The push kick or ‘teep’ as it is known in Thai is a simple, effective and important technique in muay thai.
If you have seen the movie 300 you have seen this kick in it’s full glory.
King Leonidas uses this kick to literally kill the Persian Emissary.
Of all the techniques available to Leonidas he used the push kick as his weapon of choice.
In this post we look at the push kick in muay thai as well as use in other martial arts (including Ancient Sparta).
The Push kick technique
Across all martial arts the execution of the push kick is generally the same.
The kick is an effective technique to get and maintain distance with an opponent.
The kick in muay thai can be used to stop an opponents forward momentum and hurt them in the mid-section also.
Using your own weight and momentum and force from the ground up you can force your opponent back with a strong push kick.
I have a comprehensive post of the muay thai teep see below:
In the post above I explain the lead and rear leg push kick or teep and how to execute them with diagrams for footwork and video demo.
Pro fighter Sean Fagan breaks down the teep as follows:
- Push up on the balls of your post foot
- Bring your knee to your chest/shoulder
- Extend out like you’re kicking down a door
- Return your foot back to its original position
- Extend your hips and pivot post foot slightly
- Opposite arm stays up
- Same side arm swings down
Spartan Push Kick – Pankatrion
Spartans trained in pankration, a famous martial art in Ancient Greece that consisted of boxing and grappling.
The kick in Pankration is known as gastrizein. This kick focuses on delivering the blow with more of the heel of the foot rather than the top of the foot.
See a video demo of the gastrizein below:
Muay Thai Teep
In muay thai the teep is more than a defensive technique but can also be damaging and painful.
Threatening the teep and faking, if you have already scored on your opponent with a good teep to the mid section is a useful strategy to use.
Faking the teep can set up a lot of other techniques and off balance your opponent.
One of the greastest teep exponents in muay thai history is Samart Payakaroon.
Watch him teach the teep below.
Push kick in Taekwando
The push kick in Taekwondo is known as mireo chage.
In Taekwondo the kicking knee is brought upward first to point at the target and then extending out to strike.
The striking surface can be either the ball of the foot, the entire bottom of the foot, or the heel of the foot, depending on the height of the target.
Karate Front Kick
In Karate the kick is called mae geri has a couple of variations. It can be thrusting (kekomi) or snapping (keage), or somewhere in between.
- In its thrusting or kekomi form the kicker pushes the foot into the target powerfully leveraging the momentum of his own body weight in order to propel the opponent or target backwards.
- In its snapping or keage form the kicker emphasizes the extremely quick retraction or recoil or re-chamber of the foot and the lower leg immediately after impact (thereby making it difficult to catch or grab the leg by the opponent);
Krav Maga Front Kick
In Krav Maga the kick is taught to execute as follows:
- 1 – Thrust knee high and forward
- 2 – Keep hip behind the kick
- 3 – Recoil hips returning to stance
Self Defense Global.com describes the Krav Maga front kick:
A front kick is not likely to be a fight ender, but it serves two important purposes as you close distance on a threat – to break the adversary’s base, or to move him away to break contact and go to weapons.
https://selfdefenseglobal.com/krav-maga-technique-front-kick/
Kung Fu Style
The Kung Fu front kick as practiced in Shaolin and Sanda/Sanshou is called Zheng Deng Tui in Chinese.
In kung fu the technique is to:
Delivering a front push kick involves raising the knee and foot of the striking leg to the desired height and extending the leg to contact the target. The actual strike is usually delivered by the heel of the foot for a forward push kick compared to other front kicks that utilize the top of the toes and ball of the foot for striking.
https://anykungfu.wordpress.com/kicks/zheng-deng-tui/
The popular version of this kick in sanda/sanshou, impacts more with the heel than the top of the foot.
Wrap Up
As it is a relatively simple technique, the push kick is common across many martial arts styles.
This post has looked at this kick in Pankration, Taekwando, Muay thai, Karate, Krav Maga and Kung Fu.
The technique is executed in the same basic way across all, with some slight variations.
The push kick is very useful and simple to learn and execute. Thus it is used across many different fighting styles for these reasons.
References
- Sean Fagan’s article : The Most Important Muay Thai Strike… The TEEP (or Push Kick) https://www.muay-thai-guy.com/blog/how-to-throw-a-push-kick
- Taekwondo Wiki – Push kick https://taekwondo.fandom.com/wiki/Push_Kick
- Wikipedia – Front kick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_kick#Karate
- Self Defense Global – Krav Maga Front kick https://selfdefenseglobal.com/krav-maga-technique-front-kick/
- Any Kung Fu Blog https://anykungfu.wordpress.com/kicks/zheng-deng-tui/
