 As we explore the different martial arts of the world, we would like to take a moment to stop and appreciate some individual techniques. And in many cases, we can break them down, talk about why they stand out, show some pros and cons, and maybe even explore how those techniques exist in multiple different arts, sometimes in different interpretations. So that's what we're going to do today. Today, we're going to take a look at the Muay Thai leg kick and why you should have it as part of your regimen. The Muay Thai leg kick, also called the low kick, is a very common, very powerful technique used in Muay Thai competitions, and as a result, you'll see it implemented in the UFC and other MMA fights. But it's a very powerful kick, delivered to your opponent's leg, often to the outside of the leg, but there are different versions. So you can go to the outside of the leg to kind of beat up the big thigh muscle, or sometimes it's delivered to the inside of the thigh. It can be used to sweep, it can be used to block, it can be used to check. So there's several different variations that can be applied, but it's a very common technique used in Muay Thai. It's also often underestimated by those who aren't familiar with it, which I think is very unfortunate because, in my opinion, the leg kick is one of the most effective kicks. For starts, you don't have to kick very high, so unlike a lot of body shots and head shots, you don't have to raise this kick that high up in order to deliver it. And as a result, your balance isn't as compromised as you would be necessarily kicking in head level. It can also be delivered quite quickly and be hard to defend against. If you encounter somebody who's well-versed and will practice in this kick, they can be extraordinarily powerful. In this kick works great both in self-defense and sporting competitions. You see a lot of variations of the leg kick across different martial arts, but it's a staple in Muay Thai, and I personally feel that Muay Thai represents it the best. Maybe Kielkschen coming in at a pretty darn close second. But if you come across or encounter somebody who's really spent the time to develop this kick, this is not something that's going to be fun to be on the receiving end of. My previous instructor taught MMA classes, and he also trained local MMA fighters. As a result, we had classes that were Kemple classes in the gym and we also had MMA classes, and quite often ideas, you know, cross-reference and cross-training and we mixed a lot. And he brought the leg kick into our Kemple training, which was great, and by doing that, I learned a few different things. The first thing I learned about it is these suckers can really hurt. Even if you are conditioned and expect them, they can still sing. If you have not practiced against them or if you've never really received one or are conditioned for it, you're in for a surprise, especially the kicks on the inside of the thigh. If you're not conditioned for that, that sucker smarts like you wouldn't believe. I also learned how it differed from the different kicks that we already had in Kemple. Kemple has low kicks. A lot of karate styles do, but they're implemented differently. This Muay Thai kick, you know, is kind of thinking of like an axe chopping down a tree. You're literally chopping down your opponent. And in many cases of Muay Thai practitioners, they literally do chop down trees with this kick. So as with any martial art or technique or school out there, there are pros and cons. So let's look at the good and the bad about the leg kick. The first is one reason this kick is so powerful is that it has the opportunity to utilize gravity when delivering it. A lot of kicks of their body level, like torso or head level, you're actually kind of rising up. You're actually kind of fighting against gravity. You're using torque to deliver a powerful kick or you're propelling your body weight forward into the kick, but you're still going against gravity. With the leg kick being the target being so low, you can actually use that gravity and implement for a stronger kick. So it's one of the few kicks that actually can use gravity. The second thing is, in my personal opinion, I feel this is one of the better kicks to use against a BJJ practitioner. I'm going to say this again, my own personal experience, those of you who are grapplers, you already know this. Those of you who are not grapplers, please understand this. A BJJ or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or Judo or any grappler understands how to counter kicks because the big thing about kicking is when you throw a kick, especially a high kick, you are compromising your balance all your way is on one foot. A good grappler will know how to take advantage of that. And if you're kicking high and they know what to do, they can grab that kick and take you to the ground really, really quickly. The leg kick is a lot harder to do that with. It doesn't get that height. Like we said, it doesn't kick as high, but it's hard. It's not the type of kick you can really grab and pull and take someone off balance. And they're off balance a little bit less than the standard kick. So I feel if you're going to kick against a BJJ practitioner, this is one of the better ones. And especially if they have not practiced or conditioned against it, it might be quite effective. It can also be a fight-ender. A properly executed, powerful leg kick could stop a fight. There's lots of footage of it in competition. It happens in real life, especially if someone's not expecting it, that kick alone could end a confrontation. And I want to repeat how effective this is against those who are unconditioned towards it. Because many, many times if you deliver a leg kick to somebody who hasn't trained against it or isn't aware of it, many times that kick will just sweep them right off their feet. And we saw this from time to time again in our school when new students would show up and we would do that pad drill, we would do this leg kick drill. You know, we'd get into our stance, you'd put the pad on the side of the leg and then we would deliver it to each other. Well, with somebody who hasn't done it before, almost every single time that first kick, whoop, their legs would be swept out from underneath them and they were on the ground. Now when it comes to the cons, there aren't too many, but they're worth taking a look at. So first of all, and going back to what I said about how hard it was to defend against, doesn't mean it's