Talk:Flying kick

intro
I was surprised to see that an article for flying kicks did not exist yet. So I made one. Please feel free to contribute. Pactio kiss 06:47, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Unseat a horseman
Wasn't the flying kick originally developed to unseat a horseman? I'm surprised that isn't mentioned.&mdash;RJH (talk) 22:39, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I've heard this too, but it may just be a legend. I'd like to see some documented use of the technique for this purpose. 78.86.40.5 (talk) 16:31, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Just an urban legend, I am sure. Flying kicks originate in sportive stand-up competitions. Taekwondo seems to be the style with most emphasis on these kicks. Historically, taekwondo is a Korean interpretation of karate, developed during the 1940s to 1950s. Karate itself clearly also has flying kicks, but places less emphasis on them. Karate itself appears to originate with Gōjū-ryū and Shōrin-ryū in the 1930s. Research in to this would need to figure out to what extent flying kicks were taught in original 1930s karate. I would consider any flying kick recorded prior to 1930 as an early example worthy of note in this article. --dab (𒁳) 12:22, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

I found a couple of references now that fit this general picture. Apparently, the 1930s is still too early. Introduction of flying kicks in South China, Korea and Japan is apparently due to Shorinji Kempo, a style founded in 1947. The ultimate origin of these techniques is apparently in Buddhist ("Shaolin") martial arts tradition with its emphasis on physical exercise and agility. So it would now be interesting to trace "jumping" techniques in pre-1930 Northern Chinese styles. These may or may not have been intended for combat. They might just as well originate as exercises intended to build stamina and movement control, which will then of course be beneficient for the execution of the actual techniques even if these don't involve jumping.

But tracing the history of Chinese martial arts before the 1930s is almost impossible. We know about various schools existing in the 19th century, but when it comes to recovering details about their teachings... it's apparently not that easy. We get the Central Guoshu Institute where a sweeping "inventory" of the state of martial arts across China was taken, in 1928. This is also difficult-to-acccess information, but at least we can assume that somewhere, there are records of which schools did or did not practice flying kicks in 1928. Further reconstruction could be based on such information once it is made available. --dab (𒁳) 12:45, 16 June 2011 (UTC)