Black Belt: Please explain why what looks good for the camera also looks good for the judges.
Mike Chaturantabut: Basically, there’s a reason people are photogenic or not photogenic; that’s [covered in] the presentation and performance aspect of XMA. It focuses on confidence, self-esteem and being able to communicate with the person behind the camera. And then there’s the technical aspect of what you’re doing. Is your technique good, fair or poor? Body position is also important, making sure you’re open to the camera to show the best angle for the technique and the correct posture.

If you’re doing a jump split kick, there’s a good angle, a better angle and a best angle—whether you want to take a photo or do it in front of judges or an audience. You want to showcase that move the best way possible so they get the fullest effect.

And if it’s a spinning kick, it’s important that the whip of the kick—as you go from the starting point to the ending point before you retract your leg—comes around to the front, as opposed to the corner or the side.

What tips do you have for performing the roundhouse kick?
Photo-wise, if you have a vertical roundhouse kick—if you can kick straight up with your hip turned over, your foot pivoted toward the back and your body in a straight line, you can kick to the front, to the corner or to the side. Your body line’s going to be perfect no matter how you do it, so you can show it any way you want.

If you don’t [have a perfect body line], if you can’t get your hip turned all the way over, if you don’t have the height—don’t kick straight to the side. When you open your body up completely profiled to the camera or to the audience, everything can be seen—technical flaws, a bend in your leg or a bend in your body. If you lean over too far and you’re not up high enough, they’ll see it.

Kicking to either corner, at 45 degrees, will allow you to “cheat the angle.” The illusion is that your kick looks higher than it really is, and any flaws in your technique are harder to see.

If you kick straight forward, it’ll look higher than if you kick to the side as long as you have perfect body alignment. So if you have perfect body alignment with your roundhouse, kick forward or to the side. If you need to hide your technical flaws, kick to the corner because it’ll also make you look higher.

What about the side kick?
Everything is the same for the side kick.

The three angles of the side kick: to the front (left), to the corner at a 45-degree angle (center) and to the side (right). The guidelines for determining which angle works best also apply to the roundhouse kick, says Mike Chaturantabut (pictured).

And the jump front kick?
It’s never recommended to do it to the side because it shows off every technical flaw you can imagine. Even if you have a perfect jump front kick, it’s perfect only when you have full extension and your leg is tucked. It’s not perfect when your legs are on their way up or down. Because you see the in-between stages more when you kick to the side, it doesn’t look as clean.

Kicking to the front or the corner masks some of that, and it allows you to get the kick not just vertical, but also up and forward with your movements. It appears as if you’re moving toward the camera or the audience, which gives more of a 3-D effect. It pops out in front of your face.

In general, when something is going away from you, it’s not as exciting as when it’s coming at you. That’s the whole appeal of 3-D movies. Most of what we do in XMA—all our forms and combinations—are directed to the front. We always stop and pause while facing forward so everybody can see the poise and strength in our posture and positioning. Just be sure to avoid locking your kicking foot in front of your face when kicking straight forward.

So the worst angle for the jump front kick is to the side. The better angle is to the front, and the best is to the corner.

The three angles of the jump split kick: to the front (left), to the corner at a 45-degree angle (center) and to the side (right). The corner and side views are obviously inferior, claims Mike Chaturantabut.

Next is the jump split kick.
The best angle is to the front. You should never do it to the corner or the side. The only exception is if you’re doing a live performance on a stage where the crowd is 360 degrees around you. Then you have no choice. But if the crowd or camera is in front of you, it’s always straight-on. The whole idea is to show the extension of the legs, the pointed toes and the height. It’s basically a “V” shape that you want to make with your legs, and you just don’t see it with the other angles.

How about another difficult technique, the aerial?
The best angle is to the side. The second-best angle is to the corner. The worst angle is straight forward. If you have an absolutely perfect technique, you can do an aerial to the front, and that’s OK but not ideal. If you don’t, you should never do one to the front because if you have even a tiny bend in your knee, everybody will see it. If you do it to the side, you can have your knee one-quarter bent, and nobody will ever know because you just can’t see it from that angle.

