The English verb to kick appears only in the late 14th century, apparently as a loan from Old Norse, originally in the sense of a hooved animal delivering strikes with his hind legs; the oldest use is Biblical.

Kicks as an act of human aggression have likely existed worldwide since prehistory. However, high kicks, aiming above the waist or to the head appear to have originated from Asian martial arts. Such kicks were introduced to the west in the 19th century with early hybrid martial arts inspired by Asian styles such as Bartitsu and Savate. Practice of high kicks became more universal in the second half of the 20th century with the more widespread development of hybrid styles such as kickboxing and eventually mixed martial arts.

The history of the high kick in Asian martial arts is difficult to trace. It appears to be prevalent in all traditional forms of Indochinese kickboxing, but these cannot be traced with any technical detail to pre-modern times. For example, Muay Boran or "ancient boxing" in Thailand was developed under Rama V (r. 1868-1910). While it is known that earlier forms of "boxing" existed during the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the details regarding these techniques are unclear. Some stances that look like low kicks, but not high kicks, are visible in the Shaolin temple frescoes, dated to the 17th century. The Mahabharata (4.13), an Indian epic compiled at some point before the 5th century AD, describes an unarmed hand-to-hand battle, including the sentence "and they gave each other violent kicks" (without providing any further detail).

•  

  A kick delivered to a downed or falling enemy (a demon), Angkor period (ca. 13th century) bas-relief at Banteay Chhmar.

•  

  A kick used in armed combat as a means of displacing the opponent's shield in historical European martial arts (Hans Talhoffer 1459)

•  

  A kick to the knee as depicted in a Baroque Ringen treatise (Johann Georg Passchen 1659)

As the human leg is longer and stronger than the arm, kicks are generally used to keep an opponent at a distance, surprise him or her with their range, and inflict substantial damage. On the other hand, stance is very important in any combat system, and any attempt to deliver a kick will necessarily compromise one's stability of stance. The application of kicks is thus a question of the tradeoff between the power that can be delivered vs. the cost incurred to balance. Since combat situations are fluid, understanding this tradeoff and making the appropriate decision to adjust to each moment is key.

Kicks are commonly directed against helpless or downed targets, while for more general self-defense applications, the consensus is that simple kicks aimed at vulnerable targets below the chest may be highly efficient, but should be executed with a degree of care. Self-defense experts, such as author and teacher Marc Macyoung, claim that kicks should be aimed no higher than the waist/stomach. Thus, the fighter should not compromise their balance while delivering a kick, and retract the leg properly to avoid grappling. It is often recommended to build and drill simple combinations that involve attacking different levels of an opponent. A common example would be distracting an opponent's focus via a fake jab, following up with a powerful attack at the opponent's legs and punching.

Further, since low kicks are inherently quicker and harder to see and dodge in general they are often emphasized in a street fight scenario.

The utility of high kicks (above chest level) has been debated.

Proponents have viewed that some high front snap kicks are effective for striking the face or throat, particularly against charging opponents, and flying kicks can be effective to scare off attackers. Martial arts systems that utilize high kicks also emphasize training of very efficient and technically perfected forms of kicks, include recovery techniques in the event of a miss or block, and will employ a wide repertoire of kicks adapted to specific situations.

Detractors have asserted that the flying/jumping kicks performed in synthesis styles are primarily performed for conditioning or aesthetic reasons while the high kicks as practiced in sport martial arts are privileged due to specialized tournament rules, such as limiting the contest to stand-up fighting, or reducing the penalty resulting from a failed attempt at delivering a kick.

Although kicks can result in an easy takedown for the opponent if they are caught or the resulting imbalance is exploited, kicks to all parts of the body are very present in mixed martial arts, with some fighters employing them sporadically, while others, like Lyoto Machida, Edson Barboza and Donald Cerrone rely heavily on their use and have multiple knockouts by kicks on their resumee.

Front kick

Delivering a front kick involves raising the knee and foot of the striking leg to the desired height and extending the leg to contact the target. The actual strike is usually delivered by the ball of the foot for a forward kick or the top of the toes for an upward kick. Taekwondo practitioners utilize both the heel and ball of the foot for striking. Various combat systems teach 'general' front kick using the heel or whole foot when footwear is on. Depending of fighter's tactical needs, a front kick may involve more or less body motion. Thrusting one's hips is a common method of increasing both reach and power of the kick. The front kick is typically executed with the upper body straight and balanced. Front kicks are typically aimed at targets below the chest: stomach, thighs, groin, knees or lower. Highly skilled martial artists are often capable of striking head-level targets with front kick.

Roundhouse kick

This is the most commonly used kick in kickboxing due to its power and ease of use. In most styles, the instep is used to strike, though most Karate styles would allow the shin as official technique for a street fight. To execute, the attacker swings their leg sideways in a circular motion, kicking the opponent's side with the front of the leg, usually with the instep, ball of the foot, toe, or shin. Also performable is a 360-degree kick in which the attacker performs a full circle with their leg, in which the striking surface is generally either the instep, shin or ball of the foot.

There are many variations of the roundhouse kick based on various chambering of the cocked leg (small, or full, or universal or no chambering) or various footwork possibilities (rear-leg, front-leg, hopping, switch, oblique, dropping, ground spin-back or full 360 spin-back). An important variation is the downward roundhouse kick, nicknamed the Brazilian Kick from recent K-1 use: A more pronounced twist of the hips allows for a downward end of the trajectory of the kick that is very deceiving.

Due to its power, the roundhouse kick may also be performed at low level against targets, such as the knees, calf, or even thigh, since attacking leg muscles will often cripple an opponent's mobility.

Side kick

The side kick refers to a kick that is delivered sideways in relation to the body of the person kicking. It is one of the most adaptable kicks, useful as both an offensive move and as a defensive counter to a blitzing opponent. There are two areas that are commonly used as impact points in sidekicks: the heel of the foot or the outer edge of the foot. The heel is more suited to hard targets such as the ribs, stomach, jaw, temple and chest. However, when executing a side kick with the heel, the toes should be pulled back so that they only make contact the heel and not with the whole foot. If a person hits with the arch or the ball of the foot, it can injure the foot or break an ankle. A standard sidekick is performed by first chambering the kicking leg diagonally across the body, then extending the leg in a linear fashion toward the target, while flexing the abdominals.

Another way of doing the side kick is to make it an end result of a faked roundhouse. This technique is considered antiquated, and used only after an opponent is persuaded to believe it is a roundhouse, and then led to believe that closing the distance is best for an upper body attack, which plays into the tactical position and relative requirement of this version of the side kick. In Korean, yeop chagi. In Okinawan te fighting, it is sometimes called a dragon kick. Some have called this side kick a "twist kick" due to its roundhouse like origins. This side kick begins as would a roundhouse kick however the practitioner allows the heel to move towards the center of the body. The kick is then directed outward from a cross-leg chamber so that the final destination of the kick is a target to the side, rather than one that is directly ahead.

Back kick

Also referred to as a donkey kick, mule kick, or turning back kick. This kick is directed backwards, keeping the kicking leg close to the standing leg and using the heel as a striking surface. In wushu, this kick is called the "half-moon" kick but involves the slight arching of the back and a higher lift of the leg to give a larger curvature. It is often used to strike opponents by surprise when facing away from them.

These are often complicated variations of basic kicks, either with