Page 45 - Martial Science Magazine Dec/2014 #6

builds up power like a coiled spring. However,
how you uncoiled that stored energy can be very
different.

I worked on two spinning techniques with Ins- Throwing out a front kick under the watchful eye
tructor Pugh that evening. The first was the of Instructor Pugh.
“spinning sidekick” and the second was the “spin-
ning back kick or mule kick.” Early in my Martial WHAT WAS AWESOME: Normally I am training
Arts career I became familiar with the concept of with adult classes with morals and ethics being
tradeoffs. My first teacher, Sifu John Hum, taught focused on as an afterthought. Adults have largely
me that there were no good or bad techniques. formed their moral compass and just need to so-
However, every technique has a series of tradeoffs metimes have it reset but rarely reformed. Partici-
that you must be willing to accept in order to reap pating in a family class was wholly different.
the benefits.
The spinning kicks we worked on really drove this
home for me. The first variation was the spinning
sidekick. You started up by coiling your body,
however, to maintain the visual contact with the
target you begin to uncoil before you fire the kick.
The benefits are obvious, by keeping eyes on the
target you have greater accuracy than the mule
kick and more power than if you threw a normal
sidekick. However, the tradeoff is that because you
started to uncoil you lose some of your power.

The mule kick on the other hand starts exactly the
same way with the difference coming in the exe-
cution of the technique. The mule kick fires the leg
straight back with devastating force by capitalizing
on the full amount of stored energy as you coil.
Just like the spinning sidekick there is a tradeoff to
get that extra power. Since you are kicking straight
back you can’t keep the same visual contact and
are effectively unleashing the kick blind.

Both techniques are equally valid and come down I get hammered with a spinning sidekick.
to the fighter to choose the application. A faster
fighter will dodge the mule kick making the spin-
ning sidekick the preferred technique in order to
keep tracking and fighting your opponent. Later
in the fight as the same opponent slows down and
stops maneuvering keeping the visual contact is
less important allowing you to slam them with a
mule kick.

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