Common Roundhouse Kick Mistakes

You must be familiar with the roundhouse kick? But you might not be familiar with any of the roundhouse kick mistakes that beginners do. Muay Thai practitioners make the best use of it especially to target the legs. The Muay Thai roundhouse kick is one of the most powerful strikes you can throw in a fight. However, many beginners have trouble throwing the kick correctly and they end up injuring their legs. Sometimes it may lead to serious injuries which may cause permanent hurts to your legs or the shins. A fight between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman is a big example of such a case when Anderson Silva broke his legs during the execution of a low roundhouse leg kick. But it does not matter. One will learn from the mistakes themselves. However, it is important not to repeat the same mistakes again and again. Below are some of the most common roundhouse kick mistakes the martial art practitioners generally do while executing a Roundhouse kick.

Not Setting Up Your Opponent

As Sebastian “Bas” Rutten said, no single kicks. And yes, it is a damn right statement. While executing the Roundhouse kick, you are hitting with your rear leg which is very far from the target. So it has to travel a greater distance to hit. Due to this, your opponent will get enough time to escape, block or counter you. So you should not only hit with a single kick. It will be much better if you can mix or combine your kicks with punches. The best way to execute a roundhouse kick is to strike first with a jab followed by a cross, hook, and then the kick. Even a jab, hook, and followed by kick will work well. But remember not to hit with a single kick.

Not Turning Your Hips Properly

This is one of the most common roundhouse kick mistakes that most beginners make. The major portion of the power comes from the rotation of the hips. If you are not rotating your hips then, your shin will go upward rather than hitting the correct spot of the target. Furthermore, there is a great chance for your leg to get caught by your opponent as it will not travel too fast due to a lack of hip rotations. So while hitting, you have to rotate your hip properly. Rotating your hip also helps you to come back to your initial fighting stance if your kick somehow misses the target.

Not Pivoting Your Foot

A part of power also comes from the execution of your feet from the ground. Most of the beginners keep their non-hitting leg flat-footed on the ground. But it is advised to keep it pivoted for better mobility of the kick as well as for the strength to the kicks. Keeping the non-hitting leg pivoted on the ground also helps in better rotation of the hips and stops you from doing the roundhouse kick mistakes.

Not Involving Your Arms

You may be hitting a kick with your legs but arms also play a major role in it. For better strength to the kicks, you should give a scissor movement to your arm by swinging them in the opposite direction of the kicks. You can also involve your arms for the defense or blocking if your opponent also throws some strikes during the execution of your kick.

Hitting From the Standing Position

Sometimes, the roundhouse kick mistakes can cause you the greatest damage. Many practitioners try to hit the roundhouse kick from the position in which they are at. But instead, we should get close to the opponent in a good range by stepping a small distance by 45 degrees and then executing the kick. This will make sure that you are hitting good soft spots in your opponent’s body like hamstrings, liver, or calf rather than hitting them in the shin or knee which can cause you some great damage like Anderson Silva had suffered as mentioned earlier. So get close to your opponent, step inside the range and then execute your deadly kicks. But make sure to stay alert while getting inside your opponent’s range as it makes you vulnerable to various attacks.

Hitting With the Foot Rather than the Shin

Most of the practitioners try to execute roundhouse kicks with the foot. Well, both foot and shins are used during kickings but the foot is normally used for the snap kicks like the ones used in Taekwondo. The roundhouse kick is a Muay Thai style kick where shins are the prominent weapons. You lose a bit of range while kicking with the shins but that’s why combinations and setting up your opponent is required. If you are going for the head then, you can hit with the foot but to hit other parts like legs and torso, you have to hit with the shins to do more damage to your opponent. But you also have to keep in mind that you should have very well conditioned shins to do the damage and if you wanna know how to condition your shins then just give a visit to our previous posts or take better suggestions from an expert. To make things easier, you can refer to the video below.

Thanks a lot, folks putting an interest in this post of roundhouse kick mistakes. I hope you find it interesting and informational and I truly wish that you can soon get your roundhouse kick mistakes corrected. If you wanna see some of the best knockouts by roundhouse kicks then click here or visit the video below.