Having issues pivoting foot (Roundhouse kick, Muay Thai)

[Symbolistic]

So I'm doing Muay thai and I'm having issues with the most basic kick, the roundhouse kick.

I'm learning to use my hip, its tough, my hips get tired pretty quickly after a few kicks while using the hips but the main problem is my feet.

I have issues trying to pivot my foot out when I kick. When I kick I will just keep my front leg foot straight, like normal, I won't move it at all.

When I try to pivot it, it feels so weird. Sometimes it will feel like my foot is sticking to the ground, making it more difficult to twist the foot in the other direction (pivot it).
Other times I am a little worried that I was screw up and fall, and my foot will fall over to the side, causing me to sprain my ankle and tear some ligaments.

I just don't understand the right way to pivot I guess, I try to come up on my toes or the ball of the foot and twist it as I kick, but it feels odd, I get the feelings described above. Sticky feet and/or feeling like I'll tip over and bend my foot and sprain my ankle.

 

[roventu]

might be a balance issue. if you're leaning back on your roundhouse, its much harder to pivot. you also really got to get on the ball of your foot, the smaller the contact with the floor, the easier it is to pivot (think the bottom of a spinning top, if you increase the bottom well its gonna be worse lol)

also, swing your body harder lol your upper body should face outwards, hip turned over, and lead leg straight and on ball of toes.

you can stand without pivoting on a weak kick (because not enough rotational force), but if you're swinging your body weight into the kick, you're gonna be spinning.

here's a great tutorial: http://muaythaianalyst.com/2015/01/improve-muay-thai-round-kick/

 

[Doughbelly]

 

[0rpheus]

I just don't understand the right way to pivot I guess, I try to come up on my toes or the ball of the foot and twist it as I kick, but it feels odd, I get the feelings described above. Sticky feet and/or feeling like I'll tip over and bend my foot and sprain my ankle.

If you feel weird it's probably a balance and technique issue.

If you feel that your feet are sticking to the ground it means that you aren't rising up with the kick. As you rise up it draws weight off your foot allowing you to rotate freely.

Even in combat boots this Army girl is able to reduce the friction so much that she falls flat on her back. Terrible technique, but a great example of how rising up to kick reduces friction.

If you have trouble rotating, your stance could be wrong to start, you might be leaning backwards or to the side, or you could be drag behind or float too far in front of your body. A proper kick is with your head over your foot and your hip/knee/leg in line with your shoulder/torso.

Study some videos or maybe post a video of yourself.

 

[fluffball]

Go slightly up on your toes when you kick. It's a very common beginner mistake to try to keep your entire foot flat on the ground, which makes it near impossible to rotate and tears your knee.

Edit: Toes = ball of foot. Not like point ballet or something.

 

[Doughbelly]

If you feel weird it's probably a balance and technique issue.

If you feel that your feet are sticking to the ground it means that you aren't rising up with the kick. As you rise up it draws weight off your foot allowing you to rotate freely.

Even in combat boots this Army girl is able to reduce the friction so much that she falls flat on her back. Terrible technique, but a great example of how rising up to kick reduces friction.

If you have trouble rotating, your stance could be wrong to start, you might be leaning backwards or to the side, or you could be drag behind or float too far in front of your body. A proper kick is with your head over your foot and your hip/knee/leg in line with your shoulder/torso.

Study some videos or maybe post a video of yourself.

What's there to know? 90% of the time, you solve pivot problems by telling the beginner to bend his supporting knee a little.

 

[BigPapaShango]

You could try turning your foot before throwing the kick. For example if you are throwing your back leg into a roundhouse, step your left foot out and open up your hip and throw the kick from there. This should allow you to turn fully into the kick. Work this and then pick up the pace on it, this should allow you to find your balance and the correct angles for the kick. .

 

[Iroh]

B

 

[NAKMUAY18]

Make sure your using the correct technique for the style of kick your using. High kick, mid kick, and low kick are three different types of kick. I'm going to presume your working on your mid kick
.
Make sure your kicking at the correct point of the target. You don't want to kick the side of the bag, you want to be kicking through the bag at a 45deg angle and traveling slightly upwards, not landing horizontal.

