Muay Thai High Kicks?

[arnisador]

We often hear that high kicks are impractical, but I know that Muay Thai does use kicks above the waist--at the least the round kick to the face and a pushing, "jab-like" front kick to the midsection. High knees are also used. What exactly is the Muay Thai philosophy on kicking above the waist?

well kicking wise all round.
- leg kick should land just a fraction above the knee joint, but i mean anywhere on the thigh is going to disable an opponent pretty quickly if they are hard.
- rib kick should never land anywhere but the floating rib area to cause maximum damage.
- head kick might actually happen, but really the MT exponent looks to chop down into the neck with the extremely high kick for instant knockout usually. Actually this is the only kick that the MT exponent should really lean back with to get the leg up high enough.

actually peter aerts the 6'4" "dutch lumberjack" has produced some big MT roundkicks to the head.

High kicks are good as they can deliver much more power than your fist ever can. However, to land one you have to be seriously quick.

If your not quick you just send you opponent a present of a leg which he can grap leaving you up a certain creek without any form or propulsion.

Goodnight Vienna

Originally posted by Drunken Master

High kicks are good as they can deliver much more power than your fist ever can. However, to land one you have to be seriously quick.

If your not quick you just send you opponent a present of a leg which he can grap leaving you up a certain creek without any form or propulsion.

Goodnight Vienna

well i would rather be on the receiving end of a TKD roundhouse than a MT one, thats for sure. Well i have been on the receiving end of both, one really hurts and one doesnt.
True really about the head kick, it has to be quick but also if you miss a MT one you have to be quick enough to pivot around again and check and protect yourself from an attack launched while you are still turning around. Bit of technique required doing that one.

[KumaSan]

Usually the high kicks are saved for a little later. It's a good idea to either wait until the opponent gets tired and his hands start to drop, so you have a clear line to the neck, or feed a bunch of leg kicks, my favorite combo being jab-cross-low right kick. Throw this one three or four times, then do a jab-cross-high right kick instead, then stand back and wait for the ref to finish counting to 10.

Also, thaiboxer touched on it, but I thought I would clarify a little, we don't really aim for the head, but the neck. The apex of the kick should be around ear level, and it should peak over the bad guy's shoulder, then begin a downward arc into the neck. Anywhere from where the neck meets the shoulder on up to the jaw will work fine usually. Higher kicks will still hurt plenty, but the ko percentage isn't as high.

Hi everyone,

I want to ask if a 'traditional' side-kick is allowed in muay thai ?
Because I never saw one in my class ..

I always found it a very effective and simple technique, so does anyone know why it is almost never used?

Originally posted by ShiN

Hi everyone,

I want to ask if a 'traditional' side-kick is allowed in muay thai ?
Because I never saw one in my class ..

I always found it a very effective and simple technique, so does anyone know why it is almost never used?

may be traditional in the korean/japanese martial arts but not in muay thai, It may be part of a kickboxers repertoire though. I want to learn the side kick effectively, might use it one day, never know.

"Also, thaiboxer touched on it, but I thought I would clarify a little, we don't really aim for the head, but the neck. "

depends if youve hit them with something to crouch them over, like a jamb kick :-) then you can kick em in the head with the big one.

What you are saying is that it is allowed, but it is not a 'true' muay thai technique? Or did I misunderstood that? (sorry, english is not my first language you see.)

I found out in my first few sparring sessions in my MT-class, most fighters didn't know what to do with this technique and I could score with it a'lot, especially as as they advanced to me.

[quote]Originally posted by ShiN

[b]What you are saying is that it is allowed, but it is not a 'true' muay thai technique? Or did I misunderstood that? (sorry, english is not my first language you see.)

sorry, no it is not a muay thai technique. but it doesnt mean it cant be a weapon used by a kickboxer.

I found out in my first few sparring sessions in my MT-class, most fighters didn't know what to do with this technique and I could score with it a'lot, especially as as they advanced to me.

yes if nobody has seen it before, thats good, see you have a card up your sleeve, you can play around with them for a while.

hey do you know peter aerts? what do you think of him?

Hey, I'm dutch,
of course I know him!

And I am a very big fan of him,
do you know his official page?
www.peteraerts.com

that's a very cool page.

[KumaSan]

I think one of the reasons the side kick isn't a muay thai technique is that we tend to stand more square to the opponent, rather than side on. This cuts down on the oppurtunities to throw a good side kick. Like you both have said, it's a pretty good technique, especially when the other guys hasn't really seen one. I've seen some guys land some good shots by faking a round kick to get the leg around, then bringing it up into a side kick when their opponent tries to come in.

like everything else, its only as good as the person using it. I mean if the person using it isnt quick enough you can move in quickly and pummel them.

[arnisador]

Are there in fact any illegal kicking techniques in Muay Thai, or can you do any kick you want and it's just that some are conventional?