How You Front Kick Is How You Do All Things (Patreon)

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Nearly all the essential lessons about striking sparring can come from front kick (teep) sparring games. It's not just about damage; it's an invaluable tool in fostering a sense of yourself and your opponent. It's like an ant's antenna. It helps answer the question: Where is my opponent in relation to me? It's one of the clearest ways to develop wayfinding. If an LMA practitioner later on stops using it as often, it's because they've trained their eyes to do the job their front kick once did.

To clarify, I am using "front kick" and "teep" interchangeably. However, more and more, I prefer "front kick" to stay consistent with our descriptive wayfinding language and the direction of attack concept. Front, side, and back are directions.

Pushing Forward

When practitioners have a grasp of the front kick movement where they are pushing through a target in front of them, I go over the importance of pushing as it relates to partner safety.

Developing practitioners tend to kick up rather than to the front. When practitioners first start front kicking, they have to be thoughtful about how they kick until the front push becomes automatic. If I were to bend over for whatever reason while a practitioner is front kicking, would the kick still land true on my stomach, or would it blast my chin and break all my teeth? That wholly depends on whether they are pushing forward or kicking up. If a practitioner pushes forward with the ball of their foot, regardless of whether I bend forward or not, it will not break my teeth. This attention to safety keeps everyone injury-free and the sparring safe, with enough room to mess up and develop. Toxic and unsafe environments allow no room and grace for messing up.

Consistently explaining how everything we do relates to safety is paramount when you spar and dynamic play as much as we do. Despite the frequency of our unchoreographed and unpredictable play, we've never had an injury. This concern for safety also improves our techniques because we're ensuring our movements stay true to their intended targets rather than moving carelessly.

Don't Break Posture

With safety in mind, developing practitioners should avoid swiping, swatting, or catching kicks below their waistline. Why? Because you'll be bending over and risking your chin and teeth. Use your legs to obstruct, cancel, and seal anything below the waist. In fact, it makes more sense to block above the waist with your legs if you are flexible enough. You want to block with thick parts of your body. You don't want to block a turning kick to the leg with your forearm because the shin will win. Lifting your knee to block a front kick to the stomach is safer than bending over to deflect a front kick to the thigh. If you have to reach for a front kick to deflect it, then it was never going to land anyway.

Use Your Feet More Than Your Hands

Your primary defense for front kicks, or any attack for that matter, is to go back or to the left or right. Get away from your opponent's reach.

You want to move your feet because avoiding a shot altogether is better than even being grazed. This becomes that much more consequential with small gloves or no gloves. When unavoidable, your secondary defense to the front kick is your hands.

If you try to make catching or swiping your primary defense, you'll end up catching or swiping after getting hit. Swiping or catching after the fact defeats the purpose of defense. Furthermore, you're only able to catch or swipe because your opponent was nice enough to pull their kick. You wouldn't be catching many kicks after the fact if they landed with impact.

Practitioners with developed senses can take calculated risks and bend over for some kicks. They're well aware of the dangers and are betting on themselves to catch or swipe without taking the kick to the face.

Zone of Proximity

The zone of proximity begins when you or your partner can touch each other with the front kick. In the zone of proximity, you can touch and physically affect each other (cause and effect). The front kick helps develop the sense for proximity and connects your eyes to your touch and your touch to your eyes. By touching them with the front kick, I know where they are without looking. After developing the connection between my eyes and my touch, my eyes can gauge when I can touch my opponent.

Sense for Targets and Being Targeted

Initially, I have practitioners only aim their front kicks at the stomach. This develops a sense for lining up the center of your opponent's body to your weapons while avoiding being in the crosshairs of their weapons. This is a fundamental part of game sense.

Vertical Center Line

By "center," I don't mean the opponent's waist or a horizontal line across their body but an imaginary vertical line that bisects their body. Most targets are along that line.

The front kick to the stomach also gives practitioners a sense of height for follow-up attacks to the body. This will also have opponents dropping their hands to deal with the front kick, which can set up attacks to the head on that same vertical center line.

Attack Path

Navigating away from the front kick means moving away from your opponent's reach (beyond the zone of proximity) or to the outside of their attack trajectory. Essentially, outside of their hips, shoulders, and feet. Fortunately, they're stacked on top of each other, so if you move outside their feet, you'll also be outside their hips and shoulders. If you move outside their shoulders, that will also cover their feet and hips.

