Going to the Ground

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Going to the Ground

Let’s see, I’m supposed to be concentrating on my Isshinryu for a clinic this weekend. Right, sure, I’m really capable of turning this off…..

Last night in the youth program, watching Mike Cassidy run the kids through several of our basic kicking drills, one a front thrust kick from the floor, and the second a side kick on the floor, both in the original Isshinryu basics as taught to me by my original instructor, it came to me that we needed to be doing a little more.

Original Tom Lewis IKC Lower Body Combinations

Side Kick (on Floor)
Front Thrust (from floor)

I was originally taught to get on the floor on my back, my legs crossed in-front of my groin and my arms folded at the elbows with the forearm’s alongside my body to keep my head off of the floor. Then you take one leg and do a front thrust kick (with the heel) towards an attackers groin.

The side kick has you turned over on your side, again the legs crossed in-front of the groin, and you’re on your one elbow keeping your head off of the floor. You can use your arm to pivot on your hip to keep your legs between you and an attacker, and the kick is a side thrust kick towards the attackers knees. [Alternately your bottom leg can reach out and your foot can hook behind your opponents leg as your side thrust kick strikes their knee to trap the opponents leg for the takedown.

Outside of practice, originally nobody addressed how to get down to the floor. I always assumed you were somehow knocked down and these kicks were defensive movements from that situation.

I was shown how to drop down, offensively, taking your back leg, stepping way out behind your front leg towards your attacker, and then you collapse to the floor to deliver the kick into the attackers groin. This is capable of working against an attackers side kick, on occasion, but you have to be quite exact to drop down without injuring yourself in the process, a more advanced skill IMVHO.

Last night something else clicked, I remembered an old Cjimande technique from one of the Sutrisno forms, where you spun down to the floor and kicked. While the are several variations here is the basic idea.

Your opponent is stepping out with their right leg to grab you with both hands.

You step behind with your left leg, and turn your body 180 degrees counter-clockwise to move away from your attacker (keeping watch over your right shoulder).

You drop to your right knee (your left knee remains up), your place both of your hands on the floor before you, and your head turns to the left to look back at the attacker over your left shoulder.

You throw a left back thrust kick (with the heel) with your right knee on the floor, pushing off with both hands for power. [Then to complete the drill]

You return your left leg back to its original position with the left foot on the floor to the front.

Turn your head to the right and stand up.

Spin Clockwise to step to the original position.

The Indonesian’s practice this spin down, kick, and spin back up until it becomes a practiced drill.

What I like about this is you are moving away from your attacker, merging with the floor in a controlled manner, and ground kicking very strongly.

Then once when in Pasadena I visited a Hwarangdo School and observed something similar. They followed the same turn away, drop to the floor, but then threw a side kick wide to the left, as the leg reached out to full extension, pushing off the floor, they would spin counter-clockwise with a horizontal wheel kick 360 degrees. The concept was to use the drop, spinning wheel kick to take out the opponent’s leg, dropping them.

Now as I’m aging less than successfully, I rarely would contemplate these movements anymore, but last night I saw a real interesting way to combine this spin down with the Isshinryu Side Thrust Kick off of the floor.

I rather like stepping away from an attacker, and merging with the floor, but when down on my knee and hands, I would then roll my body over onto my hip, have my legs curl over before my groin and then execute the side thrust kick (another alternative).

This makes the basic techniques of my instructor, more capable of being entered in a defensive engagement IMVHO. Going into the attacker as you drop, requires more advanced skill, quicker reaction time, and precise technique delivery. Going away, increases the time you have to react, your attackers momentum carries them forward as you weren’t there for them to attack, and you can use that momentum to deliver a harder kick, too.

The Chinese arts (Dog Style, Drunken, Eagle Claw) all utilize basically the same skills on ground techniques, after all there are only so many ways to roll on the floor. But I think this is a reasonable addition to make my basics more deliverable.

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As some of you have commented, this list still requires work, often a great deal of it. I too print out our conversations and take them to class. Actually I have about 6 feet of notebooks at this time with such print outs from the net, each sheet enclosed in plastic page protectors. This allows me to refer to them without damaging them, and I can take the notebooks apart and place them together as topics of interest require in the future. Hope this suggestion is helpful.

Victor