How to handle a caught-kick situation?

Question

Assuming one is in a street fight and throws a basic kick (roundhouse to the head or front kick to the ribs area), which is caught by the proponent, what is the best way to respond? I've practiced TKD for years and this particular aspect of fighting has never been addressed (neither in competition nor real world settings)?

Answer 1

Never catch a kick. It is OK to block it. By holding a delivered kick you give your opponent a point to balance. If they are skilled enough you are occupied holding a leg while getting punched and have no defense. Block or interrupt a kick. In TKD we teach to punish the attacking limb with the block. Don't trap the round kick. Interrupt it by moving in and striking . Interrupting the kick will often take the kicker off balance. If the interruption is timed right it will open up the spin of the attacker making your strike more effective.

Answer 2

It's hard to explain this in text, but here goes...this has happened to me more than once. The things that worked for me were :

A) assuming the person you attack catches the foot, and traps it under his armpit, push the trapped leg through, forcefully, while simultaneously using your base leg to push closer to the opponent. You can then use a strike to the face or eyes to distract him while you free your leg. Warning, if your opponent senses what you're doing, he may "walk" you backwards, forcing you to hop to keep your balance.

B) Pivot away and pull your foot out, as if your were trying to pull away from a leg lock or an ankle pick. Warning, your back will be facing your opponent for a second or two while you recover your balance.

Worse case, you may have to drop to your back, and kick your opponent away with your other leg, but that's a bad choice, for all kinds of reasons. But the worse thing you can do is nothing.

Answer 3

I spar with a tang soo do buddy of mine and he is constantly throwing kicks (obviously) at me. i tend to not want to "catch his kicks as much as i prefer to just get my hand, between the thumb and pointer, right in behind his heel and continue around in a circular motion windmilling my arm up over my head. Ends up with him on his back as i am a few inches taller and my hand above my head goes close to 8 feet in the air, there's no chance for him to hop towards me to balance.

Answer 4

I have several comments here.

1) you should not do high kicks in a real self-defense situation. That is asking to get yourself in trouble.

2) we grab kicks all the time in my style. I assume Sifu Frank means grabbing a kick and just holding it. If so I would agree with him.  If you grab someones kick it should be to off balance, reap the other leg, or throw them. As long as the person kicking is very off balance he is not likely to do much to you. In any case if you don't know what to do with a kick, don't grab it.  

3) If you keep your kicks to low targets the opponent is less likely to be able to grab it.

4) If your kick is grabbed you are on your own. Trying to tell you what to do is just not possible. There are to many ways that can happen.

Answer 5

You must attack. Bend the knee and Strike hard and fast to the face and head.  This usually makes them drop your leg.  If they start to try to move/throw you with it, then you must start bending your support leg and get closer to the ground to minimize any injury.  It takes some practice to feel comfortable with someone else holding on to your leg.

In Mantis Kung Fu, we try to "detach" our leg from the rest of our body in that we relax it completely so that they have less of a chance of being able to control our center with it.  Or we can use it to control their center.  Fun stuff.

Answer 6

watch Cung le vs frank shamrock, catch the leg, then kick his other leg out as hard as you can!!!

actually, you can take down easier just by backpedaling really fast and whipping their leg around...

assuming one is in a "street fight"