whats the difference between a thai roundhouse and a regular roundhouse? my teacher says thais just lean into the kick more.
a little more than that! Basically (and I'm not an expert) the leg is not chambered in the same way and the power comes from the hips going through the target, not the extension of the leg. Contact is made with the shin rather than the foot. can someone who is better equipped to answer elaborate?
When you set up a kick and your leg comes of the floor a lot of groups tuck the leg close to the body and then extend. This is chambering. Thai Boxers don't do it.
yeah, all power is from the hips. Think of swinging a baseball bat.....that's the type of power distribution they go for....not snapping with the lower leg
when people say "get your power from your hips" most people still dont understand how this works. Basically, after you lift your kicking leg off the floor, it should stay in exactly the same place relative to your hip. The leg in its socket should not move at all. Just imagine your leg is not there, and you are only moving your hip.as a rough example, if your leg is 90degrees relative to your hip when u start the kick, it should always be at a 90 degrees angle throughout the kick until you impact. Its hard to explain, and i dont think im making it easier 4 u lol.
Thai boxers don't "lean into their kick more". They lean AWAY from their kick. As others have said, a Muay Thai roundhouse's power is generated by the hip, not the "snap" motion in the knee. But, if you want to be REAL SPECIFIC, a Muay Thai roundhouse kicks power is generated by using centripidal force. The Shoulders should stay opposite of the kicking leg throughout the kicking motion. By doing this, the upper body weight actually transfers into the kick. Khun Kao
There is basically three steps in executing the "roundhouse kick" in full-contact Karate(Kyokushin, etc.), traditional Karate(Shotokan, etc.), Tae Kwon Do, and Muay Thai. There are different ways of executing this kick for different purposes. An excellant site to view the diagrams of all four styles is "click here" ....unfortunately many of the video clips on the site are no longer available ... but the pics are great!