Check out the complete Front Kick Focus course at hard2hurt.teachable.com

What a nice looking school

I practice the teep at work all the time. I'm a server and we have doors between the kitchen and the dining room. When I'm carrying stuff, I teep the door open. One of the doors is a "one-way" meaning if I'm on the wrong side, I have to bounce the door to open it. Which I use the teep for. And sometimes add a heel hook to open the door more. Doesn't even have to be high, just a low, leg level kick is enough and I build the muscle memory.

Steven Segal taught Anderson Silva his front kick man how could we forget

I like throwing a front kick and re-chambering into a high round kick, so basically a modified question mark kick. I've never attempted to do the opposite, by throwing a low round kick and re-chambering into a front kick like demonstrated in this video, but I am very excited to try it.

The teep is Muay Thai's longest weapon; the spear. Old Muay Thai adage: Knee beats elbow Punch beats knee Kick beats punch Teep beats kick Teep beats everything

I was also a believer that sidekick was one of the best kicks. It's so "martial artist" and it's always shown with so much power. However, put the same effort in learning the front kick, and you'll realizing it gives such huge power, it's simple, and don't have to change your stance.

You can also turn a front kick into a side kick. You first lift your knee vertically straight up as you chamber, then as you kick you can pivot and roll you knee over and get a side kick.

I like the front-kick. a few ways that I use it is if the opponent goes to step forward with a jab then I give them a quick front-kick to the solar plexus to mess up their step so their jab falls short and can't reach me. I also use it to set up my superman punch by flicking a rear leg front-kick forward once or twice then faking the rear leg front-kick and coming through with the superman punch. I also do this move where I front-kick them once or twice then I do a switch step and act as if I'm gonna do a switch-round-kick so they go to check the kick then I just front-kick them again when they are balanced on one leg. I don't use these moves too often but they work fine when I do use them I guess.

"MMA guys struggle with the front kick" Anderson Silva/Chito Vera - "And so we took that personally"

The front kick most especially using my lead leg is the kick the I practice most as a self-defense practitioner since it's the simplest and most effective for self-defense scenarios where a well-placed and well-timed front kick with sturdy shoes on is quite effective for intercepting and stopping your attacker from barging forward towards you

This is a straight up Olympic TKD drill. I love to see coaches outside the TKD community using these types of set ups and chambers. Great to see different views on the same techniques! I would really check out lead leg TKD kicking drills if you haven't yet! Keep it up Mike!

It be nice to see a "diamond on the rough" type of segment. Take some common tma movement and give us your perspective on what it is. It might make a really cool series on KZfaq Shorts.

That second set, touch-go (low kick go front kick) is great. We train it especially if your opponent checks the kick, to then teep them while theyre on one leg

I find that double front kick is a good combo too. Quick snap with the first one followed immediately by a deeper extended kick really laying it in. And yeah I definitely land front kick on people *way* more often than any other kick.

Front kick to the bladder is a beautiful weapon (Only if you're accurate enough to not kick'em in the balls)

the touch-go concept is interesting though! Reminded me of faking a roundkick and switching to a teep when the roundkick is halfway thrown

Diggit, coach!

Seeing the way you teach is just awesome Mike. Thx for sharing!

Damn.... front kicks are a real integral part of my game, I throw that all the time. Never realized that all the decades of kicking air is what makes the difference.... ahhaha

Lerdsilla uses the front kick as a counter to everything, to the point of just sitting his foot on their hip. Pushing off their center of mass pretty much stops any forward motion.

Thanks Mike this is really helpful I've been working on learning a very similar principal with the sidekick and alot of the little details are super useful

That looks fun to practice, I gotta try it out. Thank you for sharing ☺️.

Magomed Ankalaev, has really good timing on his front kicks. As did Silva in his prime and Machida. One thing my coach use to have us drill, is front kicks from jab range (head height, right under chin). Its a pretty good chance of landing, because it's pretty well hidden. It needs good flexibility and some feinting. But if your leg gets caught, it's almost always a a trip to the floor. I'm glad you covered this bro.

That hop made it so much easier! Thanks for the tip, awesome video 🙏🏾

I LOVE the frontkick! Use it for distance, jabbing and even powerfull Kicks. And yes, I do MMA🤙

1:12 - Reminds me a lot of Rico Verhoeven's front kick. He often starts his kick whilst still executing his jab, making the kick land at the retraction of his punch.

Man, the front kick, when utilized correctly, can catch almost ANYONE of guard for an easy KO!

this works extremely well ( better i think) with a sidekick. especially if they pull their leg back so you miss with the leg kick. the sidekick allows you to turn your foot more on the leg kick, avoiding the half assed positioning due to trying to do a good leg kick into a front kick you had mentioned. nice tutorial.

It's insane - my friend and I have been watching MMA for years & we are casual enthusiasts. He's been mentioning this for so long now, so I was surprised to see a video about exactly this subject!

I'm so glad you highlighted the "little hop". Without it (from what I saw of participants), you'll either (toes forward to favour front kick) twist-stress the knee joint on the round house, or (toes 90 degrees to favour round house) stress the meniscus on the front kick. Good job.

