Saturday, October 22, 2011

Muay thai front leg round kick round up

Front leg kicks are usually used as set up strikes, whether you're in the cage, in the ring, or in the street. The right use of body mechanics can make it powerful, but its rare that a front leg kick would drop a guy and keep him down.

There are a number of ways to throw it - with the reigning method has the fighter stepping out before throwing the kick. Technique aside, a key difference in how a front round kick is used in differing scenarios is the follow up. Do you follow up with a right cross? Do you shoot in on the guy? Do you throw elbows? Do you run cause he has 3 friends closing in?

The context in which I use a front leg round kick is for street or combat. If, in theory, its a set up strike and often offers the element of surprise, I don't want to be (or perhaps I can't be) in a fighting stance. If you're training in order to defend yourself in the street, or a club, or a parking lot, you really need to be able to execute all of your techniques from a neutral, casual stance. If you're military or law enforcement, your gear, weapon, or a number of other environmental factors may prevent you from getting into a proper conventional fighting stance.

Here are two examples of a similar technique modified for use in two completely different contexts.

The guy in the video below, obviously, is using the front leg round kick technique for MMA. The camouflage shorts gave him away. It's a rather long video, so if you want to see the technique thrown full speed scrub ahead to about 4:30 into the clip. I myself am also guilty of getting chatty from time to time in my videos.



What I see in this, and many other instructional videos on this topic is that the striker steps out with the rear leg in order to load his kick. It also gets him out of the way of a straight counter. I don't believe that you have to waste a step in order to throw a loaded front leg round kick. Exploding the kick out with an angled forward drive can do the trick, and it keeps you in your native stance. Although I cannot stress the importance of becoming ambidextrous when it comes to your training.




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