Indie Action Movie Tutorials Episode 9: Basic Martial Arts Kicks

Hi! Welcome back to Indie Action Tutorials and today
we have a special guest all the way from L.A.
My good friend and actor, Adam. -(both) Whhhoooaaaa!!
Hey! My name is Adam and today we're going to show you some flashy kicks
for the screen.
Oh! Here, you can use my iPhone
for your microphone....here you go.
...ok....well, before we begin, I want to warn you that kicks can be
more difficult to sell safely for the screen than punches.
Takes more coordination. If your actor isn't very coordinated...don't push them.
It can get frustrating. In cases like those, I suggest
you hire a good stuntman.
Well, you can hire a good stuntman...or you can hire a great one. HeyI'mrighthere, callme...
.....why did you take my microphone...?
Kicks are a little harder to stack than punches.
And kicks are harder to pull, especially if you have to make contact.
We're going to introduce to you three basic kicks that non-martial artists can
make look good on the screen. My assistant, Jim, here is gonna show you the basic
front push kick
Ok...well, the front push kick is a very intuitive kick that non-martial artists
can pick up.
It's easy. You take your strong side leg.
Place it in the rear. Take a fight stance. I like to put my arm near my head to protect it.
For the kick itself, just take the strong leg, place it in the front,
knee bent, and push off.
That is a strong leg.
That leg is strong.
Kicking with the ball of your foot can give you a real martial arts-like feel to it.
Especially if your fallguy sells it in a certain way.
One way I like is to have them kick their feet back and pull themselves back. It can be dangerous, though,
so you may want to hire a good stuntman for that.
...For a dirty....gritty look....
You can use a heel stomping kick and have your fallguy crumple
backwards instead of flying backwards.
Another kick that looks good is that sidekick, made famous early on by bruce lee
and later on by my left leg.
...You're....actually kind of a jerk, huh?
The key to this kick is a skipping motion where the rear foot steps just a little behind the
front foot. Then you chamber your leg up,
almost to the chest
then you push out with the heel or blade of your foot.
(pow) --aaaaahhhhhhh......
The skipping motion is really important.
Without that, you get this Tae-Bo thing going on...

This kick can be dangerous because of how powerful it is.
If your actor isn't skilled, it's important to use
camera magic and stack the kick, rather
than having the actor make contact and try to pull it.
-Boring! -Your mom's borin---
And finally, our flashiest kick: the roundhouse kick. *whistles*
Are you trying to steal my show?
Steal your show? What does that even mean? Hey look!
I'm over there!





--welcome back to my show!! The Adam Show!!!
Gonna teach you a roundhouse kick!!!
AKA: The Adam-Bomb!!! (explosion noises)
The roundhouse kick is similar to the front push kick in the way it starts.
Strong leg to the rear.
Fight stance with the hands.
Now, instead of lifting the knee straight up,
you're going to lift the leg, 45 degrees to the target.
Now, here comes the hardest part: you're going to take that foot and whip it into
the target while popping your hip into it.




This is a kick that's easy to do, but not easy to do right.
One of the hardest things for beginners is to pop that hip.
With a hip-pop it looks pretty good.
Without the hip pop it looks kind of awkward.
Bah! Wah!
-Oooooh, look at my hips! I should've watched Indie Action Tutorials! -Are you mocking me?
-No, no! I said they should have! -What're you, Adam Sandler now?
One trick to give your kicks a little more oomph for the camera
is the retraction.
Meaning that you pull that kick as soon as it reaches the target.
You pull it straight to the ground or you pull it back.
Don't get in love with just the kick, because pulling it, is half the show.
One last thought I want to leave you with: again, go easy on your actors.
If they can't pull these moves off, it's time to call in a stuntman.
Feel free to drop me an email if you need help and I'll see if I can find someone in your area
to help you out. -And that's our show for today thank you so much for joining
us uh... again if you have any questions or you need an actor or stuntguy,
feel free contact me!
Or my little monkey helper friend, Jim, here. -It's John!
How do you like, that ANDY? -Aahhh!! It's Adam! Names are so important!
-My name is Adam MacArthur, my contact is on gmail...
Feel free to call me....uuhh....and thanks so much for having me.....---oooohh no!!!
No!! Don't unbuckle!!