Kick
Physical strike using the leg, foot or knee
蹴り技 · 脚法 · 발차기
- Type
- Kicks
- Martial arts
- Kickboxing
- Classified as
- strike
A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of attack is used frequently by hooved animals as well as humans in the context of stand-up fighting. Kicks play a significant role in many forms of martial arts, such as capoeira, hapkido, hwarangdo, jeet kune do, kalaripayattu, karate, kickboxing, krav maga, kung fu, wing chun, MMA, Muay Thai, pankration, pradal serey, savate, sikaran, silat, taekwondo, tang soo do, vovinam, wushu and Yaw-Yan. Kicks are a universal act of aggression among humans.
Kicking is also prominent from its use in many sports, especially those called football. The best known of these sports is association football, also known as soccer.
Other Kickboxing kicks
Japanese terms for kicks
| Term | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 回し蹴り | mawashigeri | roundhouse kick; turning kick |
| 飛び蹴り | tobigeri | dropkick; flying kick |
| ハイキック | haikikku | high kick |
| マルテーロ | maruteero | martelo; roundhouse kick in capoeira |
| ネリチャギ | nerichagi | axe kick; ax kick |
| かかと落とし | kakatootoshi | axe kick; ax kick |
| ケイシャーダ | keishaada | queixada (capoeira kick at the opponent's jaw); outward crescent kick |
| サイドキック | saidokikku | side kick |
| 後ろ回し蹴り | ushiromawashigeri | spin kick |
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q206864 (CC0); text quoted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.