Do you keep your hands up when you throw a kick? Take another look!
Dropping the guard—either one hand or both—is a very common bad habit. Let me share a simple drill to help keep your hands up while you’re throwing kicks. Video and summary below!
How to Keep Your Hands Up
Hold on—before you write me an angry comment, let me say that there are a few good reasons to drop your hands in a fighting sport or even a real self-defense situation. For example…
- You might drop a hand in order to counter-balance a high kick.
- You might throw a hand backwards to add power to a kick through counter-rotation.
- You might drop your hands in order to draw an opponent in a little bit closer.
If these are the reasons that you drop your guard, then there’s no problem. Why?
Because you’re doing it on purpose!
I’m not talking about martial artists who drop their hands as part of a deliberate strategy. I’m talking about martial artists who drop their hands and have no idea that they’re doing it!
It sounds crazy, but it’s very common. So, let’s fix that with a simple drill I call—
Holding the Baby
If you have a real baby you can pick up, fantastic. If you don’t have a real baby, then take a drive to your local park. You can usually grab one there.
STOP!
That was a joke—don’t do that. No real babies. 🙂
Instead, grab a pillow, or a rolled up jacket, or a teddy bear, and pretend that you’re carrying a baby. That’s it! Now, go practice your kicks.
The challenge? Don’t drop the baby!
Sounds easy, but it’s not. There’s a big difference between kicking with your hands behind your body and in front of your body. There’s also a big difference between kicking with your hands down and your hands up.
Since safety should always be your number one priority, make it your goal to build a strong guard… then build a habit of maintaining it.
Once you have build that habit, if you then choose to throw a hand down as part of your strategy, go for it!
What about weights?
You might be wondering if you can do the same exercise holding on to a pair of dumbbells or a weight plate.
Of course you can, but I wouldn’t start with that. I don’t want you to put any unnecessary stress on your shoulders or back before you’ve made the appropriate modifications to your balance and alignment. For now, stick to lightweight objects like a pillow or a roll of paper towels.
Now, if you don’t feel comfortable walking around the gym cuddling a teddy bear, try this…
Grab a belt, tee shirt, or towel. Sling it around your neck so you’ll have something to hang on to while you practice your kicks.
If that’s too much trouble, then just grab your own collar… or your bra straps. Whatever! Just give yourself something to hold so you get the feeling of keeping your hands up.
Hey—while you’re at it, grab a balled up pair of socks or a tennis ball and hold that under your chin. This will keep your chin down and head straight while you’re throwing kicks.
Letting the head bob around is another bad habit that most people don’t even know they have… until they wake up on the floor.
Which reminds me—if you haven’t seen my video, Don’t Be a Bobblehead, that might help.
There you go! Hands up and chin down. Two crucial habits that will help you stay awake when you’re throwing kicks!
I am curious, do you find that you lose any power or explosiveness when throwing kicks?
Whenever I try to keep my hands in more of a locked position around my head during the kick, I feel awkward, slower, and off balance. Is that feeling just something that is there at the beginning of training a new position and kicks return to normal speed/power once you get used to the new position or is that a trade off for better defense?
Thanks
Hi Chris!
I’d say you probably do give up a little power by keeping your hands up. But to me, it’s the same thing as losing power by not jumping and lunging behind every punch– that adds power, but you trade balance.
So, if swinging your arm lower helps you add power, go ahead– just be careful! 🙂