Martial Arts Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students and teachers of all martial arts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I find that I am able to cause a punching bag to swing much higher with my front kick than my turning kick. This could be due to me being able to transfer more of my body weight to a front kick. Another reason could be due to the snapping action required for a turning kick.
Is there anything I can do to increase the power of my turning kick?
Make sure you have the full rotation. For a roundhouse, your standing foot should be close to 90 degrees at the end of the kick. You can check this by going up against a wall and extending your leg out to kick (using wall to balance as needed). When it reaches the full extension, check to see if your standing foot has rotated, along with your hips. As JohnP mentioned, you should be rotating on the ball of your foot.
If you have the technique down, then it's just a matter of building the strength. A simple exercise for this - using the wall again for balance (as needed), hold your leg out at full extension for a certain length - 30 seconds, 1 minute, you decide what works for you. This will help strengthen your leg for kicks of varying heights. As you've probably heard many times - practice, practice, practice.
Does the snapping action results in a loss of power? I think it creates a greater momentum, but not sure whether it adds more damage.
In comparison to a what kind of kick? What is the baseline? A front kick? I feel that would be an unfair comparison, as the usage of a front kick is different from a turning kick. Though, I've mostly seen front kicks used as a "push" to move an opponent away, and less as a power kick/scoring kick in taekwondo. Someone else can provide insight on this?
In taekwondo, the snapping action, I think, is more for recovery in preparation for the next kick(s). With the established rules in the sport of taekwondo, I am under the impression the snapping action is a result of this. Sparring is continuous, and it's usually only as a result of KO headshot that a single kick is enough to end a match. Those are not easy to land. You can still generate a lot of power from the snapping action though, and the key to that would be in rotation and continued practice.
Here's a Fight Science Video that examines the kick style and uses numbers to create some baselines...but I still feel it ultimately comes down to the individual. With continuous practice, and you'll be able use whatever method you learn very well.
There are too many variables to consider to be able to pick one out and say "This is why", and you don't specify what kind of a "turning" kick you are doing. This could be a reverse, a spin, or simply a round kick.
To address Dungarth's point, when you do your front kick, do you draw your entire leg and knee up to your chest and then push out straight ahead, or is your upper leg horizontal with the ground when you do your kick?
I will address one point that I see as very common among beginning martial artists, and that is not getting your hip and larger leg muscles into the kick. Many times on a rotation type kick such as a round kick this is due to bad foot placement on the planted foot.
If your foot points straight ahead, this prevents any kind of hip rotation from adding momentum to the kick, with a few exceptions (such as axe kicks). For straight ahead kicks, I generally teach to rotate the foot out to 90 degrees. So for your front kick, if your left leg is planted, then it should be pointing out at the wall that is on your left hand side. For turning kicks, you want the foot to rotate so that it is pointing back behind you.
It's hard to describe without showing, but as you start for a round kick, you should be pivoting on the ball of your plant foot, and about halfway through the kick your plant foot should be fully rotated and flat on the ground. This allows your hips to turn over which adds rotational momentum to the kick.
You can try this yourself, simply do your round kick (I'm assuming that is what you are calling a turning kick) with your lead foot in different positions. It's very difficult to do a round kick with the foot pointing straight ahead, and you lose a lot of power if you can do it that way.
Kick through the bag, instead of into it. The snap is merely to minimise the chance of you getting your leg grabbed and your crown jewels turned to scrambled eggs. Apart from that, you need to ensure your hips are loose and that you are limber. The greater your range of motion and the larger the arc of your kick, the more velocity will be behind it. Look at Muai Thai's low kick and emulate it.
