How to do a Roundhouse kick for Taekwondo or Karate

The Roundhouse kick has been done in fighting for hundreds of years and is still commonly used to this day in both Taekwondo (TKD) and Karate. Not only this but it’s also used in various other striking martial arts as well as MMA. Its popularity is a testament to just how effective it is, as if done correctly – it can instantly end a fight.

Because of this, it’s important not just to learn the Roundhouse kick for yourself, but also to understand it from a defensive perspective. Due to this, if you do happen to train in a martial art that involves kicks – you should learn the Roundhouse kick as soon as possible. Put another way, it’s simply too important to disregard and will put you at a huge disadvantage. Below we shall examine how to do the Roundhouse kick in greater detail.

Starting the Roundhouse kick from the beginning

To begin, you will need to enter a typical fighter’s stance. For those wondering, a fighter’s stance comes naturally

for most people and involves having one leg leaning back (your resting leg), with your other leg planted forward. Your arms should be ready to strike too, with the jabbing arm slightly more forward than the other arm. The second arm should be held back a little and ready to hit uppercuts, haymakers, and generally bigger hits. Of course, the fighter’s stance is as defensive as it is offensive. You should always be alert and ready to block with your hands. Similarly, the leg positioning isn’t just about kicking either. By having a lead and resting leg, you should become more mobile as a result. In becoming more mobile, you should be ready to move quickly and defend upper and lower body strikes.

The next step is to start the actual Roundhouse kick. This means you should have enough distance to strike the head without retaliation. In brief, you can’t perform this kick from a clinch, or whilst your opponent is lunging towards you whilst throwing punches. Generally, it is done whilst there is enough space between you and the opponent. From here, you’ll want to pivot which means turning on your feet to create an angle. This angle is important as it allows you to reach the head and generate more power in your kick.

Pivoting to set up the Roundhouse kick

To pivot correctly, you should twist your resting foot back, so your toes are pointing in the direction away from your eyes. A common mistake is that people leave their foot in the starting position, which makes your base less stable. This is because you will also need to lean back to perform the Roundhouse kick, so it makes sense to point your toes behind you, to help with balance. Ideally, when leaning back, your body will look like a ‘Y’, with your resting leg straight on the floor, with your upper body leaning back, and eventually, your striking leg hitting into the air.

An important part of throwing the kick is using your arm and fist to defend your face. This is important as if your kick fails, it will block any potential counterattacks. If you throw the Roundhouse kick with your left leg for instance, then you should hold up your right arm to defend. Basically, it should always be the opposite arm. Your other arm should reach out to help with balance.

Throwing the Roundhouse kick

Once the pivot has been created, you are now in a position to extend your striking leg. Here, you should bring the lead leg into the air with your knee bent. The purpose of bending the knee is that when you release the kick, it has more sting and power to it. This means the kick’s power is generated from below the knee. However, to extend the leg you will need strong hip flexibility. If you practice this, you will soon feel your outer-hips burn due to your muscles extending with force.

When your bent knee passes the height of your hips, you can then extend the leg into the air. Ideally, the leg should reach head height and strike the opponent in the side of their head. The inside of your foot and ankle should be the part that connects with the head. Another way of visualizing this is to imagine scooping up a football. To do this, you would put the ball in between the part where your foot meets your leg. This is the ideal striking part when using the Roundhouse kick.

Finishing the Roundhouse kick

After the strike has connected, you can then begin to retract the kick. Effectively, this part is reverse-engineering the kick and playing it backward. For instance, once the kick has landed, you should then bring the leg back to the bent knee position. With this in place, you should then pivot back to the original position with your lead leg hovering in mid-air with your knee below the hip-line. After this, you should then put your foot back to the floor to re-establish your base. If done perfectly, it will look like throwing the kick in rewind. This means each step should mimic the original steps from start to finish and then back again.

The reason for retracting the leg in this way is to make sure your balance is re-established once the strike has landed. The point of this is that if the opponent successfully blocks or defends the kick, then you don’t want to over-commit. Instead, you need to return to the starting position safely. For example, you could throw the kick well, to begin with but finish the technique poorly. If the opponent defended well and your final position is sloppy with poor balance, they could counter with a knockout punch. With this in mind, the finishing details of the kick are just as important as setting it up.

Problems with the Roundhouse kick

The Roundhouse kick is not a kick for beginners and is usually reserved for more experienced Taekwondo or Karate practitioners. In short, it requires good form and technique. Because of this, it may require a lot of drilling and testing with kata. If the kick is performed with poor technique then it may fail significantly. Too often, you will see over-excited fighters throw the Roundhouse kick with poor form, resulting in it barely reaching the opponent’s chest. If too slow or low, then it can be countered easily. A common counter is an opponent grabbing the kick in mid-air and sweeping the leg as a result. This isn’t good and can easily lose matches or a fight.

There are several ways to improve your technique. Firstly, you can get away with bad form if you are naturally athletic. With the correct amount of athleticism, it’s possible to reach higher or land the kick with more power, even if you don’t really understand the basics. Thankfully, there are other ways to improve the Roundhouse kick without having to rely on athleticism. The first way is to improve your flexibility.

This could mean yoga or other methods, but the idea is to be able to open up your hips and also to stretch your thigh and calf muscles. This can be done at home and may take months or even years to improve, but anyone can do this. The second way to improve your form is by focusing on the correct body angle and weight distribution. In brief, balance is key and can help you land kicks much easier. By focusing on these two issues, you can quickly improve your Roundhouse kick and use it correctly as a result. Like all things in martial arts and life, practice makes perfect.

Using the Tornado Roundhouse kick

Please note, this technique requires great skill and should only be attempted when your knowledge of the conventional Roundhouse kick is at a high level. Generally, this is considered a flashy move that also requires great athleticism. Put briefly, the Tornado Roundhouse kick is done by using the typical Roundhouse kick but ends very differently. The mechanics are the same up until moving your knee above the hips. However, instead of extending your leg, things from here change drastically.

Firstly, you should extend the lead leg slightly, although this should be straight ahead, rather than upwards. You are not trying to kick with this leg, and it is merely used to maintain balance and judge distance. With this leg sticking out, you should then do a small hop on the resting leg, and then spin the resting leg up and around. In short, the lead leg now switches its role into that of supporting your base, whilst your previous resting leg now becomes the striking leg. To put it another way, your front leg acts as a balancing tool and also as a feint attack. You then hop and spin with your behind leg which should also land on the head.

As you are spinning in a different direction, your heel should hit the opponent in the face, instead of the higher foot. This is because the kick lands in an inverted position and is unorthodox. The benefit of the Torando Roundhouse kick is that it may be more unexpected and that it’s also more powerful. This is because many people are unaware of this kick.

It’s also more powerful as it uses spin to generate momentum and also lands with the heel which carries a lot of weight. However, as previously mentioned – this kick is not for most people. Sadly, it is very difficult to learn, and in all honesty, you’re probably better off learning the standard Roundhouse kick instead. Nonetheless, for those seeking a challenge – the Tornado Roundhouse kick is certainly difficult.