Butterfly kick?

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[Sid]

Just a thought - how many aikidoka out there can do a butterfly kick?

Sid

[Bob Heffner]

I just started Aikido, so I haven't done them in Aikido yet, but I have done them in other MA's. I didn't think they did those in Aikido?
Also there are different names for kicks depending on style, so what does this version look like?

[jk]

You've been hanging around those wushu folk, haven't you?

Like Bob said, which one are you referring to?

To answer your question, no, I don't do any sort of jump/flying kicks anymore. Got a thing against throwing my back out and/or ending up in traction...

Regards,

[giriasis]

If you mean that cartwheel, arial looking jump, I haven't done one since baton twirling -- we did the butterfly without the kick. I have not seen them in aikido at all, and as far as I know they are not part of a typical aikido curriculum.

Although, at times I feel like a butterfly while taking ukemi. :p

[Largo]

One of the most frustrating experiences of my whole life....after years and years of tradional okinawan karate...I still can't do any aerial techniques. Everyone always asks...hey, you're a karate guy, right? can you do a flying (fill in the blank) kick. <sob>
Anyways...on an off tangent, if any of you see a movie called "the street fighter" (it`s old...it stars a guy named Sonny Chiba...no relation to the game) it has the coolest defence against a flying kick.

[Bruce Baker]

Butterfly kick? Down here, in the Barnegat Bay, we have the clammdigger kick. They hit you in the head with a clam rake while you looking at the feet!

Don't get too concerned about kicking. Wait thirty years, and it will go away. Then all kicks will be at waist level, or executed when the opponent is brought to waist level. Hey, if you learn anything after ten years in any discipline of martial arts it will be to avoid kicks and bring opponents down to waist level?

Of course there is the book of dirty tricks, and other nasty information manuals that will teach you to take advantage of younger, high kicking opponents ...

Maybe we should incorporate aikido into neutralizing kicks ... nah, that would take all the fun out of being young. Go ahead and learn all you can, but learn when, and where to use them, too. Just don't be surprised if you almost never get to use them because someone else's Aikido is better? Some of them old guys play fast and dirty ... just a note from experience.

[Lyle Bogin]

I can.

[Sascha Witt]

I know I used to be able to do them, but that was 10 years ago when I was still in Tae kwon do and I wasn't supposed to do them yet. :p Spoiled by martial arts flicks (watched against my parent's will) I used to think kicks were just the greatest moves ever invented... especially the jumping/flying ones. In my TKD class I did one of the best flying jump kicks, even at white belt... It was also the first time someone who knew what he was doing (my TKD master) told me they were absolutely useless in a real combat situation unless you planned to unhorse a rider (jumping over the horse's head), which he thinks was the reason why the move was invented.

Since taking Aikido I was cured of any notion of kicking. If faced with someone who knows what he is doing kicks, especially high kicks or jumping kicks, are more dangerous to you than to your opponent.

So far I have (briefly - at a seminar last year) met only one Aikido Sensei who uses any kicks in Aikido. Sensei Kenji Nakazawa who (used to?) trains the Tokyo riot police. They introduced kicks into a standard Yoshinkan curriculum to prepare the policemen for the possibility of being faced by a Karateka. However, the Kicks they actually use are all atemi and below the knee.