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Muay Thai Kick Exercises

10K views 36 replies 4 participants last post by  Withers 
#1 ·
Are there any exercises/drills that can be done at home to getting used to the muay thai kick? I've only been training for two months so obviously the kick is still pretty bad, it's just the rotation of the hips. In my mind it makes perfect sense I just can't put it together. Besides listening to my coach are there any drills or anything I can practice at home when I'm bored to kind of help with the movement?
 
#2 ·
yes. stand in your stance and just throw your hips as if you were trying to throw a kick but only use your hips, your right (if you are orthodox) foot will rotate in a pivoting motion and your foot just basically rotates upwards til you are on your toes (almost the same motion as when you throw a right cross just with more emphasis on hip rotation). When kicking with the right leg, have all your weight on your left leg. i'll see if i can get a video of me doing it for you today

until it comes to intricate clinch techniques, muay thai is mainly repetition. buy a heavy bag and throw 100 teeps (front push kick) each leg interchanging, so 1 right, one left, one right etc until you've thrown 200. then hold your bag as if you were clinching it and throw 100 switching knees as fast as you can, while keeping your form and making sure your switch is tight, then you can rest for 2 minutes followed by throwing 100 right kicks on the bag, then 100 left kicks, you can either make that 100 switch kicks or 100 front leg round kicks, or 50 of each, but do them. Do that for a little while and your techniques will be crisp and hard with good technique.
 
#4 ·
With only two months of training experience I'd suggest not to try training technique at home on your own yet. In the beginning it's all about getting propper technique, and for that you need surveillance of the execution of your techniques by a coach. At your stage it could happen too easily to do your technique wrong when doing it alone and then get used to that wrong technique. And it's much harder to untrain a wrong technique and correct than training a new technique from start. Better wait a couple more months until you've really incorporated the propper technique, then you can train it at home.

In the mean time what you can do alone is training your general fitness which will also help you at training your technique as you won't tire as fast when training in the gym (fatique is a big enemy when training technique).
 
#10 ·
damn really? i was pivoting the foot, turning the hip, what am i doing wrong? does it make sense that i need pads/a bad to do the correct form? ive had multiple people including my trainer say my form is good when i hit the pads because it stops my kick and feels more natural. maybe its jsut me
 
#11 ·


don't even let your leg leave the ground
you are working on the hip rotation, not the kick.
you need better balance to actually throw the kick, have it miss and end up back in your stance.
crawl, walk and then run my friend :D


EDIT: Sorry, i forgot to stand southpaw. It doesn't matter though, you just do the same but with opposite legs.
 
#20 ·
When you watch my videos, look at my stance, look how much balance I have throwing strikes. I never cross my feet and I never let my feet get too close. If you have a tree outside you should throw on a shinpad (soccer/football one if you don't have muay thai shinpads) and kick the tree so you can work your technique as you would on a bag.
 
#22 ·
it makes it easier to turn your hips and lean if you step your lead leg in the opposite direction of your rear leg. so for a southpaw fighter, you'd step your right leg to your right and forward a little bit. use that step to take all the weight and place it on your front foot then explode with your left leg
 
#27 · (Edited)
Watch out for your weight distribution. You stand flat footed and seem to have weight on your heels. You even pivoted on your heel and lifted the front foot. So keep your weight on the balls of your feet. If you keep forgetting about that, you could stick a little edged stone or so with tape under you heel so you always get reminded to put your weight on the balls of your feet.

And I wouldn't recommend kicking trees, unless you want to have knee problems in a couple of years. In Thailand they sometime kick banana trees which are rather soft and give in, but if you try it with i.e. an oak, a big part of the kicking energy gets back to you leg and its weakest part which is the knee. A water filled plastic bin would be ok as it would give in when kicked. But it would still be better to use a heavy bag or a BOB.

All in all I still recommend not to train on your own yet and instead work more with your coach who can give you live corrections.
 
#31 ·
nice, man. You look like you are improving a bit. don't worry about trying to kick high until your technique is better, just keep practising low kicks and body kicks. practise the wide forward step (kinda like a diagonal direction) with your right foot and throw the left leg into it. You can step forward with your left and throw a right kick better aswell.

It doesn't look like your guard is strong at all, if we were wearing gloves and I hit your glove, you would basically punch your own face. Just focus on keeping your arms strong.
 
#32 ·
thanks a lot man. you are right my guard in those videos was basically non-existent. is there anything im doing blatantly wrong in these videos with my kicks? am i hitting with the right part of my shin? my coach always keeps stressing me to "stay tall" when im kicking and to not be ashamed of my height. he also explains that the kick is like a baseball bat. was i high enough on my toes when throwing the kicks? thanks a lot man im having tons of fun and now my shins don't hurt when i hit the bag haha
 
#33 ·
Kru Bresko ftw! Now teach em some combos. Lets start with my favorite.

1,2 then superman, chain into spinning back fist, and finish with left high kick. I also add in a left side kick.

Everyone will be like...wtf!

or 4, 3, 4, 3(body shot combos) right low kick.
 
#35 ·
haha his information has been so easy to understand it's been helping me a lot!

you are high enough on your toes, you need to focus on keeping your right hand up while throwing the kick and even use more of a swinging motion with your left arm. like really thrust it down, it helps a lot with the turning of your hips. when you land the kick you want your leg to be straight, that's why you can't throw high kicks because you don't have the flexibility or form yet, aim low, and make sure your leg is straight when you land the kick (hence, the baseball bat analogy)

when throwing more than one kick from the same side, keep all of your weight on your front leg, your rear foot should be almost on your toes (to emphasise that there's no weight on your back leg), then throw the kick and instead of returning to your stance after landing the kick, let your rear leg sit maybe 4-5cms further back than normal and then throw the kick, you'll notice you don't have to reset and it's much faster.

you should practise your right teep more aswell, it's good to throw the teep than as your right leg hits the ground you throw the left kick.



i'm not a huge fan of the superman punch and spinning back fist is illegal in Muay Thai, you can only hit someone with the knuckle area of your glove.
what is a right teep? also, how do i become more flexible? thanks a lot man you've helped so much.
 
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