What’s the BEST KICK in Martial Arts? Ranking Kicks Tier List w/ Sensei Seth 

If you want higher kicks that come easier, check out my online course that includes, stretches, exercises and drills 👏👏 senseiseth.teachable.com/p/higherkicks

groin kick : S tier

If sidekicks aren't s tier I'm going to learn aikido.

It would have been nice if you had demonstrated each kick for some of us newbs. Otherwise, awesome vid as usual.

I rocked one of my friends when faking a leg kick into a crescent to the side of his head and gave him a healthy respect for crescents.

These kicks are my bread and butter. Too bad they broke the toaster.

Front kick baby, modest movements are always under appreciated.

S-Tier comes from Japanese schooling, where S denotes a student who was nearly 100% perfect in a subject. Some video games like Sonic started using letter grades to score how you did and included S as the score to achieve. So later on when tier lists became popular, S was included to really articulate what characters/weapons were in a league of their own.

The Axe Kick is S tier in one circumstance: It's the 1980s to late 1990s and your name is Andy Hug

This would have been much better if the actual kicks were shown.

I just do not understand how the roundhouse isn't S tier, it is literally the most used kick out there, and don't even get me started on front kicks, Hollywood told me that if I can't find me keys front kicks are how I must open my doors, and Hollywood wouldn't lie to me, right?

How dare you crane kick is the best, how else can someone who's done karate for like four months beat a black belt without an unbeatable magic kick

Front kick, roundhouse and spinning rear are usually in my higher tier list

meme kick in F tier, seems legit.

"Side kicks dont work" *Bill superfoot Wallace has entered the chat*

"which makes me want to give it a lower rank immediately"

Sidekick needs to be F and S simultaneously. Because #sidekicksdontwork until they do.

One of the many reasons that the question mark kick is my favorite kick is that you don’t even have to kick someone too hard with it, you just need to connect and you feel great that you got someone with a question mark kick and the other person feels stupid for blocking the body and getting kicked in the head.

S tier is for side kick!

The sidekick is such an amazing kick. Many years ago when in my teens I learned how well it worked both as a offensive and defensive weapon while sparring. It is great to use as a stop hit by striking your opponent in the hip or stomach as they are coming in. It is a good self defense technique that can be thrown from stomach to ankle. Along with the roundhouse kick you can step out at 35 and 45 degree angles to open your opponent up. You can also move in and out to adjust your distance to your opponent. Lol I do have to say that I saw some concern and fear on your face as if Icy Mike was coming around the corner to correct you about the sidekick. BTW as you get older and your body doesn't work like it used to(my body being a prime example) the basic kicks are still effective.

give tha front kick more love, it's cool, simple and strong, plus you don't give your oponent your backs when u use it. plus, it's really easy to land your shin in the balls of the other guys by "accident", you not only defeat him, but also the future generations of his family

Being a TKD guy I know a whole lot of kicks and I still practice a lot of them including the jumping ones and spinning ones and even some Capoeira kick, but I only use like five kicks.

Roundhouse is my fav for sure, nothing like landing that roundhouse to the head! The one I use the most is the front leg front kick though, so useful. Use it like a jab, and have stunned guys coming in with it lots, just hit em in the solar plexus for maximum effect. Side kicks are dope too, but a bit harder to land than front kicks, but def more powerful.

I mean I'd never throw a crescent kick by itself, but it can clear a guard as a setup for a spinning wheel or a tornado kick

So...does adding a spin bump each kick up a tier?

Sweep the leg kick? Dragon sweep? Are they considered as a kick? if so love to hesr your thoughts about it.

This was fabulously helpful. Thanks!!!

Loving your videos sir! I will say I prefer when you show a quick demo of the technique being discussed, as you did with the ranking the punches video. Keep them coming!

I think my favorite kick is the sidekick. I use most of the time: sidekick, roundhouse kick (muay thai) and front kick as main kicks. I realy have difficulties with spimming kick for some reasons and usualy don't use them that much.

What’s your Favorite Kick? Is my List bogus?

Love that you put them from an mma perspective even though you have a primarily karate background!

Damn, I love martial arts. Returning to thai kick-boxing soon :) Great video!

Front kick - Side kicks are mainly for breaking up old furniture so it’s easier to take to the dump.

This is such a good video concept. Wanna see other youtubers do the same vid I the opion

Side kick (with the front leg) to the opponent's thigh is my favorite kick. Very effective and underrated. Not many people use it.

