Exercises to help with jumping kicks

I have trouble with jumping kicks which I think comes down to lack of leg strength and consequently poor jumping ability. I've been doing squats of a morning to try to build muscles a bit. Any other home exercises that particularly help would be very welcome.

 

Skipping, squats , step running, and running will help improve lower leg strength to give you that additional spring you need. Other than that, just practice your technique until you nail it.

In Kickboxing you should generally be on your toes a lot so if you're jumping from flat foot you're also going to struggle. Which jumping kicks specifically are you trying to do? And are you training competitively or just for general reasons?

 

more squats, and lots of jumping (also, jump squats)

also practice HOW you jump, as that'll make a difference: you need to get as high as possible before you even think of anything else, as it's that jumping height that'll give you the time to kick, spin or whatever the specific techniques you do require you to do.

 

also look into whatever track and field athletes do, since many track events involve jumping. dan john has a lot of material related to that (track competitor turned coach who also dabbles in olympic weightlifting), so you might wanna check him out if you get serious about it aside from your kickboxing.

 

Thanks for the replies some very helpful stuff there.

I''m only learning for fitness and self defence and have no interest in competitive kickboxing and as for which kicks - all of them really, although as a beginner I don't know the more complex kicks, just ones like jumping version of front kick, side kick and spinning back kick so far.

 

If you're just a beginner I would recommend more working on the technique of your basic kicking first before worrying about jumping kicks. Once you nail the techniques of your basic kicks the jumping kicks will be much easier.

 

Sir, I try these all the time, but I can't get a large effect for my... I forgot what the formal name is... The inner thigh. I want to get better height for a side kick but I'm limited by my flexibility. What can you reccomend to stretch easier?

 

Sure, sure, doubtless my basic techniques could do with much improvement.

As a beginner though I've pretty much got to rely on the judgement of my instructors and since they've started teaching me jumping kicks fairly intensively then I have to trust that I'm at an appropriate stage to be learning them.

If I didn't trust their judgement they wouldn't be my instructors!

 

That is really dependant on the club and trust me when I say that a lot of Kickboxing clubs are just cashing in on the name of the art in the UK, even though most people won't want to believe it.

I, personally, have just under two years Full Contact Kickboxing experience under a well respected instructor on the Full Contact competitive circuits before moving into Muay Thai and didn't start learning how to do jumping kicks in Kickboxing until at least a year into my training.

How long have you been training for and where do you train?

 

I train at Tring Martial Arts http://tringmartialarts.com/ and I've been learning for a little over twelve months (not sure exactly). I suspect that I'm something of a slow learner although nobody's said anything like that - they try to be positive obviously.

 

Watching their video leads me to believe the Kickboxing is not of a good quality standard. Two black belts in the video couldn't even throw a spinning hook kick properly (8.53).