ap-chagi!

Is the front kick the best of all the kicks for self-defense? Icy Mike (with help from Sensei Seth, who disagrees with Mike) makes his case. I think I side with Seth more than with Mike: a properly executed side kick—which Seth advocates—does way, way more damage than any front kick. In my younger days, I could kick the snot out of my Everlast 70-pound, raw-canvas punching bag (this is almost exactly my old bag), and my side kicks would send that thing a-swingin'. I did sometimes feel flashes of guilt, though, because 70 pounds is about the weight of a third-grader, and the image of little kids going flying as I kicked them did occasionally appear unbidden in my head. I was never very good with reverse turning kicks; I tended to favor my right foot as the striking foot, and I never figured out how to get my kick above chest level. Now, of course, I'm a blob of a human being, so all this talk of kicking means nothing.

But like any untrained person, I can still deliver a front kick.