To help visualize your opponent's attack flight path, imagine your opponent's shoulders and hips as flashlights. The beams of light from the flashlights represent the flight paths for their attacks. Move your vitals, your vertical center line, outside the lights (partially or fully). When it comes to sparring, wayfinding means navigating around your opponent's attack path while creating your attack paths. It's the game of hide and seek; find them, but don't let them find you. Hence, play. Sparring and getting better at sparring require play.

Targets, Their Uses, and Safety

As practitioners progress and develop surgical control over their front kick, we can introduce the hip as another target. (The chest and thigh are riskier targets and should only be introduced if they have an appropriate context.)

The stomach pushes the opponent back or stops them in their place. There's little risk of injury, and some of the force dissipates as they move back. When you front kick to the hip, they'll be bending over rather than moving back, so you want to be surgical rather than forceful. You don't need much energy to bend them over or cancel their action. A slight push by extending your ankle will be more than enough. Whether to the stomach or hip, a front kick can stop or cancel their action.

Windows of Opportunity

Eventually, your front kicks will set up your next attacks. You want to develop your sense for follow-up opportunities while only using the front kick. Backing up, losing balance, losing posture, losing position, or any other momentary pause by your opponent are windows of opportunity that you'll use later. First, get good at creating those windows and recognizing them when they happen. Since opportunities are windows, they're only open temporarily.

Congruent Stances

If both you and your opponent are in matching L or J-stances, you're congruent to each other. Your lead foot front kick is your quickest and most versatile kick. Being already lined up with your opponent's vertical center line makes the kick that much more accurate. Since your lead foot is closest to your opponent, the lead front kick only has a short distance to travel, making it hard to see. Perception needs time-space. Less space equals less time, which equals less perception.

Conversely, more space equals more time, which equals more perception. Your rear foot front kick starts from the back and reaches further than your lead foot front kick because you are taking a step forward. For smaller practitioners, the rear front kick helps overcome a reach disadvantage. However, since it travels further, it's easier to see coming.

The rear front kick is also not lined up with the vertical center line, making it less accurate. More time-space gives all the rear strikes more impact, making them harder to be surgical with, so be cautious. Targets will also move by the time rear strikes arrive.

Considerations When You're at a Reach Disadvantage

Though the front kick is all about reach, that doesn't mean smaller practitioners shouldn't use it; they just have to pick their spots (timing and targets). Front kicking is ultimately about stopping an opponent. Rather than coming to the opponent to push them away, the smaller practitioner can use the front kick when the taller practitioner comes to them. Rather than pushing, for the smaller practitioner, the emphasis is on interrupting or chaining attacks.

If the smaller player can't reach the stomach, they can target the hip. It's both essential and more accessible for the smaller practitioners to chain the front kick with other attacks or to end a combination with a front kick. For the smaller practitioner, the front kick might not push bigger opponents away, but it can still create windows of opportunity.

If the front kick drives the opponent back, the practitioner can march into other attacks while taking the initiative. Taller practitioners can't use the front kick when they're close to their opponents, but for smaller practitioners fighting bigger opponents, the front kick is still accessible from close proximity.

Rear Front Kick Considerations

There are two ways to do a rear front kick: from a fixed foot position or with a front heel turn. The heel turn gives you more reach and power and switches your stance from L to J or J to L. The ideal use cases for the front kick with heel turn are to set up an attack from the other stance or to disguise a stance switch. Switching stances can leave you temporarily exposed because there's a moment when you're neither in L nor J-stance. The front kick can back an opponent away so you can safely switch stances.

Foot Position and Gaze

Another essential part of landing front kicks (or any attacks in general) is the battle for foot position. From congruent stances, if your lead foot can step outside your opponent's rear foot, you can line up your rear front kick (or any rear attack) to their vertical center line while avoiding counters. If you move your rear foot outside your opponent's lead foot, your front kick will dig that much deeper into your opponent while keeping you out of their attack path.

You don't have to look at the feet to do this; you can assume where the feet are by looking at your opponent's shoulders and hips.

Your starting gaze should always be on the torso. You can move your gaze, but it should always return to Position Zero—the torso.

Avoiding your opponent's attack path doesn't mean stepping far outside their shoulders and hips, just enough so your foot has outside position. A big movement will alert your opponent. Small movements where you move your foot outside theirs are harder to detect.

Depth Theory

LMA prioritizes depth over power. Why do people put strength into their strikes? For more impact. But no matter how hard you deliver a shallow punch or front kick, the impact will only be surface-level. What matters more than strength is depth. How far can your strike penetrate your opponent? If you can reach depth, you don't need much power at all.

One way to achieve depth is by being closer to your opponent. Closeness will allow your strike's normal range of motion to penetrate deeper into your opponent's body.

