Karateka who can only kick midsection?

[Prototype]

I can do rising kick straight, head level, axe kick, Crescent kick, but not roundhouse or sidekick...

My style is ITF Taekwon-Do - Korean karate. That is to say emphasis on kicks but all the hand techniques (plus some) from Shotokan. I don't know if roundhouse kick is head level in any form but even if it isn't, it's still pretty alarming that I can't perform it head high correctly after two years.

[LLLEARNER]

I am in the same boat. I can get to my shoulder after a good warm up for fronts and crescents.

Anything that is to the side I can hit just above my belt (after a good warm up). If I kick to high to the side it is painful on the outside of my hips and sometimes I fall.

From my understanding (for me) it may not be a flexibility issue so much as a hip abductor strength issue. The best cure for that is to keep doing it. Eventually, they will get stronger. Practice, practice, practice.

[JR 137]

I can do rising kick straight, head level, axe kick, Crescent kick, but not roundhouse or sidekick...

My style is ITF Taekwon-Do - Korean karate. That is to say emphasis on kicks but all the hand techniques (plus some) from Shotokan. I don't know if roundhouse kick is head level in any form but even if it isn't, it's still pretty alarming that I can't perform it head high correctly after two years.

I suffer from the same affliction. I can front and crescent kick to the head just fine. I struggle to get roundhouse and side kick above belt level.

Focus more on stretching the ignored muscles such as gluteus minimus and maximus, tensor fascia latae, piriformis, psoas. Most people have no idea what most of them are, let alone how to stretch them. A little Google-Fu helps a lot.

Groin stretching is also important. Most people who don't stretch it right lean too far forward to support their weight when stretch it. The more upright, the better.

I showed pretty good gains by routinely doing the "frog stretch." Basically a groin stretch by being on the elbows and spreading your legs with your weight on your knees. It's a yoga stretch, but it may have other names. Google search it.

It could also be hip abductor weakness, as LLLearner was saying. Google.

It's rarely one thing, and almost always a combination of many things.

[DWx]

I can do rising kick straight, head level, axe kick, Crescent kick, but not roundhouse or sidekick...

My style is ITF Taekwon-Do - Korean karate. That is to say emphasis on kicks but all the hand techniques (plus some) from Shotokan. I don't know if roundhouse kick is head level in any form but even if it isn't, it's still pretty alarming that I can't perform it head high correctly after two years.

High turning kicks (both legs) is in Hwa-Rang at 2nd gup. Then at every grade above that there is at least one pattern per grade that has a high side or high turning kick.

That said I wouldn't sweat it. I've been doing ITF TKD for 16 years now... still struggle with my flexibility with high roundhouses being particularly difficult for me. Instructors will prefer good mechanics over reaching too high for a kick and should make allowances for ability. As long as you know it should be high section by the book, you can perform at a low level with correct mechanics.

Only way to improve it is stretch, build strength, and learn the correct mechanics:

[sensei8]

I was thinking about the title of this thread...

"Karateka who can only kick midsection?"

In my thinking...about that title, you know, that's not so bad of a thing, to be only able to kick midsection. Many of a fights have ended with a midsection kick to their opponent!!

[LLLEARNER]

I was thinking about the title of this thread...

"Karateka who can only kick midsection?"

In my thinking...about that title, you know, that's not so bad of a thing, to be only able to kick midsection. Many of a fights have ended with a midsection kick to their opponent!!

I bet you won most of them. Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris won the rest.

[Prototype]

I was thinking about the title of this thread...

"Karateka who can only kick midsection?"

In my thinking...about that title, you know, that's not so bad of a thing, to be only able to kick midsection. Many of a fights have ended with a midsection kick to their opponent!!

Nah, midsection kicks will simply be grabbed.

[Prototype]

I can do rising kick straight, head level, axe kick, Crescent kick, but not roundhouse or sidekick...

My style is ITF Taekwon-Do - Korean karate. That is to say emphasis on kicks but all the hand techniques (plus some) from Shotokan. I don't know if roundhouse kick is head level in any form but even if it isn't, it's still pretty alarming that I can't perform it head high correctly after two years.

High turning kicks (both legs) is in Hwa-Rang at 2nd gup. Then at every grade above that there is at least one pattern per grade that has a high side or high turning kick.

That said I wouldn't sweat it. I've been doing ITF TKD for 16 years now... still struggle with my flexibility with high roundhouses being particularly difficult for me. Instructors will prefer good mechanics over reaching too high for a kick and should make allowances for ability. As long as you know it should be high section by the book, you can perform at a low level with correct mechanics.

Only way to improve it is stretch, build strength, and learn the correct mechanics:

I don't think there is high side kick in any form. People do it only to brag that they can.

[Prototype]

I can do rising kick straight, head level, axe kick, Crescent kick, but not roundhouse or sidekick...

My style is ITF Taekwon-Do - Korean karate. That is to say emphasis on kicks but all the hand techniques (plus some) from Shotokan. I don't know if roundhouse kick is head level in any form but even if it isn't, it's still pretty alarming that I can't perform it head high correctly after two years.

I suffer from the same affliction. I can front and crescent kick to the head just fine. I struggle to get roundhouse and side kick above belt level.

Focus more on stretching the ignored muscles such as gluteus minimus and maximus, tensor fascia latae, piriformis, psoas. Most people have no idea what most of them are, let alone how to stretch them. A little Google-Fu helps a lot.

Groin stretching is also important. Most people who don't stretch it right lean too far forward to support their weight when stretch it. The more upright, the better.

I showed pretty good gains by routinely doing the "frog stretch." Basically a groin stretch by being on the elbows and spreading your legs with your weight on your knees. It's a yoga stretch, but it may have other names. Google search it.

It could also be hip abductor weakness, as LLLearner was saying. Google.

It's rarely one thing, and almost always a combination of many things.

Isn't there a great risk that I will do permanent damage to my knees with some of these stretching excercises? S

[DWx]

I can do rising kick straight, head level, axe kick, Crescent kick, but not roundhouse or sidekick...

My style is ITF Taekwon-Do - Korean karate. That is to say emphasis on kicks but all the hand techniques (plus some) from Shotokan. I don't know if roundhouse kick is head level in any form but even if it isn't, it's still pretty alarming that I can't perform it head high correctly after two years.

High turning kicks (both legs) is in Hwa-Rang at 2nd gup. Then at every grade above that there is at least one pattern per grade that has a high side or high turning kick.

That said I wouldn't sweat it. I've been doing ITF TKD for 16 years now... still struggle with my flexibility with high roundhouses being particularly difficult for me. Instructors will prefer good mechanics over reaching too high for a kick and should make allowances for ability. As long as you know it should be high section by the book, you can perform at a low level with correct mechanics.

Only way to improve it is stretch, build strength, and learn the correct mechanics:

I don't think there is high side kick in any form. People do it only to brag that they can.

High side in both Juche and Moon-Moo