One of the most difficult components of this technique for beginners is establishing a proper foot position when landing this kick. This video explains why your foot position is important, as well as a variety of exercises you can do to help improve your foot position.
Transcript:
“Hi, this is Randall with KravMagaTraining.com and today we’re going to talk about some training tips for the front kick with the ball of the foot.
Now the biggest issue that beginners have when they’re doing the front kick with the ball of the foot is they have trouble getting their toes bent back.
Now before we address that particular issue, one of the reasons why that comes up is because of the shoes they’re wearing. If you’re wearing pretty stiff shoes, especially if you’re wearing boots, you’re not going to be able to bend your toes back. I’m wearing pretty soft, like wresting style shoes, so I can do that right now. But here’s the thing is that if you’re wearing shoes that are really hard like boots, especially steel toed boots, you don’t even have to hit with the ball of your foot. You would just hit them with the tip of your boot and it’s going to cause maximum damage. The structure of that particular boot is going to be able to support the toes so they are not going to get injured.
However, if you are wearing softer shoes, like the wrestling shoes I’m wearing now. Or you get in a fight and you’re protecting yourself, “voom!” the shoe flies off, we’ve seen that happen in class. Or you’re on the beach, minding your own business, somebody kicks a little sand in your face. Well hey, you don’t say “hey, hold on a second, I got to put my shoes on first before I kick your ass”. It’s not going to work that way. So we have to learn how to bend those toes back so we don’t injure them.
However, a lot of people their toes are stiff. And the thing is, if your body is not use to moving in a certain range, you’re going to have to practice it. You’re going to have to stretch it out just like any other part of your body.
So here’s some few tips. One thing I like to do when I first started. I did martial arts a long time ago when I was a little kid, started like 5-6 years old, and I had trouble getting my toes bent back. So a couple of things I would like to do all the time was this. One, everytime I saw a wall, I would take my foot, bend my toes back and hold it just like a stretch. Hold it for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, one minute, whatever. Just like you would any other stretch. So I would constantly do this and I start feeling my toes getting pulled back. So I don’t know if you guys can see that but that’s a good stretch that you can implement on your own.
Another thing I would constantly do, everytime I was on the , around the ground and I was barefoot was constantly kicking the floor with the ball of the foot. Learn how to bend my toes back, heel pointed up to the ceiling. So I just would be constantly, even to this day, I just out of habit I’m constantly doing this.
And then another drill you can do if you’re practicing on your bag, which also is a good drill indirectly for your balance is just practice doing this. Just practice learning how to push with the ball of your foot, over and over again. So you’re basically isolating that particular area of your front kick that feels uncomfortable.
So there’s some tricks that you can use. And be patient with yourself and before you know it, you’ll develop good muscle memory and range of motion where you can start pulling those toes back and develop being consistent with the ball of the foot and preventing any potential injuries.”
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