Roundhouse

[Liam888]

My roundhouse is improving and has a fair bit of power. Every day I do a lot of stretching to improve my felxiabilty in my hips and try to unlock them more. When I do a roundhouse it is usually just above belt height at best and my left leg is best at kicking because I am left footed. But when I kick I face my knee pointing to the side or downwards which I can't seem to stop soon because I am not flexible enough in the hips

[Zaine]

Make sure you're chambering properly. A big mistake a lot of practitioners make is that in their roundhouse there is no chamber, but in every other kick there is a chamber. Make sure you're bringing up the chamber before you extend, and the re-chamber before you put the foot down. If you can find an instructional video or even a youtube video of "Superfoot" Bob Wallace that could really help you.

[Kuma]

Work on holding a high chamber every day for about 30-60 seconds, a handful of times throughout the day. Add in dynamic stretching and relaxed stretching (ones like straddles, butterfly, etc.) and you should be good to go.

First exercise is described here:

[Zaine]

Work on holding a high chamber every day for about 30-60 seconds, a handful of times throughout the day. Add in dynamic stretching and relaxed stretching (ones like straddles, butterfly, etc.) and you should be good to go.

First exercise is described here:

Excellent video for getting in the importance of a good chamber!

[Liam888]

Why do you mean by a highchamber? If it's getting your knee up high I can do that well for front kick it's just the twist of the hips in roundhouse Which i can't do

[ninjanurse]

Lifting the knee high and to the outside requires that you "open" the hip so that your hip and thigh are in a straight line.

[Liam888]

Thats the problem I can't seem to do it as I'm not flexible enough :/

[ninjanurse]

Time and patience will get you there.....a little stretching everyday goes a long way. An especially good time to stretch difficult kicks is after a good workout.....reduces chance of injury too.

[Liam888]

Thanks can you recommend me any decent excersices to unlock the hips ?

[Zaine]

Thanks can you recommend me any decent excersices to unlock the hips ?

Make sure you're warming up fully, and by this I don't mean just static stretching. Make sure you're loosening up those hips, along with everything else. The best way to do this pretty effectively is a good 5 minute jog, just to get everything moving after a good stretch. After that it becomes a cycle of rinse and repeat. Repetition, repetition and more repetition. Also, look up some stuff online for warming up you're hip in particular for when you're practicing your kicks.

Warming up fully before any work out is uber important and I cannot stress that enough, and it's not only static stretches like the ones you do when stretching legs. Always remember that a 5 minute walk will always get you more warmed up than static stretching ever will.