Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 20 - Usadojo

Number two: the kick must be liquid from
the ground to the target, and from the
target to the ground. If you chamber the
kick, which is to say if you hold the kick in
the cocked position, then the trajectory of
the foot is broken, and generation of power
in the kick is broken into two stages. The
two stages are the initial launch of the kick,
and the launch from the chamber position.
Two cycles of action make the kick slower,
and divide the generation of power into two
actions, which is not as efficient as one
action. Yes, you can utilize chambering in
a strategic manner, and you must be able
to kick from the chamber position, but the
optimum kick is one uninterrupted whip
from ground to target, and target to ground.
Number three: the foot configuration must
be weight bearing. This is easy to prove.
Simply turn your foot sideways and run the
fifty yard dash on the sides of your foot.
This is not only inefficient, but it starts to
hurt. This was my major problem with my
young student’s kick, his foot was bent so
that the ankle could not take the sudden
increase of weight that a proper kick will
encounter.
Number four: you must kick with the
correct part of the foot. This is a most
interesting problem, as there are three
different parts of the foot that one can use
in a Wheel Kick: the instep, the toe, the ball
of the foot.
The toe must not be discounted, but it
takes a tremendous amount of specialized
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