Here is a video I did a while back.
thats pretty much what I teach. One exception on the first part. Heel lower than the knee makes an upward kick. I consider this a legiet round kick depending on the disance between you and you opponent. You can chop up, across or down. good stuff.
i like to watch the technique of the head kick KOs. many occur from an outside to inside crescent kick where the supporting foot's toes are pointed towards the opponent.
really sloppy round kick, but it gets the job done.
zealot66 - thats pretty much what I teach. One exception on the first part. Heel lower than the knee makes an upward kick. I consider this a legiet round kick depending on the disance between you and you opponent. You can chop up, across or down. good stuff.Totally agree. What I didn't go over in that clip is the variation of low kicks and high kicks. In doing so, the angle of the foot to knee to hip are going to change. For instance on high kicks it's almost impossible to have your knee as high as your foot and as such the foot is the highest which is followed by the knee and then the hip. In addition, the head kick is almost impossible to plant the shin across the face, rather the foot and ankle hit the side of the head. I also think that this is less dangerous as it's harder to break your foot on a head than it is a shin.
I try and stay away from slapping style kicks where the foot hits the side of the body, it's too risky and I've myself broke bones in my foot along with seeing many other people. I have a lot more thoughts on the differences but I'll leave it at this for now!
Ryukyu Damashi - I step out at a 45 degree angle onto the ball of my foot.ditto.
Thanks for the video Ryan, that is some quality instruction right there. That beats up almost all internet vids I have seen so far on instructing the round kick.
One question...What do you feel is the proper placement of the right hand? Swinging down low toward the right leg, or attempting to hold it up higher to shoulder level? I notice in your video it is at your hip the majority of the time. Wouldn't swinging it low leave you open to a straight right hand counter?
I have seen a thread with "best head kicks in MMA Gifs" on the other forum, and watching the technique there is interesting. Most of those guys can't kick very well as far as technique is concerned.
In the Corey Hill GIF his toes are pointing directly at his opponent when he contacts the opponent's shin. Recently I was watching Thiago Alves fight and Joe Rogan was hyping up his kicking ability, but when they slowed it down his support foot was only pointing at about a 90 degree angle at the best example, not toward the opponent.
Ideologic - Thanks for the video Ryan, that is some quality instruction right there. That beats up almost all internet vids I have seen so far on instructing the round kick.
One question...What do you feel is the proper placement of the right hand? Swinging down low toward the right leg, or attempting to hold it up higher to shoulder level? I notice in your video it is at your hip the majority of the time. Wouldn't swinging it low leave you open to a straight right hand counter?
I have seen a thread with "best head kicks in MMA Gifs" on the other forum, and watching the technique there is interesting. Most of those guys can't kick very well as far as technique is concerned.
In the Corey Hill GIF his toes are pointing directly at his opponent when he contacts the opponent's shin. Recently I was watching Thiago Alves fight and Joe Rogan was hyping up his kicking ability, but when they slowed it down his support foot was only pointing at about a 90 degree angle at the best example, not toward the opponent.
Your 1st Question:
First off allow me to explain where the swinging of the hand and the hand tight on the head come from. Thaiboxing is the predecessor to Krabi-Krabong, the Thai Military Sword art of Thailand. In KK one of their main combinations of weapons and striking techniques is the double sword and kicks. As such when they would kick they wouldn't want to chop their own legs off so the swords would come back out of the way in order for the kick to be safe. However, being able to safely swing the sword and kick at the same time had it's benefits so doing so was implemented inside of the system.
The one variation was slashing with a back hand and kicking with a round kick. The slash and kick came from the same side but in opposite directions. The other sword, again so it could stay out of the way was placed over the shoulder with the hand holding the sword at the head. Take the swords away and this is what you see with the Thai kick.
Now, more importantly than the swinging hand is the stationary hand. There are two main ways of doing this. One is having the hand tight on the side of the head, and the other is having it be in front of the face. Both have their benefits.
I personally choose the hand tight on the side of the face because when I swing the other hand, the shoulder remains tight on the other side. If you have a hand tight on one side and the shoulder tight on the other side you really can't go wrong. Add a subtle slip into the equation and you are defending not only strikes such as hooks and head kicks but you are also defending straight punches which usually slip directly over the shoulder.
The other way of waving (windshield wiper) in front of the face does not cover the side of the head most susceptible to head kicks. You will notice that 9 out of 10 head kicks is because they don't have their lead hand on their head (people feel free to find examples). While the waving in front of the face defends against jabs and crosses, it does not defend the kick very well. Additionally, waving in front of the face usually brings the elbow up and exposes the ribs. Watch the clip again and I go over this.
Now, back to the swinging hand. If the should is tucked close against the head you don't have to worry about keeping that hand up. There are trade offs in body mechanics and one being that you can't have both shoulders up at the same time. With that said, one shoulder up protecting and one hand works well.
Regarding Rotation:
I prefer the 90 degree rotation. It turns your hips over and allows the kick not to slap the side but to impact with the front of the body. It also makes the shin impact with the target and not the side of the leg like Corey Hill did. Think about it. If I asked you to hit a bag as hard as you could with a baseball bat, would you swing up or would you swing straight through on a level plain? Would you hit the side of the bag or would you hit the front? Now if I allowed you to add footwork into it, would you stay in the same place or take a running start?
Body mechanics for creating power is consistent across all sports, including Martial Arts. Your shin is the baseball bat, how would you hit the bag?
