5 Best Spinning Attacks In Martial Arts | How To Execute A Spinning Attack

If you are a big martial arts fan then you must be familiar with the fabulous spinning attacks like spinning hook kicks or tornado kicks. And why not? Spinning attacks in martial arts are the most fantastic moves both from the audience’s point of view as well as from the player’s point of view as it generates lots of strength because of the torque due to rotation or spin. In a sport like MMA lots of players like Yair Rodriguez and Jon Jones got a huge advantage because of their mastery in these spinning attacks. Not only in MMA but in taekwondo as well, a player who can hit its opponent with spinning kicks will earn more points.

So we are going to discuss some of the best spinning attacks in martial arts. We will sort this with respect to increasing order of the range with which you can hit your opponent. Each and every move is best if you know how and when to use it. We will also discuss how to set up for that particular move in a fight and which region of are we have to target. These moves are known by different names in different martial arts, so we will name it according to its general or common name.

Spinning Elbow (The Spinning Attacks In Martial Arts With Shortest Range)

This is one of the great spinning attacks in martial arts if you can deliver it perfectly. Only one hit is enough to give your opponent a vicious knockout. But this one is hardest among the other spinning moves to execute as you have to get very close to your opponent.

How To Set Up:

All you have to do is get inside of your opponent’s range. You can either do it by escaping an opponent’s blow or by faking your opponent with another move. You can dodge your opponent’s jab punch and counter it with the spinning elbow because while your opponent is throwing a jab, he or she completely let a major portion of its body open to attack to which you can take good advantage.

But while executing this move make sure to mark yourself safe if you missed. You can do this by quickly moving away from the opponent’s range with guard position or by directly grappling your opponent. If you cannot wait for your opponent to throw the jab then, you can fake your opponent with a cross punch with your weak hand and make a follow on with your movement to give it a rotational movement followed by the spinning elbow. UFC star Jon Jones use this moves a lot as to his signature move.

Spinning Back-Fist

These spinning attacks in martial arts somewhat similar to the previous move but it has a greater range by almost double the previous one. During the execution, you don’t have to get inside to reach your opponent’s range instead you have to hit it from as far as possible.

How To Set Up:

All you can do to set up your opponent is to fake your opponent with a hook punch and continue the movement to hit with a spinning hammer punch or back-fist. You can even use the set up as defensive move. If your opponent catches your front leg and gives you a rotational movement to give you more hits, you can continue that rotation to give a spinning back-fist. However, there is a greater risk in you let your opponent catch your leg as there is no assurance that he or she will throw that leg away from him or her to give you that rotational flow. You might instead end in getting attacks directly on legs while getting caught or your opponent may try to grapple you. So its good to use this as attacking move with a fake hook punch.

Spinning Hook or Spinning Heel Kick

This one is the most unpredictable move. All you need is a good speed of your feet to deliver a fast kick. The most beautiful this about this kick is that you can execute it directly without any setups or combos. However, if you are not fast enough then you can hit a cross punch and fake your opponent with a throw-away jab then hit the spinning heel kick. The cross and jab will make your opponent guard from the front leaving his side portions of the face vulnerable to attacks. And this is the perfect moment to hit this spinning kick at the bottom of its ears to give your opponent a short sleep. UFC star Edson Barboza performed some of the most spectacular spinning wheel kicks.

Tornado Kick

This one is the most spectacular one and my personal favorite spinning attacks in martial arts. Tornado kick used to be my signature move during my Taekwondo days. It is the easiest to set up your opponent. Try for a roundhouse kick to your opponent. In case you missed, just follow on your rotational movement and hit the powerful tornado kick.

It is easy to get the accuracy as well as power. One more advantage of this kick is that you can use it for short-range by bending your knees or for long-range by extending your knees. Just make sure that if you cannot hit the kick on the second time, you may be in trouble. If you can hit it accurately enough, even clicking your kick can cause great damage to your opponent. Yair Rodriguez uses this kick a lot in UFC.

Spinning Back Kick (The Spinning Attacks In Martial Arts With Longest Range)

Spinning back kicks are the most unpredictable kicks in not only MMA but in any combat sport. It can give you a huge area to attack. You can target for the face as well as mid-body near the liver.

How To Set Up:

It’s one of the best defensive moves as well. If your opponent trying to get close to you then, you can hit this kick directly to get away from your opponent or you can set up your move with a jab and cross punch with strong and weak hand respectively followed by the spinning back kick at the end. Make sure that if you are aiming for the mid-section and you will not end up hitting at the groin area, otherwise, you may get disqualified. 

Keep In Mind

Everything has a disadvantage as well. The spinning attacks in martial arts have a huge advantage of generating so much power but you have to turn your backs to opponents for a while which can be dangerous and these moves need way lot more practice to hit with precision and accuracy as compared to normal moves. To be practical, you may hit these spinning attacks in martial arts directly if you are involved in some kind of street fight or something which I do not want you to get involved but if you are in a competition with some skilled practitioner or fighter you cannot just hit these directly because your competitor can read you very easily with that and all you will end up is by getting a hard blow when you are turning your back to the opponent.

Thank you for your keen interest in this article regarding spinning attacks in martial arts. If you want a representation of these kicks then please visit here. If you are a true fan of martial arts then you might like these following posts:

• Boxing vs Taekwondo | Punching vs Kicking | Who Will Win?
• MMA Vs Boxing | Which One is Better? | Traditional Boxing Vs Modern MMA

Always remember friends,

Walk a mile to prevent a fight but if someone starts it, do not take a step back