I am curious to your opinion regarding when to use a side kick rather than a thrusting front kick in application? Seems that these are two kicks that can accomplish the same purpose most of the time. I understand if your opponent runs to you outside gate you may throw a sidekick instead of turning and facing. Also, I understand that as a check/stop kick to the leg, turning your foot parallel to the ground (or outward for that matter) gives more surface area for catching their leg. Are there any situations in which you throw a sidekick to an opponent directly in front of you, and your target is waist height or higher?
you can use a side cutting kick when you missed with the front kick it is a lot faster to use than setting up another front kick. it can also be the second part of a kick combo from one leg to the next.
hmm… i don’t throw many sidekicks these days. but when i do, it’s generally at the end of a combination. the hip turnover in my sidekick is pretty pronounced. so a followup with the hands doesn’t flow as easily as it would after a front kick.
so why throw a sidekick at all? i think it’s slightly more powerful than my front kick, though i don’t think there’s much in it. still, it does lend itself to a couple of modifiers that the front kick doesn’t. the power between a front kick and a sidekick is pretty minimal. the difference between a skipping front kick and a skipping sidekick is, in my opinion, more profound. so the availability of things like that point to a sidekick occassionally.
the other thing, i suppose, is that i worry less about damaging myself doing a sidekick. that’s not really a rational thing. i’m sure the potential for injury is pretty even keeled. but i happen to have injured myself worse doing a front kick than ever i have doing a sidekick. my toes pointing up in the air like that, when i’m fighting people who keep there elbows in nice and tight, makes me very nervous. (not that catching an elbow on the side of your ankle is a picnic either, but i did say it wasn’t really a rational thing.)
stuart b.
Ap - for the thrusting front kick, the opponents’ elbows are no more of a concern than for a thrusting side kick. Additionally, we are taught to turn the foot outwards when kicking w/front kick an opponents’ midsection, in order to avoid the elbow. The foot position is the same as your twisting kick, but it too is performed with a thrust and the contact point is the heel or the whole foot. Although I didn’t find myself actually turning out my foot too often, but theoretically it’s there.
I think the main usage I have for the sidekick is just for variety, hey two techniques are better than one. Sometimes your opponent can handle one type of kick better than another. But I find the kicks as I said mostly interchangeable.
I agree that a skip-in side kick can be more powerful and especially extend a little more than the skip-in front kick, but that will only work regularly against a lower level of opposition. I usually can’t hit people from a distance like that cleanly. All they have to do is move a little and you will need to flow into a combonation, which is easier off of the front-kick version.
I just thought of another usage of the Side kick - since your base foot will generally be pointed ****her back, you can run away more easily. That’s good if your primary goal is just to keep the guy off of you.
Ap - for the thrusting front kick, the opponents’ elbows are no more of a concern than for a thrusting side kick. Additionally, we are taught to turn the foot outwards when kicking w/front kick an opponents’ midsection, in order to avoid the elbow. The foot position is the same as your twisting kick, but it too is performed with a thrust and the contact point is the heel or the whole foot. Although I didn’t find myself actually turning out my foot too often, but theoretically it’s there.
agreed. i did say that it wasn’t a very rational reason. but based on a past injury. and, in point of fact, i was injured because i performed the kick in a swinging rather than thrusting motion. i got injured because i was being lazy. not because of any flaw inherent in front kicks.
I agree that a skip-in side kick can be more powerful and especially extend a little more than the skip-in front kick, but that will only work regularly against a lower level of opposition. I usually can’t hit people from a distance like that cleanly. All they have to do is move a little and you will need to flow into a combonation, which is easier off of the front-kick version.
well, i disagree that it’ll only work on low-level people. you’re right. i can’t usually hit people with it from a distance either. they can see it from a mile off. but, as i said, i tend to put it at the end of combinations. if it’s someone that doesn’t like being in close, then a flurry of punches is enough to get them retreating. timed properly, with some punches to distract them, you can sometimes get the person to retreat straight into range of the skipping sidekick. i couldn’t throw that kick fast enough to initiate a combination. they’d just step back and i’m done. or sidestep and maul me.
stuart b.
I’m trying to get this one down myself. We have some guys who are very good at using the side kick to counter high attacks. I throw a roundhouse or front kick at their torso, they lean back and under and come in with the side kick. If you see it and step back they hop forward and may get me anyway. One guy used that against me while I was flicking jabs at him to keep him moving back trying to set him up. **** near knocked me across the dojang.
Use a side kick to counter a front kick as in jamming the leg as he moves forwards. low side kick that is!!
I think fa_jing mentioned turning the foot out. This can help when the elbow was there in the first place.
The shin is exposed during front kicks even with foot turned, toes out. However, there is substantially more muscle on the up side of a side kick. At least on my legs.
