Kip-Up- Martial Arts step of getting up

Some of you who follow and read my blog would already know about me, but if not, then I'll tell you that among the various things that interest me, Martial Arts, in any of its various forms is one of them.

At the age of 12, I had joined Tae Kwon Do classes and it was one of the best things that my parents suggested me to do. Remember, I am using the word suggested, because they never forced me to do anything and also because I am a bit too lazy or not ambitious enough to do something on my own, or think about joining a class or something.

It was one of the best experiences of my life and one of the most memorable year of my life. One, because such kind of things always attract me and the one year that I did this classes, I did it with utmost sincerity and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was always interested in learning new steps and doing various things on my own if required because they won't teach you too much in a year.......

* See this other post of mine of Stick Twirling by clicking here

Whatever memories I have include first the warm ups, then the various kicks and punches that we were required to do with as much force as possible,the form steps and the push-ups (one of my favourites), the splits i.e. spreading of both the legs absolutely horizontally on the ground, the various official fights they used to make us have, tightening the stomach and after gauging how tight it is, accordingly they would deliver punches to it, and none of these strangely ever hurt. And perhaps as a culmination of all my sincerity for the one year, I stood in the first position for the exam of Yellow belt and was awarded a trophy! My first one.

I remember people always grumbling and grunting as the instructors would ask us to do 'a little more' of everything. I enjoyed the splits because as I was young, I was able to learn it quickly and do it with real ease, I used to learn by observing the seniors and trying out on my own various kicks with spin kick being my favourites among the limited repertoire I possessed.

Thus after 12 years of having a yellow belt, I still some times like to do a few steps, learn a few new things and one of them is the step of getting up on the feet from the position of lying down on the ground which is a very common step that you would have seen in almost all action movies. It is something that I have tried on my own and can do but never practise. It is very important to do it regularly otherwise it becomes very difficult. I try it once in a few months so I am not at my best in this and hopefully I'll put in the practice and put up an even better video!

I am sure most of you who are interested in doing various martial steps want to learn how to do it because it is a relatively simple thing with less chances of you hurting yourself even if you do it alone without any instructor or supervision. It is apparently called "Kip-up" and can fall in the gymnastics category too and in Chinese, the term is "Wushu". It can also be called "rising handspring", "kick-up", "kick-to-stand". From my experience, I'll tell you a few things about it. First of all you have to lie down on the ground and I would suggest to immediately raise your body meaning after you lower yourbody, don't waste too much time there because if you get into it as soon as you go down, you can carry the momentum and that is the most important thing here because you have to exert so much of force down on the ground for your body to go up in the air.

I would say that you need to use both your hands and legs as well as your complete body for this. Never neglect any one part here and use maximum force from both hands as well as legs. The legs are the most powerful though and the thigh muscles are used the most. I can tell this from my experience because I usually do it once in a few months and so after trying a few times continuously, the next whole day I become and remain aware of my thigh muscles (as they ache) :)

You lie down with your shoulders touching the ground, bring both your legs up folded, close to your chest, then push- the initial push has to be from your hips area and then your legs as you straighten them and finally your hands as you leave them from the ground. You just have to concentrate on exerting the maximum force down on the ground with each part of the body that leaves the ground by pushing downwards and thus the part going up. I find that harder the surface, the better it happens and even if you fall down trying it, it doesn't really hurt. So I do it directly on the floor.

Again practice is the key again and I can't tell you too much about it because I myself neglect it, but it sure is an attractive step and will keep you fit as well. Hope you are able to do it. Try till you can do it and enjoy the moment when you are able to do it for the first time. It is an achievement!

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Interesting Fact- There are many variations of the Kip-up like Straight Legged Kip-up, No Hands Kip-up, Rolling Kip, Headspring and Kip-up 180!