Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 20 - Usadojo

A Sincere Look At The True Art
I was teaching a
young kid one day,
he was a rather
youthful black belt,
and I asked him to
show me his wheel
kick. First there was
some confusion,
there always is as
what I call a Wheel
Kick some people
call a Round House,
but then he snapped
off a beautiful, head
high Wheel Kick, and
I cringed.
I didn’t cringe because the kick was so
deadly, I cringed because if he ever hit
somebody with that kick he would break
his ankle. The kick, you see, while perfectly
executed, had the foot at an odd angle and
the ankle was bent in a way that it could
not bear weight. In fact, if the fellow had
attempted to bear weight, as I
said...snappo. Ankle broken.
To be truthful, the kick really did look
beautiful. It looked mystical and neat and I
have no doubt he would have been
applauded in many schools for the sheer
perfection of his form. It was certainly
better than my old body could do. But it
was wrong; the physics of his kick were
simply wrong. Now, this brings to mind a
number of problems, all of which I intend to
ignore except for one: the correct physics
for executing a perfect Wheel Kick. Or, at
least the type of wheel kick we were
practicing in the Kang Duk Won back in the
sixties when Karate first hit our shores.
52 - Totally Tae Kwon Do
Of The Wheel Kick!
An An analysis analysis of of a a Wheel Wheel Kick Kick by by a a member member of of the the old old Kang Kang Duk Duk Won Won
By Al Case
There are four items to
be considered in
executing a Wheel Kick.
These items are set in
stone, based in physics,
and, unfortunately, not
practiced by many, and,
therefore, will most
likely be contested by
many.
Number one: you must
sink your weight while
kicking. To be explicit,
you must bend your
support knee at the
peak of the kick. The basic reason for this
is that the body is a motor, and motors
must be fixed in place. Most people
straighten their support leg, which pushes
them off the ground, destroys the
connection with the planet, and does not
properly utilize the energy of the planet.