more controlled. And they would be right.



But then move on to finished wood or carpet, and the surfaces can get more slippery. Also, foot injuries are more common with heel spins than with ball of toe.



Finally, you lose a few inches of your maximal range when you use heel instead of ball of toe.



That said, how to prevent grinding your foot into the floor? Your weight is all on that 2 inch surface area, and if you are grinding the ball into the floor, and your ankle or knee will absorb the torque and become injurious.



For most turning kicks, esp for heavier people, I explain that it is possible to slightly elevate the body - not quite jumping, but close to it. In this manner, less weight is taken off of the ball of foot. Yes, this creates a slight pause in the technique which could be picked up by an observant sparring opponent which makes this a telegraph. But that is a sacrifice you should decide if it is worth to you.



For some, a kick that causes difficulty is a spin kick. For me, I turn my front foot backward 180 degrees away from my target, then spin with the rest of the kick - but my foot doesn't move until well after kick delivery and my weight can safely shift. Over the years, I've developed optimal ankle movement that allows me to do this, but not everyone can do this right away. In this manner, I have no torque applied to the ankle or knee. (you didn't ask, but I pay a price when I execute other techniques, such as the low spin kick; so this can be a double-edged sword)



But you mention specifically the 360 kick; there is a trick you can employ here.



If the 360 RH is done properly (and improper execution could be your problem), you should be turning backwards so that your rear knee spins up and toward 10:00 (for a left foot kick) (and 2:00 for the other). This lift has the effect of reducing the weight on the standing foot (ball of foot), and so should reduce the chance for injury.



If your turn is too slow, then you will look like a dancing bear trying to balance on a ball - very uncoordinated and slow as you take a few hops to get around.



If your turn is fast or slow, but you fail to kick up your knee for the 10 or 2 o'clock position, then you are only grinding your foot into the floor which will cause the fatigue and injury.



So to get this lift, you need to spin backwards fast such that the knee will move upwards; this allows the momentum to carry you in an upward spin, thereby lessening the weight. Indeed, you should be airborn halfway before you reach the target. Many beginners can't do that so soon, as they get airborn just before the target and so they spend the entire kick grinding the foot into the floor.

Answer 2

You pivot, turn, spin on the ball of your foot when kicking as it will give you better balance. You can hurt your ankle or knee doing to much of this especially if the surface is to soft, broken, or uneven. That's a lot of torsion on your knee and ankle and perhaps you strained or injured it doing to much. Aerobics instructors started having some of the same problems after a few years when aerobics first became popular. Some of them literally were straining and wearing out different parts of their bodies which is one of the things that brought about step aerobics and caused the fitness industry to look at all that.



You can do the same with all the turning and spinning as it puts a lot of stress on your knee and ankle in a way it was not designed for. Put some ice on them and rest them a few or several days and try to be a little lighter on your feet, coming up a little higher on your toes and ball of your foot to keep some of the torsion and stress off of them. Also include some knee rotations in your warm up exercises.



Doing things like spinning kicks repetitively on a real soft mat is a really good way to tear a knee out or develop ankle problems if not careful.

Answer 3

It is highly recommended the you must rely on the ball of your feet and not on heel with the reasons that this is the best way for you to straighten your legs with height and will evade hurting your knee, if you stand by your heel, tendons are not stretching very well, so it will keep your applications slow and uncomfortable.



Even on some turning kicks, you must stand on the ball of your feet for quick twisting with body flow, and to end up on quick applications and position, and will allow you on fluid twisting motion.



Good luck





________

Answer 4

you might have hurt your knee on the kick. if your foot extends and your body drops then it will hurt the knee.



you always use the balls of your feet. the heel will ground you and make it so that you can't rotate. too much focus on the heel will also throw you off balance. an easy test would be to do a spinning back kick on the heel, then do the same thing on the ball of your foot.

Answer 5

There are several distinct types of TKD, and each individual school will put its own spin on things, so there can never be one answer that describes them all. I train in ITF style TKD. I am currently preparing to test for Third Dan, after more than seventeen years of study. We use all sorts of strikes, including different knee and elbow attacks. There is even a technique, called the "bow wrist," in case you break your hand and want to use the end of the forearm. My testing will include grappling and other techniques you may not recognize as part of TKD weaponry. We use upper and lower body techniques equally and often in combinations.

Answer 6

i havent practiced taekwondo before however i train in muay thai and most of the kicks which are similiar such as the roundhouse kick and hook kick that you mentioned, they are all done from the balls of your feet, in muay thai pretty much every kick is done from the ball of the feet so i would asume the same for most kicks in taekwondo.