People throw hard strikes when they're too far away. They make up for depth with strength. However, since the point is impact, and you can't have impact without depth or contact, players will lean forward and break their posture reaching for their target—distorting their fighting stance into a fragile and unbalanced structure. Not only are they vulnerable to counters, but the counter doesn't need much power since the opponent is providing the proximity. You don't need to throw hard at all when you're close because there's so much depth.

Counters

The efficiency and power of counters come from allowing your opponent to create depth. Since you're driving into them with a counter and they are driving into you with their face and body, depth and velocity exponentially increase.

You see the same thing in a head-on car crash. The tangled metal mess you see is two cars driving into each other and attempting to occupy the same space.

When you front kick an incoming opponent, it takes little to create impact because of mutual velocity and depth. In fact, you have to be cautious with any strikes when your sparring partner is coming forward. Both parties should be aware of risks when there's forward movement, especially when both parties come forward. This is how you get accidental headbutts; the time-space between the two players collapses that quickly.

Range of Motion

In the video, I use a wall to show the lead, rear, and heel turn front kicks. I'm using the same consistent strength and standing the same distance away, yet they all have different impacts. That force comes from depth and time-space.

All three front kicks have different ranges of motion. With the lead, the wall was beyond the end of my motion. For the rear front kick, the wall was at the end of my motion. With the heel turn rear front kick, the wall was in the middle of my range of motion. Different ranges of motion have different depths for the same target. Since the heel turn rear front kick had the longest range of motion, it had the most depth against the target.

With the concept of range of motion in mind, positioning is another way to achieve depth. If I can move myself or my opponent deeper into my range of motion, I can continue my motion past my target (like kicking past the wall).

There's a misconception that strikes land hardest at the end of the motion when that's just as inefficient as being hit at the start of the motion. Think about a home run swing. The ball isn't struck at the end of the motion or the beginning but at the middle of the swing. The beginning of a swing has a long runway but no velocity. The end of a swing has some remaining velocity but no more runway. It's in the middle where there is peak velocity and runway. If I wanted to stop a swinging bat, the best times are at the beginning or at the very end. It's in the middle where it's hardest to stop.

Forward isn't the only way to create depth; you can also create it by going side to side. This is the battle for foot position, though it only becomes a battle when both players recognize the importance. Once you understand depth, safety, and maximizing energy for the front kick, you'll understand it for all other strikes (whether you're executing or receiving). If you know the Way broadly, you'll understand it in all things.

From congruent stances, generally, if the opponent moves to your lead side range of motion, lead front kick. If they move to your rear side range of motion, rear front kick. This often creates a collision because there's mutual depth. They're coming to your leg, and your leg is coming to them. It won't take much power to create deep impact.

Incongruent Stances

If you're incongruent with your opponent, J and L, your rear front kick (along with all your rear strikes) is lined up with your opponent's vertical center line. In general, from incongruent stances, you'll use your rear attacks more. Your lead foot will be closer and quicker but less accurate with fewer targets. You don't need to be skillful to land your rear strikes because they'll be open. Where you need craft is with defense and lead side strikes.

Because of depth, the foot position battle is even more critical from incongruent stances. When you're congruent, getting depth with your lead attacks is easier. When you're incongruent, getting depth with your rear attacks is easier. Since your rear attacks have more time-space, they have more velocity. Velocity plus depth is the benefit and risk of incongruent stances. Whoever wins the foot position battle gets more depth, velocity, and safety.

It's more complex than striking with my rear when they move to that range of motion and striking with my lead when they move to that range of motion. We are asymmetrical. When they move to my rear side range of motion, those strikes come quickly because our distance is shortened. However, when they move to my lead side range of motion, I'm in the crosshairs of their rear attack, and my lead strikes will land at the start of the motion, decreasing their velocity. It's much more of a one-sided battle because the rear side has a clear advantage.

However, it's not always about getting outside foot position, just as it's not always about never bending over for a kick. That's just the general rule, but if you have developed senses and experience, you can take calculated risks. Why is it worth taking calculated risks? Because not taking those risks can sometimes be even more precarious.

If you only do the same thing, you become predictable and easily read, exposing yourself to your opponent. Your opponent might also not be used to people taking those risks, which means they don't have developed senses for what's coming in those situations. The advantage to moving to the inside position is that you already know what's coming, their rear attack. Your opponent, however, might not be aware they, too, are in danger. You're betting on yourself to be better in that situation than your opponent, and much of that comes to who has more experience in that position.

