© 2014 T. Westermann

Hiza geri uke – Knee shock block

Hiza geri uke is the generic term for blocks with the knee. The blocks are suitable for the lower Chudan and the upper Gedan level. A major disadvantage of knee block techniques, are that the body weight is on the back leg and thus gives little room for correspondingly rapid counterattacks. Hiza geri uke are static blocks, so there is no sweeping movement.

The following variants of Hiza geri uke are possible:

  • Age hiza geri uke – Knee block upwards, well used against Mae geri
  • Mae hiza geri uke – Knee block to the front; more like a redirect. It offers itself as a block technique against Mae geri
  • Soto hiza geri ukeKnee block to the side from the outside inwards; analogous to Soto uke. The technique lends itself to sidekicks (Mawashi und Yoko geri)
  • Uchi hiza geri ukeKnee block to the side from the inside to the outside; analogous to Uchi uke. The technique lends itself to sidekicks (Mawashi und Yoko geri)