Don't try to kick too high too soon. If you the only time your mid kick would land at rib hight is if you fought Dopey, Sleepy, or Bashful, that's no problem. Get proper technique while you creep the technique higher. Every week try to land an inch higher, until you can get to a good height with a nice pivot. If your hip flexors are tight and you decide your going full power for a 6ft'ers rib lever, of course your going to struggle with your pivot.

Don't rush the foundations or you'll have to rebuild your house. Time spent now will pay back ten times in the long run.

 

[NAKMUAY18]

it appears that you've just begun learning it, and it just takes time and reps to learn something new.
are you stepping to the outside, towards your left side with your left foot while you are doing the right roundhouse kick? also you can break down the kick in parts and start from there. begin from your stance and lift your right knee, and use your hips to shift the weight over for the release and pivot with your left post foot at the same time (try to get on the ball of your left foot) without actually doing the kick.

I wouldn't personally recommend that. I've found it encourages people to introduce a pause in their kicks instead of making it smooth. Sometimes guys start their kick, kind of hover it for half a second, then try to drive it for the last half of the kick. Particularly low kicks. Step, lift the leg, hover, then drill it down.

 

[shinkyoku]

training tip. stand on one leg, lift the knee of the "kicking" leg and keep it up. Hips square..
twist the hip a little as if starting a kick, and "jump" on the support foot, switching it from toes forward to heel-forward, at the same time. Then "jump" back to return to starting position.
Do it in the air, do not kick out or hit anything, that just makes you focus on the kicking leg instead of the support leg. You want the hip movement and follow it with a skipping pivot movement of the foot. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.
Easier to show than to write down, but you get the basic idea.
Looks ridiculous, but its a good way to get into the habit of actively pivot the foot when the hip starts to turn when kicking.

 

[Captain_Dammitt]

The pivot should happen naturally when you're correctly rotating the body and it's weight. Focusing on pivoting can make you forget about the rotation.

Also, these helped me a ton.

 

[ssullivan80]

Other times I am a little worried that I was screw up and fall, and my foot will fall over to the side, causing me to sprain my ankle and tear some ligaments.

It takes time, but that feeling of "falling" is actually what you want. When you come up onto the ball of the pivot foot and turn your hips over, you are in a way falling into the kick. What's likely making you feel unstable (other than your just beginning) is that your overly focused on the "pivot" or lower body mechanics that you aren't incorporating the upper body mechanics, which is how you stabilize or counterbalance t "falling into the kick".

I wouldn't personally recommend that. I've found it encourages people to introduce a pause in their kicks instead of making it smooth. Sometimes guys start their kick, kind of hover it for half a second, then try to drive it for the last half of the kick. Particularly low kicks. Step, lift the leg, hover, then drill it down.

Agreed 100% Learning it that way will make it far more difficult to transition into your kicks seamlessly when building them into combos.

 

[AshiharaFan]

I think one of the best things a newbie could do is to first isolate each step of the kick and work on them one-by-one starting with the pivot. Just work on pivoting while on the ball of your foot while you are at home so your body and neurons get used to the mechanics of that step. Then slowly but surely add the other steps. I would suggest doing this over the course of a weekend then put it all together in one smooth motion when you drill it again at the gym.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Pretty much what everybody is saying here.

I just wanted to add that I hurt my knee when I first started KB because I was not pivoting enough. So be careful with that!

 

[zeds]

what is this ???

 

[WhiteBelt87]

Hello,

Long time lurker here. This thread has been really valuable (esp. the post in regards to low vs. mid. vs. high kicks). I usually train Thai pads with guys my height and kicking low and middle-level round kicks off my combinations. Recently, I trained with a guy who's much taller. So I had to kick much higher than I normally would and ran into some issues: 1) My pivoting became inconsistent once I had to kick higher (sometimes during this session I found myself trying to pivot off my entire foot to reach higher as oppose off the top portion of my foot like I normally do) 2) I felt I had to lean in much deeper to throw my round kick, which also affected my recoil 3) My power just dissipated (it felt more like a tap on the thai pads...normally, I get a lot of oomph/speed and power) 4) I also became gassed faster than normal. Essentially, my technique dropped this session. I think it was a combination of kicking at a new height and perhaps conditioning? (I've done other sessions in the past where my speed and power remained till the very end of class). It's also possible that my partner may have holding the thai pads too close to his body (or turned too far away from me) and also at a height higher than what I'm normally used to kicking.