I break those questions down similarly. I get those questions every time and so I began just explaining right off the bat. here's my spiel.
the human being walks opposite to opposite. the right foot walks the left hand swings forward. That arm swinging naturally ( not a hard slash really) is a natural complement to your hip rolling. same thing on knees, straight knees. The arms swing naturally to the opposite side like if you were sprinting.
The hand on the face. the opposite is up to deflect the counter right hand if it gets thru. Hopefully the distance is enought to stymie the right hand because the you have to be in punch range to hit with the shin. the opposite side is shrugged so any hand that hits comes into your little foxhole of hand up, shoulder up and chin tucked. also if you are throwing a full on front roundhose with the shin across the body, a person cannot throw while that kick is hitting them.
The tricky part is returning to a stable guard after retracting the kick which is another art to itself. the step out or cut kick can slip the right hand if done right.
Its agony to hear about thai kicks. I usually ask, which one are you talking about ? then they throw the wide arcing knee and do some capoiera stuff. I shrug and go on with my speech.
Ryan,
In regards to the Corey Hill example, what I mean is that the toes of his support foot were not pointing the opposite direction he was facing. Rather, he did not pivot on his support leg at all in that example. Another way of looking at it is that almost no one achieves the 180 degree rotation you point out in your video. As far as my other example, I mean that what I see in popular MMA, at best, is the support leg having the toes pointing perpendicular to the opponent which would create a 90 degree angle if the opponent's toes were pointing at me. I was agreeing with you in a roundabout way, sorry for the confusion.
As far as the hand position is concerned, thanks for your insight. I was mainly concerned about the positioning of the right hand for a right round kick in orthodox stance. I am glad you took the time for such a detailed answer. I have seen many different ideas about where the right hand goes.
Ideologic - Ryan,Regarding Corey's kick, I believe the reason his leg broke is because of the he way kicked and more importantly, where his toes were facing. As you noted, his toes were facing his opponent rather than his heel facing his opponent. Because of this the kick "whipped" rather than planted accross the target. It "slapped" is another way of explaining this. In addition the top of the shin or the edge is not what impacted but rather the side of his his leg. It's like a 2X4. If you use it by hitting with the wide side it is more suseptible to breaking. If you use the narrow side it is harder to break. The same thing goes for the shin. With that said, no rotation equals more of a chance of hitting with the wide side.
In regards to the Corey Hill example, what I mean is that the toes of his support foot were not pointing the opposite direction he was facing. Rather, he did not pivot on his support leg at all in that example. Another way of looking at it is that almost no one achieves the 180 degree rotation you point out in your video. As far as my other example, I mean that what I see in popular MMA, at best, is the support leg having the toes pointing perpendicular to the opponent which would create a 90 degree angle if the opponent's toes were pointing at me. I was agreeing with you in a roundabout way, sorry for the confusion.
As far as the hand position is concerned, thanks for your insight. I was mainly concerned about the positioning of the right hand for a right round kick in orthodox stance. I am glad you took the time for such a detailed answer. I have seen many different ideas about where the right hand goes.
MMA is definitely not the place to look for "awesome" kicking form. While there are some great examples, the majority of fighters are not Muay Thai experts and don't rotate the entire way. There are however plenty of good examples. The first one that comes to mind is Tamden McCrory. Watch his fights, he rotates.
Great Video...I have heard Antoni Hardonk explain roundhouse kicking in much the same way....He was a big believer in making the heavy bag swing back and forth rather than side to side....
Also Ryan I have a heavy bag question for you...Is their any chance that you could send me a picture of the circular, swivel piece that you have the heavy bag hanging from in your video? I have been looking for a better way of hanging a few bags that are placed in peculiar spacings and I believe what you have your bag hanging from would be perfect for my situation.... If you could post it here or email it to me I would gladly send you a t-shirt if you would give me your address...Thanks in advance if you can do it
Elite Fight Company
Unfortunately I can't take a picture but I can tell you a lot about that piece. It was a design my old instructor had made. It is simply a circular piece of 1/4-1/2 steel with four holes drilled. It is then mounted to a swivel type ball joint that mounts to an I-beam clamp. This then allows the carabiners of the bag to hand straight which takes a lot of strain off of the bag itself. We've been thinking about producing them for some time now, but haven't had the time to do so.
I just posted this video with Natascha which is easier on the eyes than the first clip featuring my ugly mug.
thats a good point when learning to use the heavy bag. It should swing back and forth not side to side. When it swings side to side, you just commited tang soo do or worse, tkd.
the bag should neither swing 90 degree (side-to-side) nor 0 degrees (back-and-forth). it should swing 45-60 degrees, because you should step 45-60 degrees.
We need to get the girls in my video clips together with the girls in Ryan's video clips, take them to Thailand and film them training in an authentic MuayThai Camp under sparse conditions in the tropical heat FTW!!!!
Khun Kao - We need to get the girls in my video clips together with the girls in Ryan's video clips, take them to Thailand and film them training in an authentic MuayThai Camp under sparse conditions in the tropical heat FTW!!!!
OHHHH FREN!!!! Natascha has been fairly sucessful as a model, she'd be down!
Dood! Here's the plan:
We get the chick dressed in black from my video's with your chick Natasha. We film them training in the tropical heat (translation = hot, sweaty chicks!) and make a DVD out of it. Then we market it specifically to Normal MT..... LOFL!
Uh oh...