Time for another book review, this time it’s “Wheel Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 2) by Shawn Kovacich”
Here’s the review:
The book starts with an introduction and some words on how to use the book to get the most out of it. Next up are a chapter on the muscles and joints involved in the kick as well as how to stretch and warm up before you start practicing.
Then we get into the meat of the book, the basic principles of the wheel kick. Shawn covers topics such as:
- Target areas
- Balance
- Stability
- Alignement
- Accuracy
- Speed
- Strength
- Impact
- Much more.
This is the key part of the book as it gives you all the details you need to know so you can start practicing the wheel kick. Shawn gives you plenty of detail so you’ll probably end up coming back to this chapter repeatedly.
The next big segment of the book explains the primary kick, the turning wheel kick and its many variations. From the spinning wheel kick to the front leg wheel kick or the 540 degree jump turning wheel kick, he covers lots of variations which definitely adds value to the book.
Chapter six talks about the different training methods you can use to improve your performance of this technique. Shawn explains not only skill training but also how to strength train, improve your speed and add power to the kick. This information gives you some solid basics to work on those physical aspects of the kick and I very much recommend you incorporate them into your training for this kick. You can be the best technician in the world but if you lack the speed and power to do damage when your kick lands, it’s all for nothing.
The book ends with a trouble shooting guide, some kicking applications and a few additional smaller chapters on other things.
Conclusion
Wheel Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 2) by Shawn Kovacich is a good book to teach you a solid grounding in this technique. Especially if you have just started with your martial arts training, you’ll find a lot of value in it because of the amount of detail it holds. Instead of glossing over everything like some authors do, Shawn covers all the bases and leaves no stone unturned to make sure you have all the information you need to go out and practice. As the title says, the goal of the book is to help you achieve kicking excellence and it certainly delivers in that regard.
So if you’re looking to improve your wheel kick, give this book a try.
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