Stronger Kicks: Just Keep Kicking or Start Lifting?

Rupert Alfiler
Jun 24
4 min read

Stronger Kicks: Should You Just Keep Kicking or Start Lifting?

So you want stronger kicks—but you’re stuck wondering: Should I just keep kicking, or should I start lifting weights?

We’re taught that repetition builds skill. But what if your power, speed, or height plateaus—no matter how many rounds you do on the heavy bag?

Depending on what you mean by “better kicks,” you might need more than just practice—you might need a strategic plan involving strength, mobility, and explosive training.

What Does “Better Kicks” Actually Mean?

The word better is vague. Are you talking about:

More accurate kicks? – Kicking with surgical accuracy can mean the difference between ending a fight or injuring yourself.

Kicks that are faster? – If your opponent can see your kicks coming, they’re not effective.

Higher kicks for those headshots? – Landing a clean head kick feels pretty sweet. It’s a high level of difficulty with high risk for high reward.

Or more powerful kicks that stop opponents in their tracks? – There’s nothing more demoralizing than putting all your power into a kick and getting no reaction from your opponent.

Each of these goals taps into a different physical quality. The wrong approach will cost you time, effort and even performance.

At RMF, we target each of these aspects of kicking and train them independently.

For Accuracy and Reaction Time, Emphasize Partner Work: Reps Rule

When it comes to accuracy, kicking is a fine motor skill. That means reps, reps, and more reps—with feedback.

Bruce Lee said, “Fear not the man who knows 1000 kicks, but the man who practices one kick 1000 times.”

Try these:

Focus mitts and kick pads – Focus mitts are thick, padded handheld targets for kicking or punching. These give you targets and instant feedback on aim. Also, when your kick sounds like a whip on a kick pad, you know it's good!

This super versatile exercise can help you improve any kind of kick (from lying position, standing, jumping, straight or spinning, etc.) from any direction.

Partner drills – The dynamic aspect of moving targets trains your timing and spatial awareness. In addition to improving your kicks, you’ll also be improving your ability to judge distance and adapt accordingly.

Volume – high-rep, low-resistance practice builds neural precision. Look to increase your work capacity (i.e. endurance) so that you can “grease the groove” and build neurological pathways.

The way you practice a movement should closely mimic the way you apply it when it counts. That’s why martial-specific practice is non-negotiable.

Kicks on Focus Mitts for Accuracy and Timing

For Speed, Emphasize Fast Twitch: Light, Explosive, and Flexible

To kick faster, you need:

Fast-twitch muscle activation – Producing the greatest amount of force in the least amount of time (i.e. Power = Force x speed).

Mobility in key joints – The ability to produce force throughout the full range of motion of a joint.

Minimal resistance – Being uninhibited by inflexible or tight muscles.

Explosive drills teach you to rapidly recruit all the relevant muscles and produce high amounts of force.

Try these:

Box Jumps – (jumping with both feet onto an elevated surface, like a box or step) Jumping builds muscular coordination; and landing trains the feet, ankles, knees and hips to absorb impact.

Short sprints – Sprinting uses the same muscles used to kick, while training them to contract as quickly as possible. The ability to throw a fast kick depends on how quickly you can transition from rest to maximum velocity.

Deadlift and drop – Picking up a heavy weight demands raw strength, and strength is the backbone of power. Dropping the weight eliminates the eccentric portion of the lift, also known as the “negative,” and emphasizes power generation.

Speed training requires full recovery between reps. You’re not trying to build muscle here—you’re trying to build neural speed. Aim to stop the exercise before soreness sets in.

Don't forget: Tight muscles kill speed. So, pair your explosive work with active mobility training to remove the brakes.

For Height, Emphasize Mobility: Strength at Every Angle

Higher kicks aren’t just for aesthetics. They expand your striking range, give you more options in sparring, and let you dominate from the outside.

Want to kick higher? First ask: What’s stopping your leg from getting up there?

It’s usually tight hamstrings, hip flexors, or adductors, combined with weakness at the end range of motion.

To kick higher, you need to do two things:

1. Increase mobility

2. Achieve flexibility.

Deficit Deadlifts for Hamstring Flexibility

Flexibility is a muscle’s ability to lengthen to its maximum anatomical limit without injury. Trying to go beyond this limit will lead to injury. That being said, we all have room to improve on reaching that natural limit. We are inflexible because of our inability to FULLY RELAX, not because of short muscles.

Muscles take their commands from the nervous system. “Relax” is a neural signal, same as “Contract.” When a muscle is WEAK or deconditioned, it fatigues quickly, and often stays that way after the workout. A tight muscle doesn’t just happen accidentally. It happens when a muscle is incapable, or too weak.

Properly training of the hips, hamstrings and quads sets the stage for freedom of movement in the legs during kicks. A critical part of that training involves mobility, or the ability to produce force at every angle of the joints. This is called mobility.

Final Thoughts

So… Do You Still Need to Keep Kicking? Yes. Absolutely. Always.

Lifting helps build the engine—but skill training is how you learn to drive it.

The best approach? Blend them. It’s not about choosing one or the other—it’s about aligning your physical training with your technical goals.

Better kicks don’t come from mindless reps. They come from smart, goal-driven practice—on the mat and in the gym.

Stronger kicks aren’t just about doing more—they’re about doing better. If you want to kick harder, faster, higher, or more accurately, you need to address the physical demands behind each of those goals. That means combining intentional martial arts practice with focused strength, power, and mobility work. You don’t have to stop kicking—but you do have to start training smarter. When you blend the right strength training with high-quality technique reps, you unlock new levels of performance. Your kicks won’t just look better—they’ll be better.