360 degree full body rotation roundhouse kick

[Kung Fu Wang]

I like this solo drill very much. I like to add in a "spin back fist" after the roundhouse kick. If I drill this 60 times daily, I'll feel great. It's also easy on my knee joint and hip joint. It can maintain my

- single leg balance.
- body flexibility.
- leg strength.
- endurance.

What's your opinion on this?

 

[Christopher Adamchek]

It can be useful, id say always train it with the back fist to decrease chances of opponent ranging our and then taking your back.

 

[JR 137]

I didn’t watch more than the first few kicks, so I could’ve missed some explanation afterwards about why it’s done this way.

We didn’t always do them like this at my previous school, but my teacher had us do this somewhat regularly. His reasoning was it’s teach proper follow through with the kick. Rather than just kicking out and back, drive through the target. Obviously if you hit someone hard enough with it you’re not going to complete the spin. It’s also equally important to strike and pull back afterwards so you don’t leave yourself vulnerable.

And the 360 spin works on balance, coordination and agility. It’s a good thing to practice. People bash the jumping and spinning kicks often seen in TKD. While I don’t think they’re very practical in an actual fight, they’re great for training. Burpees, push-ups and the like have no direct fighting application, yet no one in their right mind says they should be avoided because they’re not fighting moves.

 

[skribs]

Speaking of Taekwondo, when we're training practical kicks, we generally try not to spin through a kick (the one exception is the spinning hook kick).

Typically, when do a kick, one of three things happens:

1. Opponent dodges back
2. Opponent slips closer
3. Kick lands

In scenarios 1 and 3, the opponent is now further away, and you've lost the ability to combo in another kick (i.e. back kick or step-behind side kick). In scenario 2, the opponent is closing on your back. You can throw a spinning elbow or backfist (and a MT guy might be better at that than a TKD guy), but in general I'd rather not turn my back to my opponent.

The issue of control is brought up. We generally find more control is required to NOT spin with the kick. Especially for kids.