Video exampler: here Singles and slow-mo: here Recommended prerequisites: lots of inside (crescent, roundhouse) kicking Description: The tornado kick is a spinning jump inside kick. Because of this, I recommend building up a decent amount of flexibility and strength by drilling your basic kicks. What we’re doing is adding complexity, speed, and anger atop [...]
Video exampler: here
Singles and slow-mo: here
Recommended prerequisites: lots of inside (crescent, roundhouse) kicking
Description: The tornado kick is a spinning jump inside kick. Because of this, I recommend building up a decent amount of flexibility and strength by drilling your basic kicks. What we're doing is adding complexity, speed, and anger atop that foundation.
The two dominant inside kicks are the inside crescent kick and the roundhouse kick. Most traditional martial artists prefer the roundhouse because it's more fight friendly. Alas, I'm a trickster, not a fighter. It doesn't matter what kick gets thrown as long as you can control it and it looks pretty. Over the years, I've grown into the crescent style kick, but it's good to experiment with both.
Slide by slide breakdown
All about the momentum, baby. Everything is to the left because everything's going to go to the right…only to come back to the left.
Here we are, cocked and loaded.
My momentum is shifting back to my other leg, but check it out: I'm placing my leg beyond the mid-line of my body just a little bit. And because of this, my body has to play catch up.
Because my leg was planted beyond the mid-line, my body has to play catch up, and you can use this to your advantage. Things are now in motion, preparing for the spin takeoff, but check out my head. I'm looking straight ahead. You want to pick out a target in front of you to kick at and single it out.
Look at your target for as long as possible, but when your body is forcing you to turn, turn. Keep the hands high during all of this. My right arm is “lagging” behind because it's going to rip down and through. Like a rubber band, you have to stretch it if you want it to recoil with some anger.
During the turn, high hands dig down to prepare you for the vertical part of the trick. The important part of this slide though? My foot. Check it out. My body has almost rotated 180 degrees, yet my foot still hasn't planted.
Ah, look at the leg now! It's planted and even rotated a little bit ahead of the rest of my body. This is what block is all about. It's why we go a little horizontal on the takeoff, too. Whatever “piece” is leading your body, it should always be one step ahead.
Planting the leg the way we did now gives us some good momentum to work with. After the arms dig through, you want to throw everything up and look for your target. That's all you need to think about for now.
I wasn't lying to you. Throw the hands and leg up, look for the target.
Once you have the target in sight, prepare the kick. The type of kick you throw will determine your body position. Since I throw a crescent kick, my torso is more square to my target. If I was throwing a roundhouse, my hips would be turned over more.
At this point, it's all about the kick. If you threw the non-kicking leg up high, it will take care of itself. Mine straightens out naturally. No thought goes into it.
Kill. In order to kill, you have to be looking at what you're killing, so look at your victim.
After you kill your victim? Keep looking. See how my eyes are still facing my target? Your legs will carry your momentum through.
You're on the right track if you start to land on both legs simultaneously. That's when you know you'll have a good chance to take this trick to more advanced levels.
Recap cues:
- Takeoff is huge, get horizontal momentum going to your advantage.
- Eye up target.
- Swing arms down and back straight up.
- Lift lead knee high.
- Eye up target a second time.
- Kick target.
Troubleshooting:
Bad kick? Maybe you just need to practice. If you haven't put in some hours training basic kicks, start there.
Low kick? How's your flexibility?