How Can I Improve Flexibility to Get My Karate Kicks Higher?

I%26#039;m recovering from surgery and have lost my flexibility, which was minimal to begin with. Basically, my kicks for karate are awful, and I have no instructor for a bit. My front kicks are barely waist high, and i can%26#039;t get side kicks or back kicks above my waist. what stretches will increase my flexibility so i can kick high? thanks.|||Gichin Funakoshi studied both Shorin and Shorei Ryu, and created a %26quot;synthesis of those styles.%26quot; He changed the way the forms were arranged, but he did not change any of the techniques. Also while he advocated lower stances from one of his style%26#039;s methods of training, the purpose of holding lower stances is so that when you hold a higher one, it is easier to apply in a confrontation. Regardless of how you hold your stances however in Okinawan Karate you are not supposed to kick above waist level, and for good reason; fat guys, or extremely muscular guys, had quite a bit of padding or %26quot;armor%26quot; there.





You can do a very hard to aim kick to the head against a fat guy, which is not guaranteed to land, or, you can take out his knees, your choice. Its still good to have flexibility though, and be able to kick high; you are not going to kick high in a fight unless you do TKD, but you need to be able to do it, because the faster you can kick high, the faster you can kick at knee level. This is a principle from Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu; you do exagerated movements, so that little fast movements of a real fight are easier to do. If you can throw punches with exagerated motions with speed, you can throw smaller %26quot;on guard%26quot; punches with greater speed. The so-called %26quot;flowery and useless%26quot; motions of Shaolin Kung Fu, is the secret as to why those monks are so lightning fast. In other words I feel for you man, but if I was you I%26#039;d take it easy for about 6 months and not stretch at all.





See, the only way to get flexibility is to stretch until you start crying.





I%26#039;M SERIOUS; you have to stretch to where its borderline dangerous, to the point where you start crying fat tears and your brain screams %26quot;bloody murder!%26quot; See, that is the reason olden times martial arts masters prefered to work with children; with kids, all you need to do is PRESERVE their natural flexibility, with a adults, boy, you have to wait a long time for them to get their flexibility and childhood health back before you begin teaching them martial arts. If you start early, stretchig is nothing, but the later you start in martial arts, the more viciously painful it is at first.





Sorry buddy but for the next few months or so you are sidelined; I would reccomend doing Yoga while you wait, and SLOWLY, build your flexibility back to childhood levels. You have to be as flexible as a baby, to effectively be able to do martial arts. Again there are several advantages to training kids as opposed to adults in martial arts;





1) the emotional bagagge adults carry can get in the way of proper focus. The later its started, the worse it is.





2) Kids are naturally more resilient to great suffering and hardship. You ever see those poorer kids from third world hells? You look at their surroundings and its soul shattering, but the kids act as if its perfectly natural, seemingly unafected. All that is, is the naturally higher resiliency of childhood, resiliency you need to withstand martial arts training. A grown adult will complain and moan, or %26quot;suck it up%26quot; burying it deep down, a kid though, will simply train, regardless of the aches and pains, regardless of the hardship.





3) Obviously enough time; a 5 year old has plenty of time to master a style, whereas a 60 year old takes up Kung Fu, and the only good it will do them at that age is hopefully aid in meditation so that they may attain the Dao or something. What I%26#039;m trying to say is, Martial arts is not a good career choice for fully grown adults. There IS the case of the legendary Shang Sang Feng, who, reputedly, took up Shaolin Kung Fu in his 40%26#039;s, some say he was as old as 50. By the time he was 80, he had created Tai Chi Chuan, and had become the most powerful master the temple had produced since Bodhidarma (Daruma). Shang Sang Feng however, was a Savant; he passed the imperial exam on his very first try, at the tender age of 21. An unheard of feat, having been done prior to that, only by Kong Fu Tze.





In other words; when your body is healed, you will have to push to where its borderline dangerous, but without hurting your body, because the older you are the harder it is to regain childhood flexibility. Also, again, you will have to push until you start crying.





good luck.|||I would like to know also. I have been stretching for years, and still can%26#039;t achieve good flexibility.|||practice kicks keep practicing.