What’s a hatchet kicke? This isn’t as common as the popular side kicks or roundhouse kicks. It’s not as easy to describe as a forward kick. How do you describe the hatchet kick? Guinness World Record holder Shawn Kovacich (black belt) describes the hatchet kicked like this. “A properly executed hatchet kick performed by a man (or woman), can be compared to a hybrid combination of a turning wheel kick and an in-to-out axe kick.”Kovacich’s 8th book in his Achieving Kicking Excellence series, will help you understand the basics of a hatchet kicked and how it should be done.
Shawn Kovacich’s Hatchet Kick is similar to other volumes in the series. It is an independent volume that covers all aspects of the hatchet kick, as well as ten variations. This book, like the others, contains brief chapters about anatomy, warm-ups, strength training and speed training as well as power training.
But the real meat of the book are the descriptions and examples of each variation of the hatchet Kick. Kovacich breaks down each kick into parts, and shows these with detail photos. This is the best illustration I’ve seen of kicking. Kovacich offers a variety of kicks: Spinning Hatchet Kick with Step Back, Hop/Slide Forward and Hop/Slide Backward Hatchet Kick.
You will find plenty of illustrations and notes in the book to help you master this kick. Kovacich mentions some examples of the hatchet-kicking in the last section, after which he discusses common problems and solutions to them in his troubleshooting manual.
The eighth volume in a series of ten books on basic kicks, Kovacich’s 8th book is another outstanding book on kicking. Anyone who is interested in kicking can find this book as well as the other books in the series a great resource. Even if your style of kick is different than Kovacich’s, the book will help you improve. Kovacich’s books can help you to teach kickboxing. This book, and the whole set of them, are highly recommended by me to martial artists.