Front Kick Touching Game and Theory

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The front kick touching game is very specific and small-sided. Small-sided means limited to a small box of possibilities rather than an open world. The only legal target area is the stomach. The only legal attack is the pushing front kick. Attacks are turn-based. You cannot dodge, and contact is mandatory. You are allowed to move about your space.

Despite being limited, for new practitioners, the world feels vaster than it is. New practitioners feel overwhelmed, over-sensitive to new sensory stimuli, and overstimulated by newness. Overstimulation affects perception, and this game calibrates perception in a safe, transparent, informed, and consensual way.

From lots of practice, boxers develop an ability to take a punch. Even if we are doing light contact sparring, it may feel heavier than light if the person receiving the hit is not used to being hit. By allowing yourself to get touched by the front kick, you learn to absorb that shot. That can only come from practice and dwelling in this new sensory world.

Properly taking a hit is idiosyncratic to each practitioner but includes things like body positioning, tension and relaxation, breathing, bracing, and what you do at the moment of impact. Every new technique will feel heavier than it is until you learn to absorb that impact. The first light turning kick to the thigh will feel worse than it is until you're used to it and have learned to absorb it.

At first, even a light touch with the front kick seems stiff, but after a while, it'll feel appropriate. Intensity is mutual; the person delivering the hit has to know how to modulate intensity, and the person receiving the hit must know how to absorb that intensity. Consider stunt work or pro wrestling: a safe worker still needs a partner who knows how to take a bump.

The front kick is often called "the boot" in pro wrestling and is one of the most common set-ups for high-scoring offensive movements or interruptions of the opponent's offense, just as in sparring. How you do one thing is how you do all things. It just makes sense.