Confucius said that there are three ways of learning: by thinking, by imitation, and by experience. Thinking is the noble way to learn something. Imitation is the simple way to learn something. Experience is the bitter way to learn something. You often can’t avoid the bitter way in the martial arts. Experience teaches like nothing else teaches. But if you are lucky, then you can learn from other people’s experiences. This is the reason why I write on my experiences and publish them here. Today it is the reason why I report the experience of somebody else.

I was told about a fight in a discotheque. You find in such places usually only people, who either look for a one night stand or look for a fight. Hence I usually don’t visit such places, so only other people can tell me about the fights, which they witnessed in the darkness and the flashlights. Two guys, who I both don’t know, had a scuffle. One guy tried to attack the other with a high kick like practiced in Thai or Korean combat sports. Suddenly the attacker was lying on the ground, screaming and squirming with pain. You’d certainly like to know the awesome technique, which the other guy must have applied? I was assured that he did absolutely nothing! He only stood there was surprised by the attack and even more surprised and astonished by this outcome. The attacker had overestimated his agility and flexibility, so the attempt of a high kick resulted in the rupture of a thigh muscle. The attacker simply fell victim to his own hubris.

So notice: High kicks are for combat sport matches after an intense warm-up. High kicks aren’t for real fights! High kicks are useless and only hazardous to oneself in a self-defense situation, hence high kicks have no place in real martial arts!