How To Maintain Distance When Throwing Back Kicks With Raymond Daniels
Back kicks and spin kicks are commonly called the most dangerous kicks to throw in martial arts. Now of course there are debates on that, however it is hard to argue when multiple times karate world champion and prolific kicker Raymond Daniels claims that as well. The back kick uses a lot of power as it uses your entire backside. Your glutes, hamstrings, lats, and core. These are big muscles being utilized at the moment of impact, the trade-off however is that some fighters find kicking generally to put them off balance, especially back kicks or spin kicks. So they put it off all together. Like most martial arts techniques the back kick includes specific steps to throw effectively and land safely back into position. In the video below Raymond Daniels demonstrates how to do the back kick then "cross out" your feet to maintain distance.
Who Is Raymond Daniels?
Details Of Maintaining Distance After A Back Kick
The video starts by Raymond saying the reason why it’s very important to make sure that we cross out our feet is to make sure we maintain the proper amount of space away from our opponent. We don't want to get jammed up where our opponent can throw combinations or techniques at us. Space is your best friend when it comes to fighting.
So as Raymond Daniels is in his stance and finishing his back kick, he shifts his hips away from the opponent and slightly leans back to avoid coming strikes and to create distance. He is going to throw his back kick then as he rechambers he's going to land his foot in front of his standing foot in a cross legged position. Which looks like an X position and should be in a fight stance width. And then he's going to step back and return into his normal fighting stance.
Raymond Daniels says when throwing this technique it’s very important to make sure to never cross legs behind. If you kick and you cross your leg behind the standing leg it will tip you off balance so this will really put you off balance if you cross like that and it’ll put you out of position and if your opponent attacks you in that moment you’re going to be very vulnerable.
As he throws this technique and rechamber his leg he's going to cross in front and step back in a well balanced stance. Raymond recommends that you practice on both stances and not have a weak stance if you can do it in one stance you should be able to do it in the other stance as well and practice for a few reps as he demonstrates three reps each stance in the video
Summary
- Step back on your pivot and point glutes and back to the opponent
- Throw the back kick
- Cross out to your fighting stance.
Raymond Daniels Instructional
The Art Of The Spin is a 3-part series from Raymond Daniels where he details his signature style of striking!