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Splits aren't important in and of themselves.
What you want, in any kind of athletic training, is a balance between flexibility training, endurance training, strength training and so on.
Each time we kick... we're lifting 9 to 10% of our body weight (Approximately).
We use a LOT of muscles to do that.
Take a look at the individual who can do something incredible in kicking... my favorite example is a man named Mr. Jee Ho Lee. (Probably a Master now or even a Grand Master for all I know. I lost track of him.)
When I was a kid, he was a 5th degree in the ATA. During demonstrations, he would do 'slow motion forms'. Every movement, in ultra slow motion, demonstrating his total control of his body, and letting students REALLY see good body mechanics at work.
He would do a spinning heel kick, in slow motion, bringing his leg up, and across the imaginary target in the form, all the way through and down, little by little, and I mean it was 'perfect'. Rock solid balance all the way through... he'd manipulate himself through the spinning motion using his base foot, his body was erect, his guard was up.. it was fantastic.
The reason he could do that, wasn't JUST flexibility. It was the fact that he developed all those little muscles that helped him throw kicks full speed, and at low speed. He'd put his foot up, as easily as most of us take a coffee cup out of the cupboard.
You need lots of core stability... that's the abs, obliques, the back muscles... and you need to get your abductors and adductors built up in strength, and so on.
I'm still working on mine and I've got a long way yet to go...
If you have all that strength built up in all those right muscles, PLUS you work patiently and wisely on your flexibility... you can achieve great increases in your kicking capabilities, your balance, and most importantly, your body mechanics that will prevent injuries.
But you've got to hit the task from all fronts. You need range of motion, yes, but you also need to strengthen those muscles, and make sure you're moving your body in ways that won't tear it up.
Think of it this way... your body is not going to let you stretch those legs any wider, than your other muscles are strong enough to move them to. It's a fail-safe mechanism to keep you from tearing yourself up... (that's the stretch reflex).
So to stretch those legs wider, you have to build the right muscles up strengthwise, and at the same time you also need to stretch patiently.
And, to do all that, to have a HOPE of doing all that in a way that doesn't hurt you...
You've got to warm up properly during that development... AND you need to use good body mechanics, moving your body only the way nature designed it.
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Getting through life takes just a LITTLE bit of insanity!*g*
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