Nonsense. As he is about to stick his big toe in the opponent's ear it can only be a Savate kick. Seriously,how can you tell from a still photo in what manner the kick was thrown?
Are you serious? You don't think I can distinguish my own kicks? American Kickboxing adopted kicks from Karate. I don't know about the other kickboxning styles.
At the gym I went to we practiced both karate and muay thai kicks. I'd say they don't really look any different while landing.
Then their all confused: http://muaythaipros.com/kickingboxing-vs-muay-thai-different/ The Legendary Samart shows how a traditional Thai kick is done. Notice there is NO bending of the the knee like in the above example. The leg comes off the ground already very much already stiff.
It's a spinning roundhouse kick. It's not the traditional knee up and snap roundhouse to the head (I do that off the lead leg, or I throw the stiff Thai style roundhouse lead with no switch). My old gym (taking into account that was from a year ago, and yes I can still kick) used kicks from both Full Contact Kickboxing and Muay Thai. I use the same spinning roundhouse in Muay Thai. Not that it matters because the style of kick wasn't what was being shown. The ability to kick to head was.
I couldn't see the videos from the mobile (I suppose there are videos) so correct me if I'm wrong but from the written description it seems I've been taught well. You could say the main difference in thai kicks is the lack of chambering. Whether the kick lands with mote or less bending at the knee mostly depends on the position of the target and on chance.
I will then. However, I think I was expressing my point the wrong way, so I'll see if I can rephrase it... This is how a thai kick lands and this is how a karate kick lands so apart from the position of the foot, they don't really look very different while landing, but still correct me if I'm wrong.
It's not specificaly about had kicking in Muay Thai although I did ask out of curiosity how common they were. The main point of the thread was to try and work out how flexible I need to be for muay thai as I have some time between when the thread started and when I will have access to Muay Thai training. The thread was never meant to be about differences between styles and their methods of kicking. I appreciate that may be a topic of interest to you but please start a seperate thread discussing that if that's something you want to talk about.
Then the answer is probably that Muay Thai involves far less headkicking than say Taekwondo or kickboxing and should suit you fine. If you ask me, your flexibility should take presidence over kicking training in the early stages. Then you switch prioritys, however still stretch daily.
I disagree. In the early stages you need to be working on the kick. The type of kicking demonstrated many times here by Bill "Superfoot" Wallace when he hold onto the chair and kicks. This teaches correct body mechanics and builds strength through a full range of motion, essential for flexibility. Basically kicking builds strength and flexibility required to kick. I would remind you that you still can't tell me the style this kick came from. All nice and easy when the person in the picture is wearing thai shorts, or a karate gi, not so easy otherwise.
I think that's terrible advice. You should concentrate on good technique from day one. Flexibility will come with time if you keep the reps up. Edit: Beat me to the draw, Simon!
There are 3 different types of Muay Thai round kick all can go to the head,the first one is thrown at a 45 degree angle and can also slide up the arm to the neck(depending on arm position of opponent) this one doesnt take great flexibility, the second is more of a open hip position this one is very hard to get to the head with unless flexibility is real good or the opponent is a foot shorter than you ,the third is a downward kick and can also be hard to execute but is very effective when done right
Technique is impossible without flexibility. It could take up to 6 months to get the flexibility corrected. This is assuming our threadmaker is stiff, which he probably is since he started the thread.
