jive kicks & hyperextended knees?

[kathyt cupcake]

hi, I have a question about jive kicks-- I find that if I'm getting a little sloppy/tired that I can sometimes tweak my knees when practicing jive kicks. Since front kicks are not really turned out, my knees don't have much protection from snapping a little more than straight and putting too much strain on them. I don't think I'm locking them out, but I am definitely using some not totally controlled force to get my foot out and back with speed.

Any suggestions on how to prevent this?

[Some guy]

When I kick, I tend to think of my "resting position" as "up" (thigh parallel to floor). I define "up" as imagining that there is a ledge (as high as my hip joint) that I'm trying to rest my thigh on. The minute I picture this action, it automatically lifts my kicking leg's hip above the standing leg's hip. That way, when I "kick", there's no strain on the knee and leaves my standing leg in a perfect position to perform the "bounce" action.

[syncopationator]

cupcake: are you kicking out or kicking down? If you are kicking out, then try kicking down (i.e as if you were to tap the floor with your toes), you have more control that way and your knee doesn't hyperextend. Also, make sure your standing knee is relaxed (i.e. slightly bent) when you "tap" down.

[kathyt cupcake]

I'm kicking down. It's actually much more of a problem with my left leg than my right, I think it might have to do with thinking too much about trying to get my extended leg straight whereas it's more about not staying in the extended position. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Nik]

Don't think of kicking, think of lifting the leg back up into the center.

[mamboqueen]

i actually suck in my center when I'm lifting the leg up; I expend more energy bringing it up than "kicking" it down. I probably consider it more of a release than a kick, but that is because I started out putting too much energy (exertiion) into the downward motion.

[Some guy]

I don't believe you should "think" about straightening your extended leg. Doing that would cause knee damage. The straightenning will happen automatically, or at least, it will create the illusion that it's happenning. Like mamboqueen said, think of it as a "release" and the effort should be on sucking the leg back up (or as I like to think of it, resting your kicking leg's thigh back on top of the imaginary ledge).