What's the difference between a front kick & front snap kick?

Hi Guys,

What's the difference between a front kick & front snap kick?

A front snap kick is just one type of front kick. "Front kick" is just the general name of this family of kicks.

Others include rising, flying, jumping and thrusting.

So the next time your asked to do a "front kick", try a jumping one (but be aware you may be given press ups for your cheek!)

Hope that clears it up!

I would define a front snap kick as being a "fast" kick, in which you'd raise your knee, then flick with your lower leg, striking with the ball of the foot and recovering as fast as possible, before probably moving on to another move. You'd retain your weight directly over your standing leg and remain balanced.

For the "other" type of front kick - thrusting kick, you'd raise your knee just the same, but instead of a flicking motion, you thrust with the ball of the foot, driving your hips forward into the target. It's a slower kick to perform, but has much greater impact. Because you're moving your hips forward into the kick, you tend to find it much harder to pull back and flow into another move.

In both kicks you'd hit with the ball of the foot, "apunchi", and the foot shape would be the same - from the ball of the foot, through the ankle joint, knee and hip, you can draw an imaginary line.

I always think of the snap kick as the "stun" kick, designed to impact or shock an opponent and give you time for a follow on technique with greater force, while the thrusting kick is designed either to finish an attack off, or to physically move a target and throw them off balance.