Standing Wushu Lotus Kick

Standing Wushu Lotus Kick

The standing wushu lotus kick (bai tui) is a jump kick often performed after front sweeps in longfist forms. When you pratice the normal wushu lotus kick (with runup), you can also do a couple of standing lotus kicks as a warmup. In this lesson you will learn how to do the standing wushu lotus kick 360, 540° and the 720°. The standing lotus kick can also be executed with a wushu weapon in the right hand. Find more wushu skills at wushu main.

Execution

  • Stand with your feet about one shoulder width apart and extend your arms in front of you, with your fingers pointing up. Look straight forward and keep your back straight.
  • The strike-out is very important for the standing wushu lotus kick. Move your hands to the left hip and move down a bit (bend knees). Twist your upper body counter clockwise a few degrees, but keep looking straight forward. Keep your upper body aligned vertically. Don't bend to the sides, forward or back at all. Not even a few degrees !!! If you bend your upper body to the side during the strike-out movement, the jump will not go straight up and you will mess up the landing. BTW, also keep your head straight. If you look down or to the side, you might bend your spine without noticing.
  • Jump up vertical from both feet. The feet have to leave the floor exactly at the same time. If one foot leaves the floor first, you probably already messed up the strike-out. Keep in mind that the spine has a form a vertical line. At the same time throw up your hands. Keep your hands close to your body as you move them up.
  • Turn clockwise and kick the extended right leg up and slap hands and foot together. The upper body has to stay perfectly straight ht and the hips must not be extended at all (hips compact). There are two variation how the hands can be moved.
    Varation A: Both hands slap the right foot.
    Variation B: Only the left hand slaps the foot. (see next step)
    • The left leg can either stay extended, so that the extended left leg and the spine are the rotation axis.
    • Or be bent like shown in the right illustration. This way the jump looks higher, but the rotations are a little bit slower. I recommend you extend the left leg at the beginning.
  • Pull the kicking leg back down as fast as possible and bring your arms and your legs as close as possible to the rotation axis. Ideally all this would be done before the the highest point of the jump. This increases the momentum and speeds up the rotation. If the kick is done fast enough and hands and feet are brought to the rotation axis in time, 540 or 720 rotations are possible.
  • Like I mentioned in the last step, there are two ways how you can move the hands.
    • Variation A: Bring both forearms to the chest.
    • Variation B: Lift the right hand and lower the left hand. The hands are still located close to the rotation axis. Just the height is different.
  • Land in a wushu horse stance on both feet at the same time. (this is a standard landing for the standing lotus kick) Then punch to the right and lift your left hand over head (elbows extended) like illustrated above. Look to the right side. If one leg lands first, your rotation was not vertical enough. You should land exactly at the same spot where you jumped off. Landing on the left leg first is wrong. Landing on the right leg can be OK, if the landing is straight.

Advice

  • Exercise: Stand with your feet one shoulder width apart and draw a line from your left shoe to your right shoe. Then draw a line around your shoes so that you can see where you stand at the beginning. Now try to jump and land at the same spot. But careful! Don't look down to the flooe as you jump.