Mawashi Geri (Roundhouse Kick) is one of the more common kicks used in all martial arts. It is similar to a volley kick in football (soccer) and can cause a significant amount of damage if done correctly. While in many sport martial arts it is common to see a Mawashi Geri used to strike an opponent in the face and win extra points in a point sparring match, I will be discussing only the combative side of this kick and how to effectively use it in a real fight for your life.
There are the same four steps in Mawashi Geri as in Mae Geri (Front Kick), how you perform those movements is a bit different though. The four steps are:
Up
Out
Back
Down
These movements will vary if you are performing this technique in different stances or using the lead foot instead of the rear foot. For simple instruction, I will be talking only about performing Mawashi Geri from a Zenkutsu Dachi (Forward Stance).
Up
Assuming you are already in Zenkutsu Dachi, the first movement is to bring the knee up. Similar to Mae Geri, the higher you bring your knee up the better. The difference here is that you want to bring it up so that your leg is parallel to the floor rather than perpendicular. This could be considered your chamber position before you strike.
Out
The second part is the attack itself. You snap your leg out towards the opponent with the intention of cause as much damage as possible. Your strike hinges on your knee, but should also be propelled forward by your hips. The more hip work you are doing, the less strain that is on your knee. The striking surface for this attack is the top of your foot on the Cuneiform bones or as low as the Metatarsus bones. It is not a toe kick for 99% of the people who perform it. Those wearing steel toe boots and those extremely well conditioned toes are in the minority.
Back
While Mae Geri can be either a thrust kick or a snap kick, Mawashi Geri is always a snap kick. The “snapping” motion of quickly kicking your leg out and then retracting it is what generates its power. The more important thing, it keeps you from being drug to the floor. You pull the leg back to the same position it was in during the “Up” stage. From here you can decide to move forward or back to your original Zenkutsu Dachi.
Down
This stage is where you set your feet back onto the ground either moving forward or back. It is important to develop the balance to get back to this step. Many new karateka will perform Mawashi Geri and then just drop their foot to the ground immediately after striking in the “Out” stage. This leaves them highly vulnerable and is sloppy technique.
This is one of the fastest kicks in Karate because it is always a snapping motion. Your target is normally a softer target below the chest. The stomach, ribs, and kidneys are all excellent targets. In some cases it is very beneficial to attack the sides or back of the opponents knees, but this requires practice and should not be done without some initial supervision. If anyone has a different method for doing this technique, please share it with everyone. My next article will cover a great exercise to practice this attack from Kiba dachi with the front foot.
I would add that the striking area actually starts about half-way or three-quarters up the tibia–Shiroma Sensei certainly utilizes his shines when performing mawashi geri, as does my Sensei and as do I. I suppose in the strictest sense they are, technically, done with the instep as you explain, however. Then, of course, you can get into leg kicks which actually make you point your knee downward, although Muay Thai roundhouse kicks almost always point the knee downward, even when kicking the head, which I find odd.
And I did mean “shins”, not “shines”–I’ve been sleep deprived for the past three weeks
Correct as always Noah – this kick can be performed with the shins and is a similar motion to kneeing someone in the ribs. I only spoke of the instep because most people who would need a guide to learn to do this kick should start small and those who are only comparing differences are probably well aware of the ability to use their shins.
Besides – wasn’t it cool to see the technical terms?
True enough, I just like providing more information than is necessary, haha. The technical terms were a nice touch–spending some time on wikipedia lately?
I’m curious as to why only the striking surface for the roundhouse kick that was discussed was the instep. I see that Noah brought up kicking with the shin, but what about striking with the ball of the foot? Is this taught in karate?
Maybe this is a style difference between TKD and Karate, but we’re taught to kick with both the instep and ball of the foot. I prefer the instep kick as I have difficulty pulling the toes back far enough to actually kick with the ball of the foot, but I’ve heard that the ball of the foot kick is good for striking the front of the body because most people who would drop an elbow to defend against an instep kick won’t be expecting the ball of the foot kick to get around their guard.
Your thoughts?
It is taught in karate but, like the toe-kick, not often practiced by a lot of people. It is actually harder (at least I find it to be) to keep the toes pulled back on a roundhouse kick than on a front kick (which we very often use the ball of the foot for). I suspect it’s largely a matter of preference. There are certainly some tactical advantages to it, as you mention, but you are actually more likely to break a toe if you overshoot your target, whereas if you overshoot with an instep kick you will hit with your shin and your toes are safe. Again, it’s still preference on how you weigh the risks and advantages.
I think Noah explained it well. The articles are meant to be simple introductions to different kicking techniques rather than more advanced insight on them.
I think that the average new student is more likely to both be slower and at an increased risk of injury to themselves if they were to try and kick with the ball of the foot during a roundhouse kick.
The other thing to keep in mind is physics. The moment around a point is greater the farther it is away from the point. So the greatest amount of force is at the point farthest from your joint (in this case the hip). Since we agree that kicking with the toes is likely to break them, the next furthest point is your instep. If you can condition it stronger, it will always be more powerful.
Thanks for asking Ariel and if that didn’t answer your question, feel free to keep picking away till you get what you are looking for.
OSU,
in Kyokushin (my flavor of it) the striking area is either the shin or the ball of the foot. Not the point of the toes, but the ball, with the toes drawn back. Challenging until your toes are flexible enough to move out of the way, but powerful. The idea is that both of those points are a lot stronger than the top of the foot, which has some pretty delicate bones. Having hit a knee with the top of my foot (owwww) I have to go with this idea. Ball of the foot or shin seems to hurt me a lot less.
For mae Geri, we use the ball of the foot.
For Yoko Geri, we use the blade of the foot.
Back kicks are the heel, hook kicks and axe kicks also tend to be the heel, I think.
Make Ev stop giggling while the class is doing crunches kick is also performed with the heel, by the way. Owwwww.
The other thing that is drilled hard into me is to not go up on the ball of the supporting foot. We are taught that you lose power by not keeping your heel planted. This is hard for me with my gymnastics background, but I have noticed that I do seem to get more power if I’m solidly planted.
We are also taught the four parts of the kick, though how perpendicular to the floor the leg is depends on what angle and height one is kicking at, I believe. If I am aiming for someone’s thigh, my chamber will be at a different angle from when I am aiming for someone’s head, gods help us both.
Video explanation of the kick is now online. Please give me some honest feedback on this video. If it is well received there will be plenty more. If no one is interested, I can focus on other things.