How To Do A Spinning Back Kick For Muay Thai & Taekwondo

A spinning back kick is a crucial move for Muay Thai, Taekwondo, and MMA in general. The name “spinning back kick” is often used to describe this kick which doesn’t actually spin (at least not fully anyway). The spinning back kick actually goes in a straight line rather than spinning. The kick is more similar to how a horse would kick than any kind of spinning motion. It is true that you’re rotating your body beforehand to generate power, but the kick itself should be very straight.

The name of the spinning back kick came from point fighting in taekwondo to try and get through the guard. If a practitioner were to perform a technically sound back kick whilst point fighting, it would simply be blocked by the opponent’s arm. Whilst this is true for point fighting, an arm will not block a full power kick when sparring. A spinning back kick is nowhere near as effective and won’t hurt as much when the kick is crooked. It will however score you points in a semi-contact format.

Not only this, but if you spin with an arched kick this will give your opponent time to move out of the way. If you perform a spinning back kick correctly with a straight leg, this will reduce the time it takes for the kick to reach the target. This may seem like a very small amount of time but it will be the difference between landing a kick and missing.

The aim of the kick is to break the ribs of the opponent or a debilitating liver shot that ends the fight.

Mechanics Of The Spinning Back Kick

For the start of the technique, you must be facing your opponent in a kicking stance. This should be a standard kicking stance with one foot in front of the other.

You should then look over your back shoulder and keep your feet in the same place. Your feet will naturally pivot, but should generally be in the same position where you began to throw the kick. Whilst a small amount of movement is ok, you certainly don’t want to change your stance a lot.

As you are turning with your head and upper body, you should be able to lift your kicking leg from the floor in a straight line. The spinning back kick is powerful for a couple of reasons. The first is that the kick requires a lot of torque which is unleashed through your leg hitting the target. Secondly, the power of the kick comes from the glute and thigh muscles which are extremely strong.

When finishing the kick, your toes should point downwards, whilst your heel should point towards the sky. This will create maximum power in the kick.

Accuracy & Why Your Spinning Back Kicks Keep Missing The Target

Rule number one of training is that your technique must always come first. For the spinning back kick it is strongly advised that you practice on a heavy bag first. The first reason is that if you’re doing anything wrong, it will hurt less on a bag and you’ll be able to correct it quickly.

Secondly, the heavy bag is not a dynamic opponent who moves forwards and sideways. This won’t improve your ability to spar, but will at least give you some idea of how the technique works. If you’re unable to hit a large stationary target, then there is absolutely no chance you’ll be hitting your opponent.

A good point is that wherever the head goes first, the body follows. If you are slow moving your head, or you are simply rotating it with your shoulders, this means you’re not performing the technique correctly.

The head should be the first thing to face the target (before your body). By moving your head first, this will give you vision of where the target is, rather than being completely blind to what is behind you. Not only this but moving your head around will also cause your body to follow it. This provides more torque and power in the kick than a stationary head.

Why It’s Important To Learn On Both Sides

This may be self-explanatory, but there are still many fighters who can only perform one technique on their strong side. If you are a competitor of taekwondo or any other martial art involving strikes, you will need to learn techniques on both sides.

The reason for this is that if you are sparring with the same people every day, is that they will eventually figure you out. If you were to make it to the professional level of a kickboxing sport, then this becomes even more crucial. With the internet and modern-day video, there aren’t any secret fighters anymore. If your opponent finds footage of only right sided spinning back kicks, they will know that the left side is no threat. This will cause their game plan to change and will be a lot harder for you to fight as a result.

Common Mistakes

Cross Stepping

The main mistake when attempting a spinning back kick is made before you even throw the kick. Much like everything in martial arts, if you start with a poor setup of fundamentals, your techniques are doomed to fail.

It is bad practice to step across the center line when performing a spinning back kick. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is that your opponent will easily telegraph what you’re doing. Any fighter worth their salt will know that this is an extremely strange thing to do with your feet. There are very few techniques in MMA, kickboxing, or even grappling disciplines when you wish to cross one foot in front of the other.

By doing this in a taekwondo match, you are letting your opponent know exactly what is going to happen next. They will either choose to dodge this attack or counter it if they can. You’re putting the ball firmly on their side of the court and are vulnerable to their next move.

Secondly, by planting your leg forwards you are creating quite a large target for your opponent to attack. Whilst this may not matter in a taekwondo match since you can’t get kicked in the legs, it is still bad form and practice. Outside of taekwondo in rulesets such as kickboxing or muay thai. You will find that your opponent can perform a simple kick to the back of your leg. At the very least this will hurt and if the kick is powerful enough it will knock you to the floor. Neither are positive outcomes.

Not Following Through With Your Kick

Following through with your kicks and punches is a staple of martial arts. Whilst you don’t want to follow through 100% with every single strike, with the spinning back kick you always want to make sure you follow through.

The spinning back kick works in a similar way to a front push kick. You are aiming to kick through your opponent and push them back or cause a severe strike that either finishes the content or grounds them. A spinning back kick is rarely used in point fighting for this reason. It is not necessarily the highest percentage kick, but when it does land, it should cause a great deal of damage.

One final point to make is not to drop your leg straight to the floor after you make contact with the adversary. Not only will this cause your kick to lose power, but it will also put you in a negative position. If you have your leg far away from your body, facing away from the opponent. This is an extremely bad position. Your opponent will have free reign until you are able to turn and face them.

Always Hit With Heel First

It may make sense to you to strike with the ball of your foot than your heel. It is easier to strike with the ball of the foot since you have more reach. However, you should be aiming to hit with the heel as it’s far more powerful. Hitting someone with the ball of your foot may hurt them, but hitting them with the heel will hurt a lot more.

The heel is a lot more sturdy than the ball of your foot which can be twisted upon impact. These twists can cause real problems for your ankles in later life. When hitting a bag or opponent with your heel, there really isn’t much of a twist compared to your foot. This is for the same reason fighters are encouraged to kick with their shins rather than their feet. You may get a bruised shin, but this is much better than getting a twisted ankle.

When performing the spinning heel kick, if you raise your heel to the sky, this will maximize your chance of connecting with the heel rather than any other part of your foot. This in turn greatly reduces the risk of getting injured.

Overspinning or underspinning

Whilst the spinning back kick doesn’t really involve that much “spin”, it does require almost a 360 degree turn of the body, especially when the kick is finished.

Both over-rotation and under rotation are big problems that cause people to give up on learning spinning back kicks or discount them as flashy and unrealistic moves.

Firstly, over spinning or over-rotation can be caused when you’re going too fast or throwing a kick that’s too powerful. This won’t be true for professional athletes, but until you’ve mastered the technique of a back kick, it’s best not to do things at 100% speed or power until you know you’re doing it correctly.

A spinning kick that you over-rotate can throw you off balance and make you more susceptible to strikes after you’ve thrown it. Not only this, but it can also cause damage to your ankle since you’re almost never going to be making contact with the heel of your foot. Other parts of your foot will get hit and this will cause injuries over time.

Under rotating or under spinning can be even worse. In either a sport points format or a full-contact kickboxing match this is one of the worst positions you can put yourself in. You will have your back and side partially facing the opponent with your own arms and legs facing backward. At the very least the opponent will land one or two good strikes on you from this position. Until you move out of the way, you’ve essentially made yourself a heavy bag for your opponent for a brief moment.