Damage to muscle versus damage to bone.
fa_jing, toe out might help when the elbow is in place. But might not be as much help if the elbow comes into place During kick.
I only realy use sidekicks by accident, or as low stopkicks, stuff like that. Sometimes it just pops out after another kick or at the end of some random combo or whatnot.
Sidekicks - more powerful than a lead leg front kick (quicker too), less telegraphed than a rear leg front kick (less power).
Sidekicks are very useful as when done right are hard to capture grab after landing. where as front kicks are quite easily caught and you may be punished.. ( ask apoweyn about what its like to have a kick caught and then followed through with a throw)
I use my sidekick like i would use both front kicks. both as a “checking” kick to find range and maintain a distance if they try to close and as a offensive weapon of power.
sidekicks higher than waist? - Look at san shou fighter Marvin Perry for mastery at this ablility.
One of the interesting things about a sidekick is that it has a wider range than a front kick.
If you simply chamber, you can fire a sidekick from any angle from between directly in front, to almost directly behind.
You have a much smaller angle of attack with a front kick, what I find to be in front of you, to a right angle of that.
(If anyone can do more than that, I say you are more flexible than me!!! 
)
This means it is easier to follow someone with a sidekick - or multiple sidekicks (chamber, fire, chamber, fire) at different angles, as opposed to a front kick (maybe you have a good ability to hop? not me!)
So you can dodgey stuff with a side kick - than you can with a front - i.e. chamber, wait a half beat for your opponent to move, and fire just as he plants his foot, and is stuck.
That also being said - I can throw a side kick from punching range very easily, as opposed to a front kick (unless an obvious target like a groin is given) which can be very hard to counter, given the right circumstances.
On the other side of the coin - a side kick is slower in terms of chamber fire, adjust and plant - a front kick you can chamber, fire and plant without a large adjustment (no rolling over onto the side) so its a trade off.
That and I would think I can get more power out of my side kick than I can out of my front. For sure
Just my 2c 
Neurotic
ask apoweyn about what its like to have a kick caught and then followed through with a throw
don’t bother. any memory of the experience was wiped out, along with half my childhood, after hitting the mat a few times on friday. 
and we were on a mat. and respectful of each other..
makes you see kicks in a whole new light. (How/when/which ways you use them/ What to do when being kicked/ the aftermath)
more than just that. it makes you see any shift in your balance and weight in a whole new light. things i took for granted before. if my hips were even a fraction of an inch further forward than my upper body (as would be the case in many kicks), i knew i was screwed. the world would turn upside down, the mat would get steadily bigger, and then [thump]
here’s a sidekick question then, bill. is there any concern in something like sanshou that the sidekick might give your opponent your back more readily? as easily as you tossed me about from the front, i’m thinking that if you got to my back, it would have been worse still.
stuart b.
is there any concern in something like sanshou that the sidekick might give your opponent your back more readily?
Sure is. and the throws are wicked.
Speed in delivery, and return. Following up the kick with combinations. Hand feints will also help hide the kick
Sidekicks are hard to read (telegraph) and you’ve got to be pretty clever and fast to intercept them before the kicker is already close enough to punch and clinch or out of reach.
it’ll be interesting to see, then, what changes i’ll end up making to my sidekick to account for that. i tend to roll my hip over a lot, making my back more accessible and followups harder. maybe that’ll change quick when i get a load of this throwing.
that is my issue with sidekicks… I don’t have a TKD sidekick so if I blow it and they step behind… I’m screwed… mine is almost a back kick as opposed to a true side kick… also at issue is balance… I get thrown back from my side kick… cant figure why… but it happens… i watched Jason Yee practice his… that dude stays rooted like a redwood… oh… and turning the hip over on the front leg side kick… without ‘skipping’ it aint happening… and by than i gave it away… not to toot my own horn but my front kick… when i sneak it in… it’s better than yoohoo…
yeah… I’m gonna take the next few weeks and work on that…
my sidekick tends to be the same way, suntzu.
there was actually a really good discussion of the sidekick on the underground’s kickboxing forum a while back. i don’t know how easy it would be to find at this point, but it may be worth searching for, fa jing.
stuart b.
Sun Tzu - I don’t know if this is what is going on with your sidekick but often times when I see someone with a sidekick/balance problem there are usually a few things wrong.
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they are up high on the balls of their feet/toes instead of flat (yet poised)
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they are standing very “tall” on the support leg instead of keeping the knee bent.
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- sometimes they try to reach out too far with the foot and become off balanced.
just some ideas.
I was just about to post… I do get up on the balls of my foot… that’s how I turned over on my toe… I’m thinkin it has to do with my flexibility… or lack there of… I think that is my last big weakness… I’m str8 legged too… looking at the clips from Kung Fu X… i think i will work on it a lil more… man those guys pull theyre knee in and fire that thing from up close… its more of a long range strike for me…