“If you don’t subscribe, I’ll kick you!” Between this and Phil DeFranco threatening to throat punch me, RU-vid is becoming a very violent place

I was looking for the low side kick, or front kick that is in Wing Chun. It’s also called the oblique kick. It’s very useful and A tier in my opinion

Not first, but proud to be here...

Thats video actually very useful for me i am training mma ( i was a boxer) and there is no kick list anywere so used your list thankd

The last part about side kics omg I was dying ahah

At ~5:26, I hear you double and it’s not cuz I’m giving you views on two accounts at once

As a long time taekwondo nerd, 1981-2000 I have a kick that I love to do just to frustrate my "friends" in sparring and that's the simple pushkick. Can destroy their whole game plan. But it's most for fun if you don't want to hurt anyone. Just to frustrate. Then you always have the high risk, high reward kicks. Jumping spinning back kick if it connects?!. Pretty much game over♥️ From Thailand 🇹🇭

In my experience a front leg inside Cresent kick is a great way to knock your opponents hands out of the way long enough to get them with a front hand hook punch to the face so I see it more as a means to set up for a combo rather than use it as a strike on its own

Front kick slightly underrated on your list. Aside from being a fairly powerful kick, it is quite useful, especially for distance control, or setting up for other combinations.

Spinning rear or ushiro geri is my favorite hard to land but if you do you´ll do serious damage.

Lol I land sidekicks all the time😂 it’s actually one of my bread and butters. Do a round house kick(doesn’t matter if it lands), act like the combo is done, and when they motion forward slip it in there. Them motioning forwards gives it so much more power too. 😂

Thoughts on a back kick vs a spinning back side kick (spinning rear in the video)?

My favorite kick is definitely the tornado kick. I love spinning kicks, aerial kicks are epic, it's strong, I like the fake out as well that also gives you more momentum, you can do multiple spins of you want to really throw someone off, and you can combo it into other kicks as well. I just love everything about it

As a guy named Jacob who practices the crane kick, I feel personally attacked Sensei lol

On a serious note, are side kicks actually f tier? I was told they are effective

My 3 favorite kicks to use are: front kick (preferably snappy), roundhouse kick (preferably front leg) and side kick. Those 3 are imo really effective.

This is a great series

OCD has left the chat

OMG man, you should put small demonstrations of each kick....

One time when I was 17 I got into a fight at high school and tried doing a question mark kick but went too high so my foot went over the guys head, but then I pulled my leg turning it into an axe kick, that was pretty much the coolest kick I'll ever throw in my life, an accidental question mark axe kick

Do you consider the push kick and front kick the same? I trained tang soo do and was taught two different applications. One is a quick snap ( a Silva) and the other a powerful linear thrust to the solar plexus

Do mawashi kaiten geri... The only kick that sounds like a special finishing move and actually is...

Thoughts on the oblique kick?

Is a frontkick and pushkick the same style of kick? Great video good sir. Also can a rolling thunder be called a front flipping crescent kick?

Krane kick... the only time that worked for me was by doing a muay thai stance, doing a front kick to measure the distance and do a jump faking a flying knee to target the jaw.

Well i definitly expected the roundhouse to be s tier

Wow no leg kicks, they’re super underrated

What about a reverse roundhouse or twist kick. Its one of my favorite kicks. I like to do a question mark kick but I reverse it at the end and come from the inside instead.

I practice side thrust kick here and there. Trying to incorporate it into my arsenal.

Kicking people is fun😁👊🏼🔥

Soooo, "spinning rear" is the same as a back kick, right? ushiro geri? (can we just use Japanese names? ;) ) My fav at the moment - and I put the whole authority of my one year kyokushin when I was a teenager and 3/4 year kickboxing behind it - is a variation of side kick as Ando Mierzwa is doing it (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AgLCyV-A_j4.html). Half way to the back kick with my butt facing the partner. Slower, but stronger... I guess?... And back kicks. I have this idea in my head that if my roundhouse misses I can use a side or a back kick just after it, because after the roundhouse I land in a pretty good position for it. And there is a chance that my partner will be unprepared for the combo. Tell me I'm right. Please.

Soon as that sad music came on for the side kick I had to subscribe 😂😂

And here I've been practicing meia lua de compasso all trough lockdown.

Punches tier list?

