The Taekwondo Inside Front Kick

The Taekwondo Inside Front Kick:
A Brief Explanation

By Scott Shaw

The inside front kick is a little known, rarely used element of the Korean martial art fighting systems. Though it is not commonly used, it is an ideal tool of both offensive and defensive methodology.

The inside front kick is based upon the offensive and defensive understandings of the standard front kick. Its implementation is slightly altered, however, making it an ideal tool in the realms close contact in-fighting. This is accomplished by slightly altering the front kick into the under utilized inside front kick.

To perform the inside front kick, your kick can be launched from either your rear or your forward leg. The inside front kick is performed by initially bringing your kicking leg in, as it rises to kick, and shifting it slightly across the front of your body, at hip level. Once the kick is in motion, you then rapidly snap it upwards in the same fashion as the traditional front kick. The impact point of the inside front kick is different, however that that of the traditional front kick in that you strike with the instep of your foot. Impact with the kick is ideally made to the side of your opponent’s face.

The inside front kick can be used when your opponent has grabbed a hold of one of your arms and you are only a few inches away from him. To achieve this form of front kick self-defense, you simply face your opponent and deliver a powerful inside front kick to the side of his face or to his inner-armpit region.

The inside front kick can also be used as a powerful counter attacking technique when your opponent has attached you with such techniques as a roundhouse kick. By simply stepping slightly back, out of the path of your attacker’s roundhouse kick, due to the momentum driven nature of the roundhouse kick, your opponent’s own force will cause him to follow through with this technique. Thus, his body, particularly his face, will be exposed and prone for an inside front kick counter attack. Your defensive inside front kick should be delivered immediately upon his roundhouse kick missing you, as this is when he is most off balance and open for a counter attack.

The inside front kick is a rapid and effective offensive and defense tool that can be utilized whenever a close contact altercation is taking place. For this reason it is a kick that should be added to arsenal of any advancing martial artist.