Ranting About Flying Kicks

One example of probably billions.

It has many names and many variants, but I usually just call it a "Flying Kick." Sometimes I go a step farther and call it the "I know nothing about martial arts, anatomy, or physics stupid flying kick" or something to that degree, since flying kicks themselves are traditional martial arts techniques that have at least the smallest modicum of practicality (though not much). No, I do not like it. Never have and never will. Yet for some strange reason this complete anomaly, this attack that would never serve any practical purpose and doesn't look good is all over the world of fiction. So, then, I guess I need to explain just why this attack should never be used, or at least offer one very simple step as to how to improve it dramatically.

I don't care if you surround it with a battle aura, it's still a dumb kick.

Let me boil this down to the short answer for why this kick doesn't work: there's no power behind it. I don't care how much magic or technology or whatever you're using, the kick completely wastes every fundamental aspect of the human body (or anything shaped like the human body) to create a completely lackluster attack. You'd probably do more damage just by using a normal kick. To put it in perspective, hyperextend your arm and try to push something. Try to open a door, or move a heavy chair, or close a cabinet. Do all of it without bending your arm at all. I'm not saying it's hard to do it with your arms like that, but it's a hell of a lot harder than if you were allowed to bend your arm. Or for a more clear estimate, let me assume you're sitting in a chair. Try to push yourself up out of your seat with your arms, without bending them. Now, do the same but you're allowed to bend your arms. Which was easier? I could probably go on with increasingly absurd tasks that prove this point, but I think you get the idea by now.

The name of the game is leverage. It's a simple idea: more leverage = more power, or at the very least it lowers the energy required to get power. By extending one's leg before making contact (note that I have only seen ONE flying kick NOT do this) you lose all the potential energy that the knee and hip could give the kick. Most martial arts is about getting maximum power with minimal movement, with well-executed kicks using the weight of the hip and the speed of the leg's snapping motion to get power. The flying kick? None of the above. Going back to arms, the flying kick is basically the equivalent to holding your arm all the way out and just falling forward onto your opponent. Can you imagine someone in a fight doing that? They'd look like a total dumbass.

Not to mention that you'd need to be putting in tons of energy to jump to the desired height, and then when your kick lands, since the leg is outstretched so heavily, and most of these kicks make contact with the heel (the worst place for a person to kick with, by the way), guess where all the energy of the kick is going? Right back up your own leg. Yeah, Newton's Third Law is kind of a jerk like that.

Well, okay, she's so broken she can get away with using horrible moves.

But wait, there's more! This kick most commonly is accompanied with all sorts of bells and whisltes and tries to look super fancy. Know what I call that? Telegraphed. It's the equivalent of a human being turning themselves into an arrow and flying in a straight line towards the opponent. If, the opponent doesn't just stand still once the kick is thrown, they aren't going to be getting hit. And, really, who just sits around in a fight and says, "Yep, come on and feel free to hit me"? Now, one could argue, "Oh, it's stylized. The kick is executed faster in-universe." Though that doesn't change basic laws of physics. Since this kick is just falling towards the opponent, that means it's traveling at 9.8 meters per second squared. Reflexes, even in untrained individuals, can react in milliseconds. If you're not right up in the person's face, they're going to move. By extension, if you ARE up in their face, what the hell are you doing jumping in the first place? I'd say that the sheer fact that this kick will never make its mark outside of fiction land where it magically makes anyone targeted by it turn into crippled idiots makes all my complaints about the power barely even matter. In fact, the small amount of power that is present could easily be turned against you if the opponent is skilled enough to counter your stupid ass. They could get a free shot to anywhere on the kicker's body they wanted.

So, let's think about this: it's a kick that is wastes energy, hurts the user, and more than likely would be either dodged or (in the worst-case scenario) countered. Why in the name of Christ is this kick so popular? I'm a martial arts fan and I can't even wrap my head around this.

But, you know what, I wouldn't be much of a guy if I was just complaining. Instead, I have two simple ways that this completely stupid kick can be turned into something awesome... Or at least significantly less stupid. So allow me to shift gears and talk about two types of flying kicks that work in my book.

1. The Foe-Tossing Charge, AKA The Super Inazuma Kick. Yep, seeing how I barely have any complaints about Gunbuster, the kick here actually makes sense to me. First and foremost, it's Gunbuster, a humongous mecha over 200 meters tall. That leg isn't going to be moving too quickly, and the weight of the robot is more than enough damage (coupled with the spiked wheels on the foot for added damage).
The main reason this flying kick works is because it is not aiming for a single target. It it were, there would be no reason not to perform the type 2 (which I will get to in a minute). However, since the Super Inazuma Kick tore through wave after wave of enemies, retracting the leg and kicking multiple times wouldn't serve the purpose well. The use of this kick was to speed past the enemies to the Excelion and it did just that.
2. Just do a good kick. There's no need to bother with all the fancy BS when you just know how to kick. In fighting, simple is good. Or if one actually NEEDS to use a flying kick, then I have a simple example for you: Ialdabaoth, from Super Robot Wars. The pilot Folka DOES NOT EXTEND HIS LEG UNTIL THE KICK WILL MAKE CONTACT. Thus, he is not wasting the energy and his kick is at maximum power. Sometimes, a minor change is all it takes. In fact, this tiny, almost irrelevant change is all I'd ever need to stop complaining. But nope, we have to keep on going with "they need to extend their leg before it hits so that the kick looks stupid" or whatever the reasoning is. Oh, and making contact with the ball of your foot is probably a good idea, too...

So, tl;dr I hate this kick since it's completely stupid and could be fixed with a single minor change in the choreography. And Folka Albark is awesome.

Let's all strive to be more like Folka.