Its a one punch man grading system 😂

Love your channel though!! You're a G

Can't wait

Nah roundhouse is S 💯

Bro, your list is f'd up, the main criterion should be how high percentage the kick is

I like the high front kick, to the jaw or neck, is that still a front kick? I know its not a front thrust or teep but thats the one i like to sneak in lol saenchais signature kick is the ? Kick. Round house my second fave, muay thais bread and butter

I think side kick, it’s so versatile, you can use it to the head and knock people out, to the body/chest and knock them down, to the knee to hyperextend and damage the ligament, it can be used to create distance as a push kick or even gauge distance, like a teep or a jab, you can also use it to stop kicks and spin an opponent like samart payakaroon did by hitting the hips, sometimes 2-3 times in a row and because all sidekicks have the same/similar setup it’s hard to read which height it’ll come at

I absolutely love the front kick. I have a long reach and once used it to score every single point throughout a tournament, and managed to secure first place. My students have since joked that it's my only technique.

I practice WT style TKD and at least once a week I'm reminding the lower belts to use their crescent (and ax) kicks to get headshots. When they have the distance for a roundhouse kick they get their hands in the way before they can land it, and normally they're too close for a roundhouse kick anyway. But listening to you talk about it did help me realize that it's not that useful in a real fight, and when I don't have sparring rules preventing face punches, if I'm that close to someone, my best option is to just punch their nose a new angle. So for sparring, I'd put a crescent kick at S-tier, but for real-world application, I agree with the F-tier.

I dont know where the Side kicks don't work meme came from, but its hilarious.

Pro tip: crescent kicks are a good exercise to have your students do to build up hip strength and flexibility. I like to train 10 inside and outside on both sides along with the dynamic front leg stretch. 10 reps each after a workout then a hip stretch. Definitely not a practical kick for fighting but it’s a great exercise to build strength and flexibility.

I've got to work on my kicks. *sigh* Side kick portion was hilarious! 😂

what a like about the question mark kick is that i can kick higher! with normal roundhouse i get to like shoulder/shin level, but with the ? i get to like forehead.

Glad side kicks are finally being evaluated honestly.

I always think of Benny "The Jet" Urquidez when someone mentions the spinning back kick. He was a monster with that.

Dude you made laugh so hard when out of nowhere came max doing that laugh

Is the oblique kick/knees kick, or side kick to the knee here?

I dont think you can put them in tiers, because all of them are necessary. And its all depending on how you set it up.

Not sure if u have a hook/spinning hook kick tutorial vid out but u should have one, or would love to see it if u do. Hook should be a B though.

I always felt the spinning rear kick was way higher tier than the spinning wheel kick. It may not be as flashy but it requires less flexibility, and if your opponent closes the gap while you throw it you still cause him some damage and push him away, rather than having your leg stuck around his neck. In fact if I was only allowed 3 kicks, this would be the 3rd! Also, how would you rank the taekwondo twist kick and the cartwheel kick ?

In ITF Taekwondo when we use a flying side kick we'll tuck are non kicking leg in and the reason for that is because for the flying sidekick you can jump over something that's between you and your target and then kick the person

I dont even know some of these by name lol ill hafta watch some more videos 😆

I train muay thai so I'm bias but low kick seems the most practical and devastating but I love the round house is so cool

You stated that spinning rear is a spin followed by a linear attack but then said that if you miss you go too far or not far enough. If you are doing it properly it goes straight out not around.

I threw a spinning rear kick because I was light contact sparring with a kid and he kept on going hard. I figured one of us was gonna go home hurt and it wasn't gonna be me so I threw it at about half power, he stopped the foght a second or two after it landed

Hi Sensei Seth! Just a quick question regarding side kicks. So yes for starters I am new to your channel so may help if I do some digging lmao but I was just wondering why side kicks are deemed to be pretty bad. For me personally I thought they were pretty versatile and strong to use due to the quickness and the ability to smash an opponents face and/or ribs. I always thought that it was extremely precise and legitimately hard to miss on a person in the street and in sparring. Granted, being a person who has done honestly only Hapkido (saved from mental health stuff and hey found my girlfriend of 9 months there, go me lmao) but I have tried to implement a bit of some other styles through meeting with friends that do other styles in ISKA tournaments (as you can probably see through the sparring gear on my profile pic lmao) Anyway thank you for the new channel for tips and hopefully free Corona and after my finale exams I can get back to tournaments lmao. Regards - Zachary Chambers

Wouldn't Rolling Thunder be stronger than an Axe kick, since cheer momentum? Also not to mention of how flexible u have to be to have a strong Axekick

Roundhouse. Very versatile. Can be done a variety.of ways with a variety of targets. Creates an instant angle.

I agree with most of your list. Although I would consider front kick A tier if it was the low stomping version

Nice and simple round kick to the thigh. If done correctly, it's like being struck by lightning!

In TKD, I usually use an inside crescent kick as a block. Outside crescent kicks are usually uncomfortable.