Speed is very important for powerful techniques

You probably know that speed is very important for powerful techniques. A small increase in speed leads to a surprisingly large increase in power. Last night we did an experiment to see how fast a side kick needs to be to break an unsupported board using slow motion video. Usually a board breaks partly because of the resistance of the holders, so if there’s no holder you need to kick much faster.

Your foot needs to travel from the ground to the ready position for your side kick (knee bent and pulled up, foot pulled across), then out to a locked position. For an 80kg person kicking, to break an unsupported board this all needs to take place in approximately three tenths of a second!

To improve your speed, you need to stretch more and improve your flexibility. You also need to practice your technique so that you can instinctively deliver the technique perfectly in such a short timeframe.

Remember that all your instructors were white belts once! Keep coming to training and you’ll be able to pull off impressive techniques like this as well.