How to Sideswipe

A sideswipe is an inverted 540 kick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhPfY8AmfR8

How to Sideswipe video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k864os9ouog

Learning how to Sideswipe:

First, have a strong 540 kick. If you learned your 540 kick with a side stepping setup, great! If you didn't, then you need to practice your 540 with a side stepping setup (I'll give you some pointers below in the step by step picture walkthrough). If you also have the raiz, that will be super helpful when learning how to sideswipe, but you don't need to have the raiz, it's not essential for this trick.  In fact, I learned the sideswipe before I could raiz.

To turn your 540 kick (with side stepping setup! essential!) into a sideswipe, begin by stuffing cooked, white meat turkey into your pockets (or underwear). The more the better. Also, it's best if it's freshly cooked, no leftovers from the fridge (please). The turkey will help you. What the turkey meat does is it forces you to drive that first, non-kicking leg straight back instead of around.  It should be pulled back hard, similar to a snappy back lift stretch kick.  So that's the big key to learning how to sideswipe: white meat turkey pockets.

When entering the trick, spot a target on the ground and keep looking at it. The pull from your non-kicking leg and the torque from your arm swing will pull you around when it's the "right time". You'll know when it's the right time if you setup correctly.  So your job is simply to keep looking at your target, because doing this will give you float.

How to Sideswipe step by step:

 

My experiences with the sideswipe

The sideswipe is not hard, it's actually easier than a 540 kick once you get the hang of it.  The 540 kick is more forgiving for technical error than a sideswipe, you can muscle out a 540 kick and land short.  The sideswipe isn't as forgiving, you have to have very good technique to get through and actually finish the trick.

• In other words, you will see more 540 kicks landed short than sideswipes landed short.

So when you get good at both 540s and sideswipes, you may find, like me, that the sideswipe is easier, because the sideswipe has a greater potential for POWER.  You can use more POWER in a sideswipe because of the "dig" in the setup.  A 540 kick doesn't have the same "dig" as a sideswipe, so it doesn't have that same capacity for generating power in the trick.  And so this is why I actually enjoy doing sideswipes more than 540 kicks: because sideswipes are more aggressive.  And aggressiveness is the meaning of the universe.