The low roundhouse kick is one of the few kicks that is fast enough to initiate an attack without first relying on an attacker’s movement e.g. if you were to initiate an attack with a thrusting kick, such as a front kick, against an aggressor who is in a “neutral” position, the chances are that they would see the kick coming and back away; whereas if you were able to cause them to be moving forward, as you threw the kick then you would improve your chances of landing it significantly. Part of the reason why thrusting/stomping kicks are relatively slow, is down to the need to “chamber” the kick before execution. However, with the low roundhouse, the chambering is conducted as the leg is swung in, making it a much faster kick to execute. Although, it is a kick that benefits from accuracy – and there are several muscles on the leg that are extremely susceptible to it – because the leg as a whole offers such a large target, and the shin is a relatively big striking surface, any contact you make is likely to yield something (one of the reasons it can be used well as a pre-emptive or semi-pre-emptive attack e.g. you can launch it straight out, or push somebody back so that when they step forward they offer their front leg as a weight-loaded target). In this article, I want to troubleshoot, some of the key issues I see that hold people back from generating power into the kick. Firstly, it is worth noting that different systems have slightly different ways of throwing the roundhouse kick and all are effective at accomplishing what they are trying to do e.g. sometimes the kick is “hidden” or “disguised” at the expense of power, etc., which doesn’t make it wrong, just different, so I am going to try and focus on the commonalities, rather than get bogged down in the debate of which style has the best kick.
Perhaps the biggest loss of power – when maximum power generation is intended - comes from extending the leg too early i.e. the leg is straight, or near straight when it connects with the target. When this happens, the drive-through of the shin into the target, as the leg extends, gets lost somewhat. The goal should be to have the leg still bent as it connects, and one way to check that this is happening is to ensure that the knee has gone past the target, when the shin connects. If you look at where the knee is pointing to that will give you an indication as to the amount of drive you can achieve, as that is the distance between connection and extension. If you are aiming for the upper leg/thigh, your goal should be to compress muscle against bone, so as to “stiffen” the leg, so that your assailant is unable to use it. If you are practicing on a kick shield, or heavy bag, you should feel your shin sink into the bag/shield rather than bounce off it. A partner holding a kicking shield, should feel the pressure of the kick as this happens. You should also make sure that you are not relying on the target, whether it is a bag, shield or somebody’s leg for balance, just as you wouldn’t if you were throwing in hard body shots with your punches. The danger of this is that if your assailant’s leg collapses due to the power of the kick, you will also collapse with it. Maintaining balance and stability when striking, whether kicking or punching is key.
There is also sometimes a reluctance to properly turn and pivot on the supporting foot. This pivot allows for your upper body to act as a counterweight, as the leg swings in and drives through. If you think about the Trebuchet Siege Engine, you can get a better idea of how this works. The Trebuchet consisted of a long arm, with a sling that contained rocks and anything else that was intended to be thrown into the defending fortification (this sometimes included dead and diseased animals as an early form of biological warfare). The arm pivoted on a high frame, that had a counterweight at its other end. This would be cranked up, and then dropped. The weight would rapidly pull the arm down, lifting and hurling the contents of the sling up and forwards. If we lay the Trebuchet on its side, we can see how its actions are replicated by the execution of the low roundhouse. We should think about our upper torso as being the counterweight, our supporting foot the pivot point of the arm, the upper leg the arm itself, and the lower leg/shin the sling. As you turn and pivot, the upper body (the back muscles), is going to pull the upper leg round. The lower leg, like the sling, is going to be whipped forward (I try and utilize the centrifugal force generated by the spinning/turning action, to assist in the extension of the leg i.e. I keep everything loose below the knee, until it hits). By using the upper torso, and the pull of the back muscles I can utilize a counter-weight effect to get power into my kicks. To get the full benefit, the shoulder of the kicking leg must come with it, and not be left behind – one way to do this is to make sure that you are pulling with the opposite shoulder in the same way as you would when throwing a straight punch, like a cross.
In real-life encounters kicks which can be effective are often hampered in their execution, due to the close range/proximity that characterizes such encounters. One of the benefits of the low roundhouse is that it can easily be thrown, effectively, and with full power within punching range. Like any kick the cost/benefit of throwing it needs to be understood e.g. you are on one leg when throwing it, so whilst you may be balanced, you are not stable etc. You should also understand what your follow up(s) to it should be, because this is not training scenario, where you will kick, retract the leg, come back to stance and then throw it again, and so you must train to place the foot into different positions after making the kick so that you don’t restrict your attacking options.