[bboytao]

Hey everyone. This is my first post on this site so bear with the plainess of it(i.e. I got no video). I come to breakin from the martial artist path. Im big into martial arts, I practice wushu with one of Jet Li's class mates from china. This guys goin to be a judge for wushu in the 2008 olympics which is kinda cool. Any way, it took me the longest time to get my kip ups down, about 6 months, long freakin time! THis is the one move thats been the hardest for me for a long time, but when I got it I did it better than the guy who taught me and to this day, out of the crew I chill with, I can kip up the best. Now I'm workin on no handed ones.

First piece of advice I can give anyone tryin to learn is don't give up because your in for a long and painful road ahead if you don't catch on to quickly.

I hope most of you have the basic lying on your back with your feet up over your head thing down.

Next thing to do is to make sure your feet are all the way stretched over your head. DONT ball them up by your stomach and try to kick from your knees out while your learning and expect to do be able to preform the move because you never will. That comes later.

Place your hands on the ground by your head so your fingers point to your shoulders.

For me, my arms were to short to push off the ground so I elevated my palms and only had my fingers touch the ground. I GUARENTEE YOU THAT IF YOU DO THIS, YOU YOU WILL GET A LOT MORE HIEGHT AND BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE TECHNIQUE FASTER

The next move in the sequence is to yank your feet over your head as fast as you can. Push your quads ( the upper part of your leg) down to the ground fast! This should make you lower back arch slightly off the ground.

THen you arch your back more, as if your doing the bridge posture form yoga or gymnastics. Push off the ground with your finger tips keeping your back arched.

As you slam your extended legs, quads first, towards the ground, bring your feet under your but continuously arching your back.

As you feel your whole upper body lift off the ground yank your head upwards as if your doing a really fast sit up lead by your heads momentum.

As you become upright make sure to position your body over your feet so that your momentum is neutralized and you slow down.

Cool things you can do after you have it down is work on it with no hands. THat requires yourhead to push against the ground. You could also do what shoalin monks do and do you kick up and land in a sitting position with your feet crossed.

Feel free to comment and tell me if this worked for you or if it only messed you up.

[Flame Head]

Hey I'm 13 and I do martial arts as well but I do Tai Chi instead.

I have only been doing kick ups for a few days and your thread has helped me a bit but im still finding it hard to get higher and to get my feet to the ground quicker.

[Xinex]

Today was my first day tryin them, and i pretty much got them cept i dont get enough height yet. i already got one, and i gotta say the hardest part of them is remembering to do all the stuff right, like spring with your hands, punch your feet out, "do a really fast situp," and get my feet back down. You gotta remeber to kick your feet out diagonally. This makes a big difference.

[Flame Head]

I can't even do them on a bed I just can't seem to get my body to neutralize the angle wen my feet touch the ground I'll still be almost flat.

[bboytao]

Doing kick ups on a bed doesn't work. The reason is because you need a firm support underneath you to propel from. A mat works but beds are too cushiony. A really easy way to do one fast is to try and do one on a hill. Your head is at the top of the hill and your feet face down the hill. It's easier because your feet land under you faster and you are easily pushing your upper body up higher than your feet. Try it. I garentee youll be able to do it.

[Flame Head]

I just found out that doing it on a hard surface is better today. I was just trying at school, I suppose i should find something softer than concrete though
I'm getting a lot better and i can get my feet and my body up but my whole body just falls right back down after my feet land so I'm not completely sure how to get my body up.

[BbOy InTenT]

im having the same problem. i got most of it down but its just that i cant get my back or my head up. ill just keep working on it.

[B-noob]

hey guys im saught of new to breaking. ive been breaking since 2002 but in and out. now i can only do six step top rock coffee grinder and i am not satisfied. now i want to learn a kick up thats decent. so when i try my back gets up but then i hit the ground again. i cant seem to get it correctly. my back lifts off the ground about 1 inch lol. need help.

[Flame Head]

I got the same problem except I get my back quite a bit higher and fall back. You should push up with ur arms hard if you've got the part where u kick up with ur legs mastered. Push up with ur arms just a split second after u kick with ur legs to help even out the angle and push ur body up.

[bboytao]

Make sure that you push off the ground from your fingertips. This gives you extra height and allows you a little more leverage. When your fingers are pushing off the ground, your palms should be off the ground as high as possible. After you get the kip up on your fingers very well then you can move on to using your palms. Has anyone tried doing one on a grassy hill. Start doing it on a slanted hill and then move to one with less of an incline and then less, and less until your doing one on flat ground. Get back to me on whether you try this and it works for you or not.

Peace

[Xinex]

Remeber to bend those legs a lot at first a, and your probably not kivckin hard enough, if you can't get high enough. Just try it on a hill like they said, an rember where you pivot points are

[Kase.O]

I think kip ups r very easy, i learnt them in a week and no handed ones a week later, kip ups r all bout legs, when i do the 2 handed ones my hands almost doesn't touch the ground, i only use them for push off a lil bit when my whole body is in the air, that is only 1/2 second-1second, so all u gotta do is kick really hard upwards and then bring fast ur legas down to the ground, then ur body will elevate cuz momentum carry it, and the last thing i do is use my abs, i don't know if the rest of bboys do it, but i do, and this is cuz i learnt kip ups in a few time, do what u want, this is my personal technique, i never read it so i think it's personal, it works a lot of better for me.

~Peace~

[DancinJoey]

Yo yo, my name's Joey and I got a great tip for anyone having REAL difficult with this. Start on your feet and rock to your shoulders, THEN push up with your hands and thrust your thighs down. And if you need even MORE momentum, do a forward roll, then pop to your feet and roll back and THEN do the kip up. Trust me folks, it works.

Joey

[GeNeTiX ViRuS]

ook that sounds cool

[fIesTa]

kip ups are also my problems, but keep in mind, lie on back, use your hands. Make your legs straight back, and then push very hard, and move your weight forward to get on your legs.