OSU!
While Brazil is known for their football players, they are also known for their Brazilian kicks. The Brazilian kick is a variation of jodan mawashi geri made popular by the Brazilian Kyokushin fighters in the late 80s to 90s, specifically Francisco Filho and Glaube Feitosa. But what it so special? Isn’t it just a variation of Jodan Mawashi Geri (high roundhouse kick)?
Glaube Feitosa performed Brazilian Kick when fighting with Nicholas Pettas (the last Uchi Deshi of Sosai Oyama)
In this edition, we will try to uncover what makes Brazilian kick is quite special for not only Kyokushin practitioners but also for martial artists in general. As much as one likes to do a high and accurate Jodan Mawashi Geri (high round house kick) either to the side jaw or to the face of the opponent, stretching and timing which lead to the accuracy of the kick, let alone power, are the typical challenges. Not everyone is gifted with flexibility and able to perform a split like the famed Muscle from Brussels (Jean Claude van Damme) which more or less the de facto requirement to perform Jodan Mawashi Geri effectively.
While stretching is the primary challenge of performing Jodan Mawashi Geri, the other challenge is the accuracy rate. Unless the opponent is more than happy to take a Jodan Mawashi Geri to the face or to the jaw which could knock him out cold or done in an eye-blinding pace, any opponent would try to either dodge or block the kick which reduce the effectiveness of the kick. The natural solution is to either feint, speed up, or put a combination of attacks before unleashing the Jodan Mawashi Geri. However, they still require flexibility therefore stretching is compulsory. What about for ones who find stretching is a challenge for various reasons? Brazilian kick (BK) could be the solution for you.
Brazilian Kick essentially starts with lifting the knee to give an angle where to kick and rather than follow that by unleashing the lower part of the leg to do a Jodan Mawashi Geri, turn the anchor leg more to the direction of which anchor leg (if the anchor leg is the right leg, then turn it more to the right and vice versa) which turn the knee direction from the centre of the opponent to the shoulder. The kicker can then use the momentum to bring the body weight down to the opposite side that allows the knee to lift higher which followed by an unleashing of the lower part of the leg to slam it downwards. This move will change both the height of the kick (from seemingly Chudan (middle) to Jodan (high) and the angle of the kick from up to down rather than from down to up.
Have fun training and OSU!!!