One way to maximize lead attacks from incongruent stances is by shortening or increasing their range of motion. Both achieve the same result, hitting the target in the middle of the motion.

My main concern is safety and whether techniques are likely to injure the practitioner or their opponent. If a movement or tactic is not expected to cause injury, the practitioner should explore it while understanding the pros and cons. Exploration is all about building experience, not just with techniques but also with situations.

Misdirections

Something that naturally develops from front kick gameplay is misdirection (feints and fakes). It arises not from the intent to misdirect but from reading your opponent and hesitating or changing decisions based on those reads. You perceive and respond. Misdirection playfully evolves from that interplay because it's all about giving your opponent an observation to draw out a response.

For example, you plan to front kick but change your mind because of something your opponent did. Or you plan to step forward but hesitate because your opponent came forward. These are movements that are not movements, and they affect your opponent just as their movements affect you.

With two developing practitioners, you might have a situation where neither is throwing front kicks, so nothing is happening, but at the same time, a lot is happening. Whether deliberate or incidental, uncommitted movements are misdirections.

Even day-one practitioners understand committing to a movement can expose them, and since they can't tell the difference between committed and uncommitted actions, they react to every intention as if they're fully actualized. For instance, one practitioner canceling their action because of what the other did causes the other to withdraw their action, and so on. They're misdirecting, just not deliberately.

Hesitations themselves are misdirections. In basketball and soccer, it's often called a "hesi." What happens when you hesitate? Your opponent stops or comes to you. If you know that's the reaction or recognize it when it happens, that's an opportunity.

Developing practitioners can create these moments but can't seize them. That's okay. What's important is developing a sense for these opportunities as they happen. As you get quicker and quicker at perceiving these opportunities, you'll feel like you have all the time in the world to observe and decide.

"Hesi" and all gameplay footwork can apply to dynamic sparring because how you do one thing is how you do all things.

Partner-Focused

Perception and being partner-focused (externally focused) are radical changes for most people but are paramount to revolutionary progress. Rather than only thinking about your own movements or internally focusing on your inner monologue, attune to the effects your actions are causing on your opponent. Observe cause and effect. Rather than passively thinking, actively explore your space and movement options and see how that affects your opponent.

What you're developing is perception, which includes your eyes. This is why when I refer to different levels of practitioners, I avoid saying beginner or advanced but instead say developing practitioners or practitioners with developed senses (or eyes). Looking at and experiencing lots of stuff is much more accessible than perfect mechanics, athleticism, flexibility, coordination, strength, and natural ability.

Once you begin noticing "when I do this, they do that," you can recreate those reactions. Then, what started out as incidental becomes deliberate.

Likewise, you can also take advantage of unintended effects. An opportunity is an opportunity regardless of how it arises. Unintended consequences aren't necessarily disadvantageous. Luck is an unintended consequence. Use every window of opportunity.

For all of these reasons, play is essential for learning. Play is about trying something, seeing what happens, making note of that effect, using that effect, causing a better effect, making note of that effect, using that effect, and so on. (E.g., I did this, they did that, I notice they did that, I capitalize on that, and repeat.)

Play

Try things for the sake of trying them and see what happens. Adults miss the point of play because they focus so much on planning and results as if everything is a business project and ignore the "seeing what happens" part. Understanding the cause (you trying stuff) and observing the effect (seeing what happens) is learning— it's cause and effect, perceiving and responding, exploring and finding your way (wayfinding).

One of the first misdirections practitioners discover during front kick play is the high hurdle step or leg lifting. It starts out unintentionally—you lift to front kick but then change your mind. Then you find your opponent reacting to you raising your leg, whether your front kick or not.

The high hurdle step has multiple uses; you can use it to front kick, block, step forward, or move backward. If you play with it enough, you'll find that just by lifting your leg, your opponent will back up, which is one of the most useful effects you can cause in your opponent. The implied action is almost as good as the real thing, with half the risk and energy consumption. You develop all that from front kick play.

Universal Positions

Related to misdirections are universal positions, like the high hurdle step. Universal positions give you multiple movement options, automatically misdirecting opponents. Keeping it simple while being unpredictable means having a few positions that give you infinite options. Build complexity on simplicity, not complexity on complexity—then it's just a hot mess.

Not only will your opponents not know what's coming, but even when it does come, since the movements start from the same position, they look similar until it's too late. Universal positions are mysteries wrapped in enigmas. They're simple, efficient, and effective.

You don't need to master a million positions to do a million things because how you do one thing is how you do all things. This is how you can learn an infinite number of lessons just from playing front kick games. That's the elegance of the LMA Way.

– Sam