BEWARE OF GREEKS BEARING KICKS!
The use of the lower limbs for striking an opponent was highly developed in the ancient Greek martial art of pankration. In fact, this characteristic is essentially what distinguished the fight sport from the other two “heavy” events — wrestling and boxing — that took place at the Olympic Games and other Panhellenic festivals. Because pankration was an extension of battlefield combat, its low kicks were practical and effective in a way that many wrestling and boxing moves weren’t.
There’s little artistic or literary evidence that pankration taught high kicks aimed at the face or spectacular jumping or spinning kicks like we see today in competition. No doubt influenced by their militaristic roots, the Greeks probably considered such flashy techniques nearly useless in battle.
Yes, the feet were seen as an essential means of attack, but it seemed that when pankratiasts used them, it usually was in conjunction with a follow-up such as a hand strike or a movement that closed the distance and perhaps transitioned to a body lock. Seldom was a kick meant to end a fight. It was more a means to an end. With that in mind, let’s examine the kicks of traditional pankration and its modern incarnation.
CORE KICKING
Kicks, called in Greek, are depicted in classical artwork solely
