Exercises to Improve Roundhouse Kicks in Muay Thai and Kickboxing 

Be sure you are making the time for any necessary accessory work that can benefit your martial arts. To be good at this you need to invest the time in other workouts and exercises that will enhance your overall skills. Do you believe in making such investments toward your growth in Muay Thai, Kickboxing, or other martial arts?

I find with beginners it's often an abductor and an hip flexor strength related issue. Those muscle groups aren't strong enough to lift their leg while maintaining stability. It's hard to control your momentum and pivot while you can't control your leg properly.

just started walking around non stop on my toes and bouncing around on them whenever i can xD

Hip rotation during the kick is so important as well... If you can't rollover / rotate your hip during the execution, your kick will lack its potential power regardless of what's happening on the grounded leg.

I just started doing weighted calf rises a couple of months ago and it really improved my balance and kicks.

The reason for the pivot elevation can be explain from a physics standpoint. For swinging strikes (vs linear/thrusting), being "earthed" is not as important as freedom to spin around the axis by reducing friction surface. It's because the requirement for being "earthed" is only to reduce axis shift during impact, which from a trigonometrical standpoint is only a fraction required by linear/thrusting strikes. Therefore, while spinning, the friction surface needs to be reduced by "tip toeing", but at moment of impact, the supporting foot needs to be aligned approximately perpendicular to the striking surface to be as immovable as possible. This is why aerial kicks are more momentum based while earthed kicks are structure based.

This is Brilliant, have now subscribed. Thank you!

Rotating on the balls of your feet is much easier on your knees than rotating flat-footed.

Most will miss the whip effect you're after. Turn your body and let your leg follow.

You often see the pads angled sharply downwards; 0:13 this invites something closer to a front kick, which means your hips aren't turning over... which means your foot doesn't need to turn much. Not saying it's good. Not at all. It encourages lazy form, while making it easier to slam the pads harder. Makes the student feel good, while not being particularly helpful. You need to be able to round kick a vertical object, solidly and efficiently. Once you can do THAT, it's easy to kick on a bit of an angle. The reverse is not true.

Great video! Thank you for advices.

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing.

Really cool video, thanks a lot! I started muay thai 2 weeks ago and I feel some pain after the train sessions right below my feet and on my wrists. I'll try doing some exercises like that at home, I think I got some week heels even though I've been going to the gym for about 2 years. I know I may be punching wrong, but is it normal to feel my wrists worn out? I've never done any fighting sports before.

Found your channel and I like!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😎

Why kick at shoulder/guard height? Or the target is the lower ribs, or it's the head...

I started Muay Thai a couple of weeks ago and I always get up on my toes when throwing roundhouse kicks but one thing I noticed is that the day after training my feet hurts in the middle and toe area on the top side of the foot Is this normal or am I doing something wrong which is causing pain ?

Weighted calf raises

Tawanchai muay thai champ in one champion keeps his fot planted when throwing single roundhouse kicks, but elevate when throwing several. my point is you nessesarily need to elevate your heel

Do you need to elevate when throwing low kicks?

If I could twist my back again...........!

I could never figure this out so I just became a grappler instead.

My thai kru told me not to lift my feet too much

QUIT DROPPING YOUR HANDS when kicking lol