Kicking techniques2 common errors2 drills
Geri-waza — Kicking techniques

Yoko-geri keage 横蹴り上げ

Side snap kick

What it is

The technique, and its job.

A snapping kick to the side with the outer edge of the foot, travelling in a rising arc. It is fast and light rather than heavy, aimed at the ribs, the armpit or the head, and it belongs to the Tekki series where the whole fight is imagined to be sideways.

Application. Striking to the side at close to medium range, particularly in the confined lateral fighting the Tekki series trains.

10 points

Mechanics

What each part of the body does, in the order it does it.

Chamber
The knee lifts across the front of the body, foot folded, ready to whip outward.
Supporting foot
Pivots so the heel points toward the target.
Hips
Open sideways as the leg extends.
Trajectory
A rising arc outward and upward from the chamber.
Extension
A snap from the knee, the leg not fully locking out.
Target
Ribs, armpit, side of the head.
Contact surface
The outer edge of the foot — sokuto — with the foot edge turned down and the toes pulled up.
Retraction
Snap straight back to the chamber. This kick is defined by its return.
Balance
Torso leans slightly away from the kick to counterbalance, but the spine does not collapse sideways.
Guard
Hands stay up, particularly on the side being turned away from.
Principles

What survives when the name is forgotten.

  1. Snap, not push. Keage is a whip; kekomi is a thrust, and confusing the two produces neither.
  2. The foot edge is the weapon. A kick landing on the sole has missed its own point.
2 faults

Common errors, and how to fix them.

Naming a fault teaches nobody. Each one below carries why it happens and what corrects it.

Fault
It lands on the sole of the foot.

Why it happens. The ankle is not turned.

The fix. Turn the foot edge down and toes up in the chamber, before extending.

Fault
The support foot does not pivot.

Why it happens. Neglecting the supporting side.

The fix. Practise the pivot alone until it happens without thought.

Practice

Drills

  • Kiba-dachi with keage to alternate sides, checking the foot edge each time.
  • Tekki Shodan performed slowly with attention on the kicking side only.
Kihon ↔ kata ↔ kumite

Where it appears.

Kihon is the vocabulary, kata is the literature, kumite is the conversation. Every link below was written down deliberately; none of it was inferred from a name matching.

Kata
Kumite
No kumite principle is recorded against this technique.
Same family
3 terms

The Japanese, explained.

Yoko-geri keage 横蹴り上げ
Side snap kick. A snapping kick to the side with the outer edge of the foot, travelling in a rising arc.
Sokuto 足刀
Foot edge, sword foot. The outer edge of the foot, with the edge turned down and the toes pulled up.
Kiba-dachi 騎馬立ち
Horse-riding stance. A wide, square, evenly weighted stance with both feet parallel and the knees pushed outward.
Reference recordings

Video

No recording in the register is tagged to Yoko-geri keage. MMAKF has not filmed this technique, and the discovery pass did not find an external recording specific enough to attribute to it without guessing.

Nothing is shown here rather than a search link dressed up as a demonstration. What has been found, checked and registered is listed in full on the source register.

The video source register →