Like a bat...Like a mase

[Chad W. Getz]

How would you describe your more effective MT type kick...and why.

Like a bat pushing though, like a bat pulling through, or like a mase...or whatever? I think its basically agreed that a MT kick should be put pass the center line already, but do you think pushed pass, pulled pass...?

What say you?

[gungfuhero]

I think of mine being pulled past.

[Evilution]

A push to start it off and a pull to finish it, to snap it like a whip.

[Chad W. Getz]

I've noticed that mine pulls past as well. I am trying think of a way to develop a better push off to get greater impact and then pull though.

TTT.

David Gould ???

[Scytale]

That's a good question, Chad. I'll have to pay attention tomorrow during training and see what I'm doing. Just being aware of it will hopefully make my kick more effective. I'll post my observations later.

Good post!

[Scytale]

Okay, I've been paying some more attention and learned more about my mechanics in the process. I started out in TKD; that round kick was more of a whipping action with a 'push' from the hips to generate power as the leg unfolded. The resulting recoil from the push helped to pull the leg back for rechamber or stepping. It was fast and had a stable recovery, but there was less power and it was much easier to sidestep.

I like the Thai kick better, though, and as I've been transitioning to it over the past couple of years, I have been using more of a 'pull'. It's one of those things that was hard to put my finger on as a difference in the two kicks. This post helped with that.

Does anyone else have more tips for the feel of the Thai roundhouse? It seems so simple but there is a lot more under the surface. For example, I found out the Thai name means something like 'crocodile tail' and it helped me to visualize my leg as a more supple, relaxed appendage like a crocodile tail.

[WhiteSon]

I study Tae Kwon Do, so I am not familiar with this specific kick. But from what I understand of basic principles of the roundhouse, it has to be a pulling motion, simply because all motion originates from the hip. In TKD, your hip turns over ahead of your foot, pulling it down and across the target.
I'd compare it to a chuck bope, nunchuk, whatever they call those things in your martial art. Two short sticks connected by a chain. You swing the stick you are holding in a small arch, and the one on the other end of the chain swings in a larger arch at much greater speed. From your knee up acts like the stick you are holding, moving a short distance with power, and your foot is the stick that strikes, whipping across with speed, and your knee of course is like the chain. If you don't turn your hip over before you strike, you have to force the kick through and there is no power. In my experience, you don't want to end up having to push the kick.

[MikeJKD]

Chad,
Whether you push it or pull it or throw it or whatever has less real effect on the kick than how you initiate it. Visualize whatever you need to to lay your shin across the target with power, but the real work is in the takeoff. Develop a lot of spring in your calves, and try training a lot of double kicks to get your leg used to rebounding off the floor. One of the things that's really noticeable about the Thai's is that the good boxers have calves that are almost as big as their thighs! In my experience, if you have decent mechanics on the kick, and can throw with any power at all, you'll improve by leaps and bounds just by training to get the kick off the ground faster. Paul Vunak used to have me do an isometric type exercise to work that initiation. He'd have me stand in a doorway with my thigh resting on the door jam. Then, i'd pulse forward like I was throwing the kick, but my leg couldn't actually move. in addition to that, try throwing your hip and leg as though you were executing just the first third of the whole motion. Each rep, go for more and more speed. These drills, and just plain focusing on the speed of the initiation probably account for more of my own progress with the Thai Kick than anything else. Hope that helps,
Mike

[Harley]

Great tips Mikejkd.
I think of DRIVING through the target. slamming my shin through it, cutting it in half.using my pivot and hips to create the drive.
harley