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First, you have to understand what Aikido is, and what it is not. Aikido is the final culmination of Ueshiba Morihei's training in: Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu Jujutsu Goto-ha Yagyu Shingan-ryu Taijutsu (Goto Family Branch of Edo Line of Yagyu Shingan-ryu) Numerous other forms of jujutsu (Ueshiba Morihei was a dabbler in his youth) Omoto-kyo ...

You will rarely, if ever, find a martial art that truly uses kicks above the knee*, unless that art is centered around kicks. Most art are very concerned about their balance, and use kicks for disruption, not necessarily for damage. Aikido mostly uses the feet and legs for footwork. Kicks would just take time away from footwork. By the same token, because ...

One of my favorite exercises in that area is holding a side kick against the wall. You execute a side kick with your foot against the wall, and then you shift your weight forward until your foot no longer slides down. This will only work if you hold your leg at least in a horizontal line. Once you have some balance you can work on height. If you get your ...

I have vague memories of simply trying various kicks in slow-motion, trying to keep my balance, until I could do most of them without losing my balance. Alternatively, try to just lift one foot off the ground from a "feet together" standing position. The foot only needs to be lifted until it's no longer touching the ground. Try to keep your balance. After a ...

A fun way to work on balance (and endurance) is to stand in your kick stance, and draw out the alphabet with your kicking leg. This doesn't really work your actual kicking technique much, but it will work your balance and your endurance and strengthen all the muscels needed for kicking, and therefor your balance and technique will improve.

Aikido does not expressively have attacking kicks. Several techniques do open uke to receive a kick but those kicks are not practices. It is assumed that the practitioner knows how to kick from a different art or uses a knee strike, or punches or does not bother with the strike and does the throw/pin directly. Aikido does have a wide range of techniques ...

Not sure if I understand this right: Your asking why Aikido has no kick attacks and not why Aikido has no techniques against kicks, correct? Aikido, as it is today (at least the Aikido I have seen so far), has no attacks at all. It's principle is avoiding conflict on all levels. Attacking means conflict. Even the defensive techniques of Aikido are not about ...

When talking to people about this specific problem in class, I usually surprise them with my comment: "stop standing on your heel." If you are light on your heel but strong on the ball of your foot you have several advantages: You are using your calf muscles. They're very strong and confidence inspiring. You have less rotational friction than a planted ...

If training with a sensei is not an option at the moment, understand that it limits both your knowledge and what it takes to self-correct. A trained eye can see where you are having issues. Since that has been harped on with just about every answer, I'll move on to the technique. Use a Heavy Bag Keep in mind that there is a huge difference between ...

Yes. There are many different forms of kung fu and some do certainly contain techniques reminiscent of the roundhouse kick. I studied a system called Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Wu Su and one of the kicks we were taught was called the "bow leg kick". It had all the elements of a roundhouse kick. From in stance, you would pivot onto one leg so you are facing ...

Aikido aims to protect yourself from injury, as well as your attacker (if possible). It aims to use very little, if any, force by itself, but instead redirect the attacker's force back onto the attacker. A kick is pretty much the opposite. A kick intends to apply a great amount of force onto the target, trying to directly damage it, by force.

Jammed toes I can't speak to the TKD technique, but I found trouble during years of karate with the ball-of-the-foot recommended mawashi geri technique. Many others have done fine with it. For instance, Shokei Matsui shows it to be a formidable technique against the body and the head in his 100-man kumite; he uses it to devastating effect about a half-dozen ...

Why is a technique included or not included in a style? What was the terrain like in the area where the style was born? Swamps, mountains, plains, rivers, beaches, all these things will influence the available techniques. What was the founder like? Tall? Flexible? Strong? Wide of shoulders? Big-bellied? Did he have arms the size of tree trunks? This will ...

Coming from a taekwondo background, I see a lot of balance issues come from "banana" alignment. When you strike with your back-kick (or more commonly, side-kick), you want your body to be in a straight line from heel through your hips to your head, but it's very common for people to lean forwards to look around their body, which will lead to over-balancing ...

Tanner's Law The number of people who can self-teach martial arts is terrifically small. These people do exist. They are generally genetic freaks, established extraordinary athletes in another discipline, and/or have an unusually dedicated group to train with. This is called Tanner's Law, after one such impressive individual. It is of particular importance ...

I hate to say it, but you probably do need to train with a coach to show you why you are pushing your weight off centre. For a straight kick, you should be pushing through your centre of mass to your anchor foot - it sounds like you are aiming incorrectly, or possibly twisting your body incorrectly, but it would need someone to watch you to help you correct ...

To mirror @Vatine - go in slow motion. Get into a stance, slowly bring your leg up in a chamber (that is, knee bent, foot as close to your thigh/buttock as possible) and slowly extend it, then slowly bring it back, then slowly put it down. Start with a kick about knee high and progressively increase the height. Do this ten times on each leg. If you're just ...