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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Your defense is always offensive in muay boran

Just because my arms aren't wrapped up in hemp and I'm not wearing long shorts doesn't mean it ain't muay oran. Here's a few things to consider about muay thai in general, but more specifically the older styles(muay boran, muay chao churd, mae mai, even lerdrit):

1. Even your defense is offensive, be ultra aggressive
2. Face the weapon
3. You rarely move back, more often you move in as your opponent strikes
4. Like in bando, you're always looking to take your enemy's territory (drive him back)
5. Strike hard, use your elbows often, and aim for soft tissue.
6. Blogspot's content editor doesn't auto format numbering...annoying.

I really don't recommend going under and hooking a kick in any street fight scenario. You leave yourself way too open, but in the ring when you're sparring, now that's another story.

Muay thai round kick redux

One of the first web videos I did was a demo of the old style muay thai round kick. Since then I've had a couple of people tell me that my technique looks nothing like the muay thai that they're learning." Well, that's because the widely popular modern form of muay thai has become bastardized by martial arts franchises like Master Toddy, Fairtex, and to an extent, the UFC. What's being taught is static-stand up ring style kickboxing. Like modern boxing, muay thai has been watered down over th years for the sake of the fighter's safety. It's the sport version of a nearly forgotten combat system. Yes, there's more than one branch in the muay thai family. Thanks to people like Tony Jaa, old style muay thai is gaining recognition.

I've been lucky enough to train the old combat forms of muay thai: the muay baron, the muay chao churd, the ledrit and boar bando systems for over 13 years. The differences between modern sport muay thai and old (military/combat) style muay thai are numerous. Take the round kick for instance. The video below shows a side by side comparison of the two kicks - modern and old style muay thai.

Great Muay Thai Round kick Drill - The Pyramid

Here's a great drill that will increase the speed and power of your muay thai round kicks, but will it will help you also help you increase your ability to recover quickly between strike combinations. The pyramid is the best kicking drill that you'll hate to do.

With a partner holding thai pads (or a heavy bag - I prefer a partner) 4 sets each leg of the following:

single kick
double kick
triple kick
4 kicks
5 kicks
4 kicks
triple kick
double kick
single kick

If you've trained muay thai for more than 6 months you should be comfortable with at least the double kick... make sure that each strike has equal power. It's only 200 kicks, I promise it's effective.

Try the drill out and let me know how what you think of it.

Defending Against the Muay Thai Round Kick

It's late, and I should be sleeping - so this will be quick.

There are number of techniques to block or counter the muay thai round kick. The video below outlines only a handful. We shot this in one take over the weekend, so pardon the slop in my technique, but it will give you some ideas of how you can use your angles to completely negate the muay thai round kick.

Drive Kick + Down Kick = Ouch

The muay thai drive kick lets you leverage you weight and momentum to deliver power. The muay thai down kick leverages torque and downward force to deliver power. Now put those two forces together and you have a strike causes serious damage. The video shows the basics of the technique, but here are the main points:

Drive kick:

• It's used to quickly deliver a muay thai round kick from a distance, covering the distance with a lateral drive.
• You still have to turn your hips over and pivot - but the pivoting takes place during the drive.
• Lean forward - keeps the momentum driving
  
• Kick through your target

Down kick:

• Drive down kicks hurt a lot more than standard round kicks, I speak from experience.
• It's slower than a standard muay thai round kick
• You have to lift your leg higher - the strike lands downward on the target.
  
• The movement of the kick takes the form of an arc.
• Rotate the hips in a downward diagonal motion
  
• When thrown against the front of the thigh it will buckle your opponent at the hips, setting him/her up for elbow strikes or knees into the high chest/throat area.

Its a subtle difference between the the drive and the down drive kick is subtle, you can only really see it by watching how the bag holder's body reacts to the impact.

Old Style Muay Thai Round Kick

There are three key differences between the modern 'ring style' muay thai round kick and the old style, military muay thai round kick: the lean, the target and the bio mechanics. Ring style fighters tend to stand upright, back leg flat - old style requires the fighter's stance to remain leaning forward, which translates into every strike. In the ring, the goal is to score points or get the knock out, so kicks are aimed at the center of the thigh or thrown up high to the head. Never throw a high kick in the street, you're more likely than not to either slip or get caught. Ledrit and muay baron kicks are aimed lower towards the knee. In combat you won't lose a point for blowing you your opponent's knee, you survive. Thirdly, the bio mechanics between the two are completely different. I trained at a ring style school in Seoul and having never seen my style of kicks before, they continually tried to correct me.

I put this short video today to give a little demonstration of the difference between the ring and the old styles of muay thai. Pardon the production quality and the fact that my form is a little messy. Take a look...