Awesome Video!

I like the approach of seeing front kicks on a scale from teeps to snaps. That and using roundhouses as a setup makes it feel more like how a boxer may set up a one-two.

I started with mma and recently started with more traditional Muay Thai and I can tell you that the teep/front kick has completely revolutionized my striking. Such an underutilized kick that when someone gets good with can dictate a fight

Hey, I'm definitely gonna try this in my Muay Thay class. Pretty cool

Love front kicks 💪🏼

I was taught being able to throw it from standing feet shoulder width apart effectively and hard creates a solid foundation, and seemingly naturally nutures even harder kicks in ideal foot positions and fosters strong foot work. Interesting thought at the least.😁 Thanks for another video 🙏🙏🙏

Huh. I always wondered about this, glad to see Mike addressing this.

Love this. Always wondered why it's under used in MMA. Seems like a front kick with the heel to the solar plexus would drop some dudes. It's kind of like how many MMA dudes throw overhand and looping punches all the time and not short straight boxing style punches. Seems to me the front kick is the quickest to the point kick and has a lot of power.

Looks like an awesome environment

I agree completely! I often teach people the scale of front kicks and that intent is really the only thing to consider. If you throw one it should work and do something. I guess the only fear is maybe getting the kick caught or grabbed for MMA into a takedown as many fighters are often afraid to commit to their kicks because of this.

The style labeling will never die

Man Mike I love your in-depth explanations for why you're doing everything you're doing and the various considerations therein. At my gym, we generally just train combos and spar with little thought given to the theoretical reasons why we do one move over another. Its so important to build this theoretical knowledge because the more you know why you're doing various moves, the more you can dynamically alter them as the situation requires.

My favourite and best kick.

I use it a lot when practicing but I don't know if I'll ever use it in an actual fight. For me it's more a warding blow to push them back. I wager MMA fighters don't use it much for fear of single or double leg takedown. Seems quicker to shin kick the person.

Never forget to add your own sound FX when you do this in practice.

Good shit!

I liked the way this one was edited

I love the front kick! I use too keep my knee up high to protect myself and when he moves forward i kick to both stop, score and push him back. If you are good on sniping you can hurt the liver and also push on the blatter which is extremely uncomfortable and distracting. It's a really awesome skill to work on for kickboxing.

same theoretical background we have in hunggar and we show also on instagram and tiktok💪🏻 but i totally agree the point with traditional martial art and mma with sparring and the air kicking

Yo! The hop made all the difference. I paused it after the first clip and drilled it with my gf in the living room. We made it work but it felt "clunky". That little hop tho? Immediately the body mechanics felt way less weird.

Referencing the base foot compromise issue at 6:20, another alternative to the hop…… is the side kick ;) Roundhouse base foot position and side kick base foot position are almost identical. So you can touch then side thrust kick.

That slo mo was good as hell, i thought it was an edit for a second

Growing up In my karate school we learned both snap and thrust front kicks. Later learning the Muay Thai version made for an interesting revelation. If the foot travels in a quarter circle arch towards the target, there is a good chance your kicking foot will run into the point of the opponent’s lead elbow, and it can cause some serious pain. The Muay Thai version where the foot comes way up. Then travels in an almost straight line to the target, reduces the chance of injury to your own foot, at the cost of some speed.

Savate Chasse frontale, awesome especially when applied to knee area with Heavy boot.

Great video on the front kick. One of my favorite kicks! The overall explanation was excellent, especially about traditional martial arts vs MMA and finding a balance.

Ooooo...well done Mike, I like this one...a LOT. Plus, it’s already got my creative juices flowing: how about tap-oblique. Jeff Chan does a beautiful close-range oblique to the sternum etc. which would work brilliantly with this. Much harder to predict than a front snap-kick, or regular teep. 👌 PS. I don’t like those inside leg kicks using your metatarsals bro...great way to get your toes broken since that’s super-easy to check. But what do I know? 🤷‍♂️

Seems fun, I'd go :)

Just realised your wearing a ZNA hoody, mines one of my favourites

Seanchais front kicks are beautiful

I wonder if this would work if the round kick were thrown higher. I ask because in my school we use oldschool American kickboxing rules for valid point areas (no leg kicks). I'll try it in sparring tomorrow and see how it goes.

Machida`s front kicks are an obvious one to follow. Also uses it in a teep mode. karate nerd here and when sparring with a Kung-Fu mate he uses it all the time to drive me bonkers. Infact I ran into one in a local comp and broke a Rib. Playing with front kicks at a slight rounded angle is also nice. Stabby floating rib shots you can hide under a straight punch :)

at 6:00 to 6:10 ish when you turn the leg a lil bit to do the round kick, im assuming you could follow that up with a side kick, perhaps performed by a sidekick? a sidekick side kicking a kick to the side?

