Trying something new

"Your kick looks perfect. Where did you learn it?"

"I didn't have anyone teach it to me. There was this guy who hung around with gangsters, and he was proficient in kicking techniques. He knocked me out with the same kick I used."

"A gangster who can kick very well? Do you know his name?"

"Yeah, I managed to hear it. The guy's name was Hanzo?"

"Hanzo?!" Mr Kaiju said as he seemed to go deep into thought. Suddenly, his demeanour became exceptionally serious. "Was he wearing a cap?"

"Yeah," Zayd replied.

Mr Kaiju trembled slightly.

"I thought he stopped. After what happened that time, and he's doing it again? We promised one another not to. It doesn't make any sense." Mr Kaiju said to himself as though he had forgotten Zayd was here.

"Um, Mr Kaiju? What's the matter?"

Zayd's words broke Mr Kaiju out of his reverie.

"It's nothing. Time's about to go, so that's it for today." Mr Kaiju seemed to have his mood change. It was for the worse.

"See you tomorrow?" Zayd asked.

Grunting in response, Mr Kaiju briskly walked to the entrance to the Old Gym, where he disappeared.

'I wonder what all that was? Mr Kaiju somehow knows that guy, Hanzo. I would not assume for him to be associated with those kinds of people.'

Zayd stood in the Gym. Zayd looked at the bag and walked over to it before trying his kick on it.

*DUFF*

Zayd's kick was a high roundhouse.

It had quite a lot of power to it. The bag swung from the immense force.

All of a sudden, Zayd thought of a realisation.

'I can try to use it in a combo!'

Zayd threw a Jab. Then, his fist smashed the bag with a Right Hook. Finally, he threw the kick with his left leg. His shin struck the bag once more.

When working on the bag, you should split your combinations up. For example, split a five-punch combo into three pieces.

A combination like a Jab, Right Hand Straight, Leading Hand Uppercut, Right Hand Straight, Left Hook fits perfectly into this. Or, One, Two, Five, Two, Three, in numerical form.

You start with your jab, aiming it at the body.

Your level changes when you throw a Two, meaning going from low to high or high to low.

Targeting the head, get your opponent guard up, or attempt to do so.

For a moment, as they try to counter, you move off to the side or block it.

Then bam! You hit them with your Leading Hand Uppercut.

Once again, they try to counter. You slip the punch, hitting them with your strong Two, and follow up with a Three for a knockout. You only get that to happen when you do it correctly and when your opponent is tired out.

Zayd thought to himself.

'Surely, there are videos online teaching kicks, right?'

Zayd was right.

What was strange was that although Zayd had such a vast interest in fighting of any kind, he never properly learned to fight like how he was now.

Not only that, he'd never once encountered anyone who had ever learned fighting techniques, either.

It was fantastic, nowadays that combat sports remained as a source of income

Zayd typed in 'what is the best kicking' before suggestions popped up.

What is the best kicking technique?

What is the best kicking style for self-defence?

What is the best kicking martial art?

Clicking on the third one, Zayd saw something pop up that caught his eye.

Taekwondo.

Clicking on a video, he engrossed himself in the match that went on between two people.

'What in the...' Zayd thought. As one second after the match started, the guy wearing blue gear launched a flurry of kicks.

They were so quick it was shocking to see.

Zayd looked at the video upload date. It was an old video from 10 years ago.

Zayd watched in awe.

Before he knew it, the match was over.

'Wow. Taekwondo, huh? Should I try it? It reminds me of that Hanzo guy. Did he learn Taekwondo? Probably.'

Zayd thought as he found a video with no views.

'What is this? Taekwondo for noobs episode 1?'

Clicking on the video that piqued his interest, Zayd clicked on the Uploader. It seemed the 'Taekwondo for noobs' series continued.

Zayd watched the video, a man wearing a mask appeared on the screen. It was a weird mask as it was an upside-down fox. He wore a black bathrobe with flip-flops.

He stood before a heavy bag.

"Hello, everyone. Sensei Shmuck here." The man spoke in clear, fluent English. A strange accent was in his voice that made it hard for you to perceive where he learned to speak English.

"Okay, so first of all. You getting to the video means that we share fate or something like that. Well, anyway, let's get to it! Taekwondo is all about kicking! Like this!" The man said as he released a kick with a speed that betrayed his appearance.

The bag swung from the torrential output of Sensei Shmuck.

"Okay, this is a kick you do to the side. I do not remember the name."

"Okay, your front foot is the pivot or something. Your back foot makes an opponent go ow." Slowly demonstrating the range of motion, Sensei Schmuck revealed a pair of very trained legs. The muscles terrifyingly defined.

"Okay, lift the back leg, turn your body. Here's the important part, you need to chamber the kick. If you don't chamber the kick, I think it loses power. Then again, I'm not sure about that. Just chamber the kick. It's good."

*PAK*

Louder than bullets, Sensei Schmuck's kicks were strong.

Zayd watched the video demonstration part a couple of times. Once with slow-motion enabled too.

Trying the kick for himself, he was successful, it seemed. Zayd decided to record himself doing the kick to view it for himself.

He started the recording and leaned his phone against his bag.

Zayd did the kick and checked the video. Zayd saw he did it in a very similar way to Sensei Shmuck.

Satisfied, he sighed.

His phone rang as Zayd saw the time.

Aunt Naomi called him, and it had been an hour longer than he usually took to get home.