Telegraphing the round house kick

Guys,



I kind of like this topic. Why? Because even though this has been readily apparent in both traditional and mixed martial arts, people still argue it. That is about how blatantly the so called "skilled" martial artists telegraph their roundhouse kicks. While it happens in the traditional martial arts world, it seems to be most obvious among Thai Boxers and mixed martial artists. I am not going to go too deep into it, but I am going to make it plain.

First off, I would like to say that I am a fan of Thai Boxing. I enjoy their mental fortitude and relentless approach to dismantling their opponents. I love the Wai Kru, and the respect that the Thai-born practitioners pay to their elders. I love their full commitment to their strikes, and the power of their strikes. That said, I do have issues with their application of their bread and butter technique. That of course in the roundhouse kick, also called the turn kick, wheel kick, or chop kick. They throw it with a lot of power, coming from the hip as opposed to chambering from the leg. But all of the power notwithstanding, I believe that their execution is flawed.

When skilled Thai Boxers throw their roundhouse kicks, it is often after throwing an unbalancing front kick. Instead of pivoting on the supporting leg, Thai Boxers take a short step with their lead foot, so that the toes are at a ninety degree angle from the target. They use the power of the hip to cut through their opponent. A powerful kick to be sure, but one that is telegraphed by that ever so quick turn of the foot. As we all know, that among highly skilled combatants, mere micro-seconds make the difference between an effective strike, counter, or complete miss. So the difference between a knock-out strike, and being knocked out by a counter is only in the hundtreths of seconds.

And that is among skilled Thai Boxers. Think about all of those barely adequate Muay Thai skills displayed in mixed martial arts.....................