Lower-body Combatives

Linear Lower Body Strikes

Circular Lower Body Strikes

Mastering Lower-Body Strikes and Kicks (Yellow-Black Belts)

Your lower body houses the most powerful fighting weapons that you can use at maximum fighting range. Your knees and the balls of your feet (especially when clad in shoes) serve as hard and durable striking surfaces. When you kick or knee your opponent, you use your body’s largest muscle groups, including the gluteus, quadriceps and hamstrings. If, as with punching, you put your entire body mass and strength behind your kick or knee, you can deliver a devastating blow, no matter your size or weight. 

Krav maga emphasizes kicks, shin strikes targeting the attacker’s groin and legs for two related reasons:  each body part is highly vulnerable and less defensible.  In addition, a low kicker’s leg has less of a chance of being trapped by an attacker than would a high kicker’s.  In addition, low kicks are conducive to interchanging upper body combative

You can perform krav maga kicks at low, medium and head-level heights. To execute high kicks, you’ll need a high amount of flexibility, as well as enough strength in your outer thighs to lift your leg. If you lack the flexibility and strength to kick high, don’t fret.In developing its self-defense-close-quarters-combat program, the IDF forced test candidates to run extensive distances with full combat loads. Many of these test candidates were accomplished martial artists who favored high kicks to the head. After an exhausting run in combat gear, the candidates were told to defend against an attack using whatever techniques they felt most comfortable. Few of the candidates skilled in high kicks could perform them.

Their physical taxation prior to the fighting tests made it extremely difficult to kick high. The IDF recognized the need to use only self-defense-close-quarters-combat techniques that would work for all trainees, especially under trying circumstances. Therefore, low kicks combined with upper body combatives became integral to Krav Maga training and more difficult to defend against. Indeed, when asked if Krav Maga favored kicks to the head, Imi once replied, “of course, we kick to the head, but first we beat him to the ground and then we kick to the head”[i] 

For most kicks, you’ll make contact with the ball of your foot. To accustom your feet to striking, curl your toes up toward you and repeatedly tap the ground with the ball of your foot. Increase the force of your taps as you become more comfortable with this foot positioning. To strike with your heel for a stomp, arc your toes towards your knee to expose the heel. Perform the same tapping exercise to accustom your heel to striking. Note that this heel exercise is combative kick in itself, the stomp, useful when an opponent is on the ground and you are standing.

For all straight kicks and knees, think of your kneecap as a directional finder or pointer. Wherever the knee is pointed, the kick or knee will follow. Hip alignment is paramount to keeping your leg on target. Note: Do not fully extend the kicking leg unless you are impacting a target. Rather, only extend about 90 percent. Similar to punches, you can hyperextend your knee by locking the joint.

Practice Suggestions:

• For each combative presented, we suggest that you practice a minimum of 20 repetitions with each of your left and right legs.  In other words, you are executing at least 40 repetitions (including both legs) per practice session. 
• Execute the lower-body combatives from a passive stance, a left-outlet fighting stance, and a right-outlet fighting stance.
• Practicing at least 10-15 minutes per technique is recommended (with, as noted above, a minimum of 20 repetitions per side).  Therefore, you should begin to both understand and embed approximately 4-6 techniques per practice hour.  (Note, though, for our group classes we generally teach 3-4 techniques per cumulative one hour lesson plan.)
• Observe and help your partner other analyze his/her movements.
• It may be helpful to film each other in action to further evaluate the fluidity and execution of each technique, if your weight shift and pivoting is correct, if your footwork and fighting stance is solid, and how well you can adopt to slight angle changes and heights of various attacks.
• Additionally, you may wish to refer the books Krav Maga, Chapter 7 and Advanced Krav Maga Chapter 7 for specific lowerbody combative drill recommendations and suggestions.

[i] Excerpts from Imi Lichtenfeld’s demonstration in Cleveland, Ohio, April, 1984 courtesy of Rick Blitstein.