ROUND KICK ARM POSITION

Better Muay Thai round kick arm position

Jonas Staggs of Advanced Muay Thai Techniques discusses round kick arm position.

Let’s talk about a variation in technique while throwing a kick, more specifically, the swinging motion of your arm when you kick. When throwing a right kick, most people swing their right arm down while doing so. This helps generate power, extra torque and rotation of the hips into your kick. It creates a pivoting point and motion in your body.

This is the way it is generally taught in the USA. However, when you swing your arm in a downward motion, you are creating a vertical pivoting point. When we throw a kick, it is not traveling on a vertical plane, but on in horizontal or arcing motion. A better method of swinging your arm while kicking, is in a horizontal direction. This helps create a better pivot point on the body, which in turn helps to create more rotation and torque in the direction we are throwing the kick.

This will help you get a full rotation of the hips and help you to kick through the target rather than to it. When swinging the arm, it does not need to be swung perfectly horizontally, but it should be on a close to horizontal plane.

No two people are alike, and what works for one may not work for another, therefore this technique will require some trial and error on your part to find what works best for you. I find that the more horizontal the arm is swung, the easier it is to rotate the hips, and the better the pivoting point of the kick is. Give this method a try in your next training session and see if you can generate some extra hip rotation, torque and power in your kicks.