In this article I will go over how to do an axe kick for all you Muay Thai, Taekwondo and Karate practitioners out there. The axe kick is a devastating kick to use. It’s a technique where you raise your leg to the height of your opponent and drive it down on top of his head or shoulder area, similar to an axe chopping wood; hence the name.
In order to utilize this technique, the practitioner needs to be flexible enough to raise their leg high enough to where their heel can down like an axe on their opponents head, face, or shoulder region. These are parts where the heel or foot can inflict the most damage or even a knock out on your opponent. The axe kick is technically difficult kick to perform because you have to be accurate and have good timing in order to execute it.
Muay Thay Stance And Knee Lift
Of course before attempting this move you will have to get into proper stance. Then you want to raise your knee up to your chest level. Bringing your knee up will make this kick get up to the desired height faster. A quick note, if you keep your leg straight the whole time it makes this kick a lot harder to do when your opponent is close.
Seeing how this kick is more of a close-range kick, you wouldn’t want to be too far away from your opponent. That’s why I said earlier that this kick technique is a challenging one where you have to be accurate by measuring your distance.
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Straighten Up Your Leg Then Come Down
When you reach the top of your kick (the height of your kick) pull it down on your opponent as hard as you can. Move the whole leg, keeping the knee slightly bent. When your come down, depending on how high you’ve kicked and your target aim, you will come down on the top of his head, face, neck, shoulder or even his chest.
Your aim will be to land the axe kick with your heel, this will give the most lethal blow to your opponent and potentially create an axe kick knockout. You can also land the axe kick with the ball of your foot but this will have less of an impact.
Get Back Into Your Stance
After you’ve landed the axe kick you need to get back into your origins muay thai fighting stance and get your guard back up. This is protect yourself just in case the kick landed but didn’t knock out your opponent you should always be ready to protect yourself and continue the fight. But chances are if you landed that kick correctly your opponent at the very least will be dazed.
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