487 - Training diary: Toe kicks to the groin
Scenario follow ups / conditioning drills / partner drills / solo training ideas
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Training diary
These Journal entries are ideas that I am currently looking at for various uses within my training research and are shared for free regularly without context, and for information purposes only so that readers can adapt, consider, discard, or employ them in any way they wish in their training either at home or perhaps in their own class.
The premise presented will be:
An idea from myself or something from an outside source I’m looking at linked to my own training, revisiting ideas from my training in the past, examples to be used for workshop material (including examples of what may be unsuitable in a member of the public context! ), or as a related example of something I may intend to reference in passing in class or for something I’m writing.
Play with it for your specific context and drop me an email with your thoughts, as I’d be interested to see what direction you can take it in.
Jeth
For paid supporters, here are all of the notes, learning points, home training ideas, and problems and variations (plus more!) from last night’s workshop for home practice. I’ve added solo drills (inc video), power development ideas, and also the partner ones we covered.
Loads here to keep you going, let me know how you get on! Jeth
Toe kicks to the groin
Groin kicks get argued about…they’re not in any way a self defence panacea - much like everything else and if the aggressor has a tip-off in some way, they have counters and indeed some accidental counters (his positioning just happened to change at that moment)…
They are reliant on footwear to a certain extent too - this isn’t one for flip-flops at the beach! This should be considered. Work boots will be devastating, modern sponge fashion trainers while still being unpleasant to be on the receiving end of, may not have quite the same effect, I’ll return to this later on.
Some say that they don’t work - not quite sure who would just laugh a kick to balls off but they’re out there I guess. Conversely, I remember Hock telling me about running up a staircase at a police station with a large manilla envelope and accidentally hitting the edge of it into his crotch as he went and nearly wanting to puke!
I kicked a guy in the balls many years ago and his eyes rolled up into his head and he just slumped to the floor making groaning noises, and that was that, one kick, over.
Setting up the groin kick
The generally shown context for this is as a pre-emptive low-line strike during an interview threat but it can also be employed when a fight is underway if the aggressor is open for it. And that’s the main point, that you need a clear shot straight between the legs for your foot, if they stand bladed or turned this increases the problems.
Feints
High hand flicks towards the eyes to get a flinch could be employed as a set-up for throwing the low kick.
Some advocate increasing the efficacy of the set-up by distracting the aggressor’s attention upwards by raising a hand high with an accompanying glance and snapping the fingers or also by gesturing high while saying “what’s up?”. In a similar vein, pretending to look at someone else to get them to look away for a split second.
These “tricks” are worth considering but are not any sort of guarantee of success for you. It should never be forgotten that someone focused on violent aggression towards you personally may have little interest in anything other than getting to you.
Performing the kick
This isn’t a front “snapping” kick where the flexed knee rises first and then extends like a whip to deliver the kick.
Instead, it has only mild knee flexion with an emphasis on firing from the hip - the foot travels straight from the floor in an arc towards the target with only the hip joint explosively hinging to deliver it.
As soon as you sense an opening to the target, fire the kick straight up the centre line towards the groin.