Front Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 6) Review

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(More customer reviews)Achieving Kicking Excellence
If you are a novice martial artist, a kick-box exercise video nut, or someone who wants to advance their knowledge of martial art kicks, this book looks as if it would be very helpful.
The series of books is organized by type of kick: back, wheel, axe, crescent, reverse crescent, front, hook, hatchet, roundhouse, side kick. Ten books in all.
The volumes are absolutely loaded with pictures of not only kick technique but also of helpful strength-with-weight exercises, especially gym exercises with machines like the hack squat and leg press sled and of course the all-important lunge. So you get not only a discussion of how-to, but of what exercises can improve overall performance by gaining muscle strength. There are pictures with overlays of angles and axes, giving you an idea of proper form, though there is no substitute for a sensei giving you real-time feedback, of course. So these books are a good adjunct to martial arts class in the dojo; something to read and then take to practice and work on with real-time help.
There is a section on sparring--right and wrong. There is a suggested reading list in the back. A very complete series.
The only thing these volumes suffer from is slightly dark and low contrast black and white photograph reproduction due to pictures being on paper stock and not glazed plate stock, in order to keep costs reasonable for publishing. And the cover photo is wonderful but the graphic design (showing the title being shattered by the someone doing the title kick) was a GREAT concept but you can't read the title on the front cover (because it's being kicked to bits!) This is annoying; you have to read the spine to see which kick the book is about. If this bugs you, it's easily fixed: get some stickers or a Sharpie and mark the front cover with something like SIDE KICK VOL 10 or whatever works for you.
Author Kovacich is a black belt in both Karate and Tae Kwon Do (which of course is one of the martial arts for which the kick is the premier technique.)

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Front Kick is the sixth volume in the extremely well written and fully illustrated, Achieving Kicking Excellence series of martial arts related books. Front Kick, along with the other nine volumes in the Achieving Kicking Excellence series, goes into intricate detail over all aspects of executing the primary kick, which in this case is the Front Kick, and several of its main variations. Starting with a basic anatomical analysis of this kick, you quickly progress to the basic principles associated with the Front Kick, and then you dive right into learning the proper execution of the primary kick, Front Kick. Once you have finished with this section, you are taken to the variations chapter which builds upon the primary kick, Front Kick, by teaching you 10 of its main variations. From here you are taken to the Training and Practice Methods chapter for a look at some very simple, yet effective methods for adding speed and power to your kicks. Your next chapter takes a question and answer approach to some of the most common problems people have executing the Front Kick and the solutions to correct them. The next chapter in this book deals with a very brief and basic application section for the Front Kick and each of the variations previously detailed in this book.NOTE:The combat/self-defense applications of the Front Kick are discussed and demonstrated in much greater detail in the companion book to this book, Front Kick: Achieving Kicking Excellence; Volume 6, which is Front Kick: Applications in Combat: Achieving Kicking Excellence; Volume 16. This book goes into intricate detail over all aspects of applying the primary kick, which in this case is the Front Kick, and several of its main variations, against twelve of the most common attacks that you are most likely to face in an actual unarmed self-defense/combat situation.At the conclusion of this book you are given a sneak preview of the next volume in the Achieving Kicking Excellence series, which in this case is the Hook Kick.

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