Why in the world would you want to kick somene with your shins instead of the instep on your foot which is more used to take blows?
Because it hurts like mad ! The area that is generally used is lower down on the shin anyway but also Thai fighter's shins are normally conditioned from hours of kicking the pads, so they tend to be harder than most people's. Jay
don't get the idea it's always shins. A boxer can kick you with the instep just as well. Unlike the foot, the shin is a hard bone that you can be sure will cause damage. Through countless hours and years of conditioning it can be used like a club to bludgeon your opponent. A thai fighter's instep can be just as conditioned because when you kick something, you're making a lot of contact in that area as well.
Here speaks a person who's never been shin kicked. Visit a Muay Thai school - dire t eexperience is the best teacher.
Shins are just another option should you learn how to use them. Might as well learn to fight with everything god gave you
The shin is also a much more stable structure anatomicly then the instep is. The instep is a comprised of many small bones that all can be damaged eaisily.
well, in training, you generally try to hit with your shin all the time. but in an actual match, even when you try to hit with the shin...whatever hits them, hits them.
Instep=crutches It doesn't take much to break the bones around your instep. If your in the street and need to defend youseld stepping on the instep of your enemy is a good defense. I believe it takes about 14 pounds of pressure to break those bones. I for one would not try to use my instep to kick with.
Unless you are doing ball the foot rounds house. Then again aren't you wearing foot pads for sparring in TKD?
Because if you hit the guy in the elbow with your instep/ankle, you won't be walking for a while. Even with instep pads, it hurts like hell. That's why I usually kick a bit higher, and hit them in the arm. 3 or 4 hits like that, and they can't keep it up to guard anymore. Even though I train to kick with the instep, I can see the advantages to using my shins. My guess for using the instep is because if you're fighting an armoured opponent (like in the old days), it's easier to aim with the ball of your foot (like for a break) if you're used to kicking with your foot already. Side note: Don't think you can always block with your elbow. A guy in my studio got hit in the elbow, and it's been swollen for a good 3 months now. Looks like an egg. PL
the reason why WTF TKD practitioners use the instep to kick is it is a snapping roundhouse kick and it makes more noise when it hits the armor.
it also depends on what position your foot is in when kicking. if your ankle is entended (makin your leg a straight line) the bone is exposed more and also the painful nerves. But if your ankle is flexed, (making it a right angle) then the muscle "rises up over the bone" and covers those nerves making it almost painless.
I got lucky a guy in my martial arts was kickin me and I blocked with my forarm and even with blocking I blacked out for a second, wasn't fun haha, no pads or anything
sure if you have hard enough ball or heel or foot, but again it's still your foot. It's nowhere compared to the damaging effects of getting smacked with the shinbone. Especially if you are larger guy with a larger bone structure! I would only kick exclusively with my foot if I wore boots or at least shoes with hard soles...and I had tremendous piston-like pushing power in my side or front kicks...enough to knock the wind out of someone. There's nothing wrong with using your tip of your boot as a weapon either - just look at Savate. Think of it this way: you have a baseball in your hands. Now you can either poke your opponent with the end (which is damaging in its own right, but has less surface area), or you can take the whole thing and swing it at him. Which sounds more destructive in terms of physics?
Ahh, but you see, you're thinking of it wrong. You can either swing at him with the end of the bat, or with the middle part. Which one is more destructive? The end, of course. They way we do our roundhouse kicks in TKD is we whip our leg at the target to make a fast kick, then right before the moment of impact, tense the whole leg, and foot, to get power in it. Dunno how a roundhouse kick would work with the heel. With the ball though, it's usually already hard enough to do a ton of damage, without any conditioning. PL