Would love to Train With you please open up a gym in NJ 😂

I think a lot of mma guys don’t use front kicks because most of them have wider boxing like stance. I I like front kicks a lot but when I use them I normally have to square my stance up a little 🤷‍♂️

Cuz they r always loading up for a muaythai roundhouse or a big pushing teep. We have had some nice front kick KOs in mma, def a grt kick to use. Old days, some karate guys used them all the time.

I like how you don’t give shitty kicks a pass.

Almost 2 years ago, I broke my big toe when I frontkicked my sparring partner by accidently hitting his ellbow. Unfortunatly it was the last time i ever used the frontkick cause I'm too scared it happens again.

I'm a boxer and honestly the teep is my fav kick lol I guess it's the boxing back ground lol it's the jab for feet.

Front kick is my favorite attack let's go

I think people neglect it because they're petrified of being taken down. Teep to the face can be practiced on the bag and pads. It can also be trained in sparring as long as students are advanced enough to pull it and keep it controlled. I always pull my head kicks during sparring. Being able to control kicks makes it easier to throw hard too

It is a good first move.

2:15 nice advice ik just where to use it

Cool

One of the components that made Young Conor the Good Conor. He had that piercing front kick he would stab guys with as a setup for other kicks

Zednaught Alpha! 🥰

Watching the lesson, I realized that I have been tossing front kick combos so long I just adjust base foot by pivoting back.

Machida had a nice front kick.

I think front kicks are a little less prevelant in mma because they're way easier to throw faster from a more narrow stance in muay thai and kickboxing. When i get into a wider stance mma/boxing stance it's significantly harder for me to do a teep or front kick

Mma stance(s) makes it harder for sure its easy for k1 and muay thai as we stand taller without worrying about take downs only catches and sweeps

While if it lands is really good I am more afraid of throwing front kicks than other types of kicks because it lands with the foot in an area that can be blocked with an elbow, which is painful. I got blocked sometimes that way and I also try to do it when being front kicked, specially with the snap one. On the other side I throw the roundhouse kick to the head, where an elbow block is not frequent or I make contact with the shin, where the possible elbow block is not a big deal.

Interesting to hear that frontkick meta prediction. After seeing a few work, I was like: "Damn, this is underutilized!" I guess that's what we've all been thinking! 🤷🏻‍♂️

The front kick is just absurdly easy and effective. I've been saying for years that if somebody can develop a good 1-2 and a good front kick, they're already going to be better at fighting than the majority of people even if they learn nothing else (though some wrestling experience would also help a lot lol).

yo can you help with understanding how not to get hurt while kicking? I'm not sure if you have already done some sort of conditioning or something but I was sparring a couple days back in the gym and this guy step bup back kicked me and I intuitively checked it with my shin and now it hurts when I walk.

That kick set up is very common in Savate "French kickboxing"

I hope Eli knows you're repping the ZNA merch

Except for Silva and Machida. I guess that’s to be expected, both have karate backgrounds. It’s a bit like a jab to the body that Mayweather used so well. Very underrated but very effective. It saps your energy like no other.

Maryna Moroz at UFC 272 is a great example of how MMA fighters can have absolutely horrible striking technique and still win fights. The thing about focusing so strongly on having solid technique, however, is that we don't rise to heights of our expectations when the SHTF. To the contrary, we default to our lowest level of training. Which means that you want your lowest level of training to still be pretty high. Whether an artistic martial artist or a sport martial artist, all it takes is a few changes to training to fill in the gaps (e.g. "traditional artists spend too much time kicking the air and MMA guys spend too little time kicking the air"). I think this is perfectly demonstrated by Rokas (Martial Arts Journey) spending a year training MMA only to discover that his Aikido actually does work... just not how he was training it before training practical application. Speaking personally, the only two kicks I've used in real street fights are the front kick and the front-leg inside / outside crescent kick. Both worked as intended and in one instance the other guy went to the hospital with badly broken ribs. As far as the side kick, here's a setup my TMA Master used when he was a ranked kickboxer: Either a front kick or fist bump to the bottom of their lead elbow, to make that arm pop upward, followed immediately by a sliding side kick to the ribs. The side kick - which is not the same thing as a side teep, folks - works best from a fully bladed stance, such as immediately after throwing a round kick. But, you have to actually be able to stop your round kick in the air, rechamber your foot, and throw the second kick without losing your balance or control for that side kick to have any real power. In this regard, punching and kicking the air is no different than shadowboxing.

We need "front kick focus" in Tallahassee!

Front kick great for firemen breaking down doors 😅

may be the risk of the takedown but then again it could be used to bait a takedown

Side kick is also under rated

I am probably just clueless but having trouble finding seminar links. Granted, I am not great at Instagram.

Can you do a video on what to do if someone grabs your leg when you throw a kick?

Specialists always like to say MMA fighters suck at what they (the specialist) specialize in.

Lyoto Machida is 😛🍿

2:21 I wonder what dirty joke Mike said right there

6:11 the problem is that a side kick would actually work in this instance? 😏 Say it Mikey- "side kicks DO work"

@6:15 side kick time!

HEY Y'ALL SCHOOL'S STARTING COME LISTEN TO MR ICY