Kenji Midori's Mawashi Geri.

[stinkoman]

 Hello. I'm a big fan of Kyoksuhin and Karate styles in general and was wondering if somebody could help with me a question about Kenji Midori's Mawashi Geri. Most my martial stand up martial art experience comes Muay Thai and though I have some experience  dealing with kicks involving chambering i'm mostly ignorant. The way I was always shown in simple terms was to bring the knee out straight and front of you pointing at your target. Watching Kenji Midori in this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=omyK2ce05V4 I Notice it looks like he bring his knee out high to his side. Almost looking like he is trying to line his knee up to his shoulder and looking more to me like you bring your leg to the outside of you to check a kick. I guess to some up my question. Is what he doing what I think I'm seeing and his this how its mostly done in Kyokushin or is this more specific to him and if is there any video explaining this better in English? I think kenji has some of the smoothest high kicks I ever seen and by copying atleast what I think I'm seeing has been working for me better then chambering straight out in front of and find it easier for then the traditonal muay thai round kick.

[meguro]

You could follow worse examples, but what you think you are seeing is correct. If everybody could kick like Midori, they would. Most do the best they can manage.

[MMX]

The standard for a Mawashi Geri in Enshin is the same. Bring the knee up to the side then use your hips,knee and supporting foot to put the power in the kick. I would say that is the standard Knockdown Mawashi Geri going back to at least the ALL JAPAN 1970.

[curlbroscience]

For kumite, it depends on how you want the angle of the kick to come and if you want to 'bend' it.

Having the leg come straight up requires some timing with the torque of the hip on the end of the kick to generate power. Coming up from the side puts the hip in to the kick at an earlier stage allowing the chamber leg to whip out.

There are some benefits for the kick coming straight up as it can be used to hide a mae geri, yoko geri, ura mawashi or any variant. Coming up from the side, the difference is Brazilian or 'traditional' Mawashi geri.

For kihon, mawashi geri has to come up from the side.

[evergrey]

OSU, that is the ideal at my dojo, as well, turning the hip over as much as possible.

[jared]

Yes, that's pretty much right except for they are going high with it in the training portion if the video. I like to have my hips over and the kick just starting to come back down right before it strikes so it doesn't glance off the top of someone's sweaty head.

[curlbroscience]

This is more of a form over function question: Has anyone else been told during Kihon practice, particularly the moving kihon portion, to kick Jodan according to your head level?

I can kick well above my head and in a few dojos that I have visited they have said to kick Jodan according to your head level. The point was anything above that is excessive. In my mind if you are 5'6" any kick at my own head level is ineffective, go higher or kick lower and harder.

[evergrey]

I think Midori has hinged hips, like a snake's jaw.

Yeah, just try to prove me wrong! You can't! It's SCIENCE!

[powerof0ne]

In a legit Muay Thai gym, you're taught to turn the hip over as much as possible, too. However, there are so many "bad habits" in "Muay Thai," that some gyms teach this as the "right way." To make matters worst, there are many gyms that have fighters doing "bad habits" that win with 'em too...so it's kind of hard to say to somebody with a world title belt, "you're doing it wrong!"

You see this in all combat-sports to some degree, but I definitely have seen it in Muay Thai/Kickboxing probably more than anything else.
Osu!

[curlbroscience]

Nov 27, 2013 11:35:03 GMT -5 powerof0ne said:

You see this in all combat-sports to some degree, but I definitely have seen it in Muay Thai/Kickboxing probably more than anything else.
Osu!

Do you attribute this to the teacher or to the focus on effect of the kick rather than the technique itself?

[powerof0ne]

Nov 27, 2013 12:48:07 GMT -5 curlbroscience said:

Nov 27, 2013 11:35:03 GMT -5 powerof0ne said:

You see this in all combat-sports to some degree, but I definitely have seen it in Muay Thai/Kickboxing probably more than anything else.
Osu!

Do you attribute this to the teacher or to the focus on effect of the kick rather than the technique itself?

I would say both, or it can go either way. Ever since I fell into Muay Thai in '97, there were many many many gyms saying they taught Muay Thai, but really didn't...they had their fighters usually fight under modified Muay Thai rules. Some of the fighters did well, too.

We all know there are egos in martial arts, and I'm not saying everybody has one. Speaking for myself, I would say at one time I definitely had an ego, but I believe it's died down significantly over the last 5 years or so. Unfortunately for many "MT," MMA, etc. type of gyms that regularly have fighters..there is an attitude that because their fighters do well, that makes them the "truth" when it comes to martial arts. What's funny to me about this, I'm sure during the days of dojo storming in Kyokushin and other styles of karate (Teruo Hayashi of hayashi ha shito ryu kai was infamous for dojo storming, too), they had similar attitudes.

Before I go into a ramble of my own experience, and deter this topic to somewhere else, I'll just end it now .

However, I will say this about the MT dtae/roundhouse, done properly:

1. You're supposed to turn your hip over as much as possible...sometimes you cannot, due to distance, timing, etc.
2. You're NOT supposed to spin all the way around and expose your back (especially if you MISS!)...an exception to this is if you were to do a ushiro geri, ushiro mawashi geri, etc. following up with right after.
3. IF you have the technique down properly, which means GOOD balance (real MT places a huge emphasis on footwork/balance), you can actually retract your kick back very often when you miss...sometimes even after you make contact! Retract it back without having to drop it on the ground...and step back.
Osu!

[wullie]

what suits one person may not suit another, find what works for you and go with that