Flying Kick - Practicability and Purpose

Practicability and Purpose

While the efficiency of a jump kick in combat sports or self-defense is highly debatable, the move is popular for demonstration purposeses, showing off the practitioner's skill and control, or as a dance move.

Flying kicks (regardless of concerns of utility) are considered among the martial arts techniques most difficult to perform correctly. A 1991 essay dedicated to flying kicks in taekwondo cites trainer Yeon Hwan Park arguing that the main benefit of training flying kicks is "the transcending of mental barriers by overcoming physical challenges that gives the student confidence". Park emphasizes that flying and jump kicks are among the most difficult and advanced techniques, and that he does not recommend their use in tournament situations, but at the same time he surmises that they might in theory be performed effectively even in self-defense situations once their execution has been mastered.