Olympic Taekwondo Axe Kick

Jonathan Reff: Hi! Jonathan again at Somafit; we are learning about Olympic Taekwondo. The next technique we are going to be going over is the Axe Kick. As I face my opponent, again in my fighting stance, which is, if you remember from before from the roundhouse, weight distribution is greater on the front leg; I am on the balls of my feet; my guard, meaning my fists, are clenched and my elbows are tucked in. Now, the kick again, start exactly the same way as the roundhouse does. This again is the characteristic that is very typical of just Olympic Taekwondo and makes these kicks very deceptive; and that is the reason why they are so effective because my opponent, if I am setting things up properly, really does not know which kick is coming at any given time. So, again I am here in my fighting stance. I am going for step one; raise my knee up. Now, here my knee has to come up high because I have to got to get my foot to that target, which is approximately at my collarbone or face level. I am going to then again extend my leg to bring it down on the target; have my foot drop on the ground and I will come back for 180. So, in steps, I am going to take my knee of my right leg and swing it forward and up towards my opponent. My hips are going to come forward, generating a spare amount of significant power. I am going to then extend my leg out to the target, bring it down as it touches the ground with a good amount of momentum as a an axe or hammer would do. I am going to then side it back a 180. Speed it up, it looks like this. Now, if I stop here, you will notice, as I discussed on the previous kick, the power that is generated by the hips is really the main source of power here. So, what I want to do when I come forward towards my target, I am really pulling my hips up, which will allow mw to raise my knee up real high to meet the target, which is the paddle in this case. I am coming up high and whipping down just like an axe and thus the name is Axe Kick. So, target areas -- this kick for the most part is a head kick, so that I can come down right on the bridge of the nose of my opponent; I can come down on the chin; I can come down on the forehead; I can come down on the collarbones, which can be very painful and debilitating. Let us go ahead and run through a few more kicks. Now there is one variation of this kick, which is a double kick or a jumping axe kick. We are going to set that up the same exact way. My opponent is going to hold up just one paddle at the face. My back leg is going to start to generate the power, which in this case is my left leg. My left leg's sliding forward and up towards my right leg, as it meets the right leg, my right leg is going to shoot out and come down on that target. So, that was the Axe Kick. The next two kicks we are going to go over are Cut Kick and Fast Kick.