Why Shuffle Side Kick the Knee?
The shuffling side kick to the knee as often seen in Jeet Kune Do was revolutionized by none other than Bruce Lee.
Technically the kick was from his Jun Fan Kickboxing style… since Jeet Kune Do isn’t technically a style per se… but anyway.
Longest Weapon to Closest Target
When you shuffle step correctly and use your longest attack you are able to keep your head really far away from your opponent while delivering what could potentially be a fight-ending strike.
Has the Potential to End the Fight
If a side kick to the knee lands really well it can cause hyperextension or lateral hyperflexion of the knee joint.
While this is unlikely to actually break the knee it certainly can wrench the knee and even tear some ligaments.
A limping attacker isn’t very dangerous.
Low Risk High Payoff
If you follow the tips I’ll give below it can be a very low-risk high-reward attack.
Your ability to stay at a long distance, keep your head back, and fire out a fairly quick attack makes this a nasty attack to have in your arsenal.
The shuffling footwork is what will really make this shine as you will see a little later. Shuffling footwork allows you to get in, deliver your strike, and get back ASAP before your opponent can counter you.
How to do the Jeet Kune Do Side Kick
The Chamber
Start sideways to your target – which for now can just be imagined. Your feet should be sideways as well.
Pull your kicking leg’s foot straight up your standing leg as seen in the photo.
Also pull your toes up towards you knee.
Your kicking foot should raise up to about knee-height at the top of the chamber.
Reset and repeat a few times.
Now as you pull the foot up get light on your standing leg to allow your standing foot to rotate.
Your heel will rotate so it points about 45 degrees toward the target while your toes point away at a 45 as seen in the picture.
Keep your standing knee slightly bent so you don’t lose athleticism.
The Kick
Now as you kick you want to get hip extension along with knee extension… speaking anatomically – to generate as much power as possible.
Some folks will say to “turn your hip over” as you kick.
In laymen’s terms think about pointing your butt at your opponent as you kick.
If you turn too far you can’t see your target and can miss.
To fix this simply pull your kicking-side arm back which will open your head to turn so you can keep your eyes on the target.
Continue keeping your standing leg slightly bent.
Lean back at about a 45 degree angle away from your opponent to both deliver more power and keep your head out of their reach.
The Striking Surface
Since we are hitting a somewhat narrow and vertical target we want to hit with a perpendicular tool.
Aka you want to keep your foot parallel to the floor… perhaps your heel can be slightly higher.
You also want to hit with the arch of your foot slightly towards the heel.
The heel will land with more power, the arch will give more error room in case you are off target to the left or right. Aiming to hit with the arch closer to the heel is a nice compromise.
Remove the Pause or Make it Fluid
Ok so you have the chamber and then the kick. You want to eliminate any pause between the 2 of them.
Just like if you were to throw a ball you would NOT pull your arm back… pause… and then push the ball forward, right?
You would lose the stretch reflex.
Same with your side kick.
Chamber and on the way up start changing directions and turn it over into your kick. Just don’t short-change your chamber by not pulling it up high enough or you will lose power.
How to Shuffle aka Pendulum Footwork
The magic of this kick is found in the shuffling or pendulum-style footwork.
It allows you to stay out in lunging range too far for your opponent to punch you. Then shuffle in, deliver your kick while still keeping your head out of range (due to leaning back and the reach of your kicking leg), and then shuffle back so you are too far away for any counter strike.
Amazing!
Here is how you do it:
Start off in your fighting stance.
Now your back foot will hop forward and replace your front foot in the same exact place. Your front foot has to go somewhere so you might as well chamber it for the kick.
Now fire your kick out.
As the kick retracts you can once again put your front foot where it originally started on the floor. Of course your standing or back foot has to go somewhere. It goes back to it’s original position on the ground as well.
So you wind up back in your original stance at your original distance too far away to be hit.
In the image above my original position (my stance) and my finishing position are in black.
My mid position where I am shuffling both in and out is overlayed in red. You can see my rear foot is where my front foot originally was.
My kick is overlayed in blue.
I then return to the reddish overlay position before winding back in my original stance with both front and rear feet in their original spots.
Notice how my head never goes past the upper green line. In fact it goes slightly back as I kick taking me even further out of my opponent’s punching range.
Putting It All Together
Start off in lunging range just a bit too far away for you or your opponent to hit each other.
Now do your shuffle side kick to his knee, and then shuffle back away assuming failure. You should be too far away to be counter attacked.
Set It Up
If you want a kick to land set it up with a fake punch.
The perfect punch for this is a lead hand jab at the face. It will make your opponent react to the high punch so you can deliver the low kick.
The Escape
Always prepare for failure. Practice assuming your kick will get blocked, jammed, or miss and you will have a punch come back at your face.
To deal with this always make sure you shuffle back with your hands up in a Muay Thai high guard or Flinch Spear until you are back at your original stance.
Continue the Attack
Another option is to just go full on agro and Hulk-smash through them immediately after the kick.
Do the shuffle kick and rather than shuffling back keep your momentum going forward and fire off a hammer fist with your lead hand immediately after the kick.
Follow it up with a straight blast to a Thai clench to end the fight.
Conclusion
If you are willing to put in the work to build this kick up it is likely going to be one of your best long-range attacks.
Until next time,
Brian