impossible to defend against. It is possible somebody who can read the kick coming, they might be able to step back and move out of the way. But one of the most common checks is a leg check or shin block that you see a lot in Muay Thai and MMA. And let me tell you something right now, if you throw a full powered leg kick to somebody who's expecting it or they've conditioned to defend against it and they bring that shin up, that can hurt like hell. Those shin clashings don't feel great. And there's actually been several occasions where the person throwing the kick has had their leg broken just by it being blocked. So just to keep in mind that just like any other technique out there, there is an inherent risk to throwing it. Secondly, it's a very destructive technique. And yes, that could technically count as a pro, put that in a positive column for that, but with that destruction comes accountability. If you're going to use this kick, first of all, when you practice it, you need to practice it carefully, start slow when you learn it and work your way up. Don't just go blasting people in class because you can do damage. And if you're actually having to use this in the competition or in a self-defense situation where you're gonna throw it full power, understand the possible destruction and damage you could do to that person's leg, especially their knee. If they are not expecting it or they're not ready for it or they don't even know how to defend against it, this thing can blow out knees like you wouldn't believe. And this was something I wanted to bring up. When we did this in class, my instructor actually pointed out that our stance, like the traditional Kemple stance and the karate stance is they're not always in position to defend this kick. So he would actually sometimes have us practice with a modified stance, much like you would see in MMA, just so that we could lean into the kick or we could deflect it if we had to, at least to expect it. So just understand the responsibility you have of throwing a technique like this if you're in a situation where you ever have to use it for real. Also, you can easily hurt yourself by throwing this kick. That's why the conditioning is so important because basically you are throwing a full power rotational kick, impacting with your shin bone that if you're not practiced or well versed in that, you can easily break it or hurt yourself severely. And even the high-end Muay Thai guys, I mean, with the condition they go through, some of the objects that they break and even like kicking down trees, you can see that sometimes even just the wrong angle or the wrong impact or sometimes even there's a hard surface, it can still hurt. And piggybacking onto that is the long-term effects that you might have. It's not uncommon to hear about, you know, Muay Thai professional fighters who did kick the trees and the metal bars and the bats that later they had arthritis and other long-term problems and damage to their shins and their limbs. So something you just got to keep in mind that you are bludgeoning something with part of your body. So there's a lot of risk that comes with that. But the cool thing about this is that you see the leg kick across multiple different martial arts and many times they're done differently. So you've got Muay Thai, like Kyokushin where it's more of a chopping, let's cut your opponent down. In other arts, they could have different purposes. So you see it in Thai Kwon Do, you can see it in Krab Maga, we have it in Kempo. In Kempo, we use it a little bit differently. We're usually trying to achieve a specific reaction. So say for example, we're kicking them on the outside of the leg, we're probably trying to collapse that knee trying to bring our body height down. So we're trying to cancel a body zone height with depth. Usually a kick to the leg tries to bring their height down. Alternatively, if we're delivering the kick to the inside of the thigh, we might be trying to open up their stance, disrupt their balance a little bit, maybe set up a hook on the way out if we're gonna cover out of a situation or set up for a leg buckle or open a target or open up their centerline. So there's usually an intent. So they're not the same high-powered kicks that Muay Thai would use them, but they're similar kicks, but they have different goals in mind. And I think that's the mark of a great technique. When there are so many applications, when there are so many interpretations and you see different practitioners using it to achieve different goals, I think that's fantastic and worth stopping to take a moment to appreciate. I personally feel that this kick should be in everybody's regimen. It complements most martial arts, especially the stand-up arts. It's quick, it's powerful, it doesn't require a lot of flexibility or acrobatics in order to deliver it. And it's quite effective in both real life and competition scenarios. So I use this as a cautionary tale for anyone out there who either has ignored or blown off this kick or has just not practiced or conditioned against it. I'm warning you right now, if you are not prepared for this kick and you come across someone who is very well versed in it and they can deliver a good one and they do one on you that seriously compromises the chances of you walking away from that fight. Quite literally. And for those of you out there who do train in Muay Thai and MMA and are very well versed in this kick, I invite you maybe step outside your boundaries as well. Take a look at a couple of other arts. Look at Kyokushin, look at Kempo, Karate, Krav Maga. Look at how they implement their leg kicks and see if there's any ideas that could spark that you could use into your own training. You know, it's great, you don't always have to chop down that tree but sometimes you might be able to use it to set up another combination or you never know what you might learn. And that's today's moment of appreciation for the Muay Thai leg kick. Guys, thank you so much for watching and as always, I encourage any feedback and I would love to hear your experience with this kick or if you train in other arts, how do you use it in your art and style? Do you have different goals for it? And we're gonna try to show more appreciation for individual techniques and how they apply to different martial arts and if there's any specific ones that you guys like to see, put them in the comments as well. We'll take them into consideration. Thank you guys so much for watching and we'll see you next time.