The main thing to look for with the aerial obviously is height. The higher your head and body, the higher you look. Some people do their aerial and let their arms hang down, so even though they’re actually very high, they don’t look it because people see the distance between the ground and their hands, and there’s not a big gap. But if you tuck your hands in, they’ll see the distance between the ground and your head; the larger gap makes it look like you’re higher.

People think I can jump really high, but I don’t at all. It’s an illusion, actually, because I can’t even dunk a basketball—and I’m 5 feet 10 and three-quarters. My vertical isn’t that high; it’s just that I can tuck my legs into position and get them above my hips to where it looks like I’m up high. That’s really the key.

With any jump kick, the distance between your bottom and the ground is how they visually judge height. They don’t look at the height of your foot. Now, that means if your foot is hanging down because it’s not tucked, you’re not going to look very high.

Next is what you guys call the “capoeira kick.”
That’s a general term because the technique comes from capoeira, but the real name is the au batido. Basically, the move looks best at a side angle because of the extension of the leg. Like the jump split kick, it shouldn’t be done to the corner or the front because even if the legs are straight, it doesn’t show off the move. The whole point on the jump split kick and the capoeira kick is that you want people to see the extension and how far you can split your legs.

The three angles of the capoeira kick, or au batido: to the front (left), to the corner at a 45-degree angle (center) and to the side (right). The front view is the best for showcasing the kicker’s skills. (Craig Henningsen is shown.)

XMA’s Rising Star: Craig Henningsen When the Discovery Channel aired XMA: Xtreme Martial Arts in 2003, it introduced America to a scientific approach to the ancient Asian arts that melded New Age performance with athleticism and acrobatics. At the heart of the special were Black Belt Hall of Fame member Mike Chaturantabut and five-time world champion Matthew Mullins, and right alongside them was Mullins’ protégé, Craig Henningsen. The 16-year-old Henningsen has trained in the martial arts for more than a decade. “I began when I was 6,” he says. “As a kid, I had a lot of energy and natural ability with sports. Watching the Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers on TV was my inspiration to join karate. My baby sitter and her children were students at Sharkey’s Karate, so when I said I wanted to do karate, they told me where they go.” Henningsen received his introductory class at Sharkey’s from Mullins. “He was always hanging around the karate school, helping, teaching and doing his homework,” he says. “Matt is the one I looked up to because of his drive and work ethic.” The youth’s main art is shorei-ryu karate, which he identifies as a Japanese-Okinawan style. “It’s my traditional root for the martial arts, my home base,” he says. “Learning the techniques and walking the path of the style [are] a great adventure in self-realization. “But doing competitions has led me to learn wushu for its soft transition techniques and very low stances.” To maintain top form, Henningsen works out six days a week. When preparing for a competition, he runs through his forms as many times as possible, then breaks each one into sections and practices them separately. “I also do a lot of conditioning for my body; I believe it’s important to have a good structure to improve your performance and talent,” he adds. Despite his age, Henningsen already has concrete ideas about where he wants to leave his mark in the martial arts: “I would like to be able to pass on the tradition to someone else—as Sensei John Sharkey has to Mike [Chat], Mike has to Matt, and Matt has to me. In the same respect, I want to spread martial arts to the public and have as many people as possible find a love for them.” —Jeremy M. Talbott

And the double-leg parafuso.
People call this move by different names, such as the double leg and the double-leg 540. The names change frequently because competitors find different ways to describe them. All the tricksters and top-level competitors around the world get online, and someone says, “This is why it should not be called a double-leg 540; it should be a double leg because you’re not really rotating 540 degrees in the air.” Then everybody starts calling it that. There’s no one person or governing body naming these moves.

Anyway, because it rotates, the best angle is forward so your legs come from the back straight to the front. When you take off from the ground, you go from the left side to the right side or vice versa. That’s the best angle. You can do it to the corner, but it’s not as good. I wouldn’t recommend doing it to the side because it shows off too many flaws in your technique and body line. Again, this is for a one-leg takeoff, not a running two-leg takeoff side flip.

About the interviewer: Robert W. Young is the executive editor of Black Belt. For more information about Mike Chat and XMA, visit www.xmarevolution.com.