Although I was initially frustrated at first at myself, I'm also glad it brought out the holes in my kicking game, especially when it comes to high kicks and training with a taller partner. I'm not super flexible and not too tall either (5'7"). Do you have any suggestions? I'm still trying to dissect why my techniques felt sloppy during this particular session.

Make sure your using the correct technique for the style of kick your using. High kick, mid kick, and low kick are three different types of kick. I'm going to presume your working on your mid kick
.
Make sure your kicking at the correct point of the target. You don't want to kick the side of the bag, you want to be kicking through the bag at a 45deg angle and traveling slightly upwards, not landing horizontal.

Don't try to kick too high too soon. If you the only time your mid kick would land at rib hight is if you fought Dopey, Sleepy, or Bashful, that's no problem. Get proper technique while you creep the technique higher. Every week try to land an inch higher, until you can get to a good height with a nice pivot. If your hip flexors are tight and you decide your going full power for a 6ft'ers rib lever, of course your going to struggle with your pivot.

Don't rush the foundations or you'll have to rebuild your house. Time spent now will pay back ten times in the long run.

 

[AndyTran]

strechs more to improve hip flexibility, runs more to increase leg strength.
hip flexibility -> easier to pivot and rotate
increased leg strength -> more balanced so it is easier to pivot and rotate without falling.

and kicks a lot.

 

[muaytao]

Hello,

Long time lurker here. This thread has been really valuable (esp. the post in regards to low vs. mid. vs. high kicks). I usually train Thai pads with guys my height and kicking low and middle-level round kicks off my combinations. Recently, I trained with a guy who's much taller. So I had to kick much higher than I normally would and ran into some issues: 1) My pivoting became inconsistent once I had to kick higher (sometimes during this session I found myself trying to pivot off my entire foot to reach higher as oppose off the top portion of my foot like I normally do) 2) I felt I had to lean in much deeper to throw my round kick, which also affected my recoil 3) My power just dissipated (it felt more like a tap on the thai pads...normally, I get a lot of oomph/speed and power) 4) I also became gassed faster than normal. Essentially, my technique dropped this session. I think it was a combination of kicking at a new height and perhaps conditioning? (I've done other sessions in the past where my speed and power remained till the very end of class). It's also possible that my partner may have holding the thai pads too close to his body (or turned too far away from me) and also at a height higher than what I'm normally used to kicking.

Although I was initially frustrated at first at myself, I'm also glad it brought out the holes in my kicking game, especially when it comes to high kicks and training with a taller partner. I'm not super flexible and not too tall either (5'7"). Do you have any suggestions? I'm still trying to dissect why my techniques felt sloppy during this particular session.

Hi I have 2+ years of muay thai and my left kick is my strongest weapon. First stretch, do a split often if you want to kick high. For pivoting i like to go on my tip toe on the front leg only, when you kick you will automatically pivot. Dont think too much about pivoting just tip toe and kick. For the round house kick imagine theres a horizontal line in front of you follow that line. For power i turn my hips over and really use that butt muscle.

 

[WhiteBelt87]

Hi I have 2+ years of muay thai and my left kick is my strongest weapon. First stretch, do a split often if you want to kick high. For pivoting i like to go on my tip toe on the front leg only, when you kick you will automatically pivot. Dont think too much about pivoting just tip toe and kick. For the round house kick imagine theres a horizontal line in front of you follow that line. For power i turn my hips over and really use that butt muscle.

Gotcha, thanks for the tip! Hmm I've never tried to consciously engage my glutes, but I will try it this week for the added power.