Roundhouse kick. Instep or shin, and conditioning

Spartacus Maximus · Black Belt

Fractures are a likely risk whatever the kicking method if by mistake or accident the wrong part of the leg/foot hits the wrong target at the wrong angle. This combined with being unprepared, insufficiently trained and conditioned. Conditioning the legs and feet is also important for using them to block, deflect or parry incoming low kicks or strikes. Both karate and Thai boxing have such techniques.

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

I've used both. In self-defense, most of my kicking is going to be pretty low, so I'll favor the shin over the instep. But, that will also be determined on how much the target is moving. I may plan to kick with the shin, but if the target backs away, the instep has to do the job. If I have my boots on, the instep will be tough to get as well, so then its the toes of the boots doing the job.
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pers · Purple Belt

For me the best way to deliver a roundhouse is by ball of the foot .
Delivered correctly it produces or delivers more power and shock to the target and safer and less chance of injury to the kicker .
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Trailer_Ape · Yellow Belt

Bushido_man96 &
PERS

Said most of what I was going to.

First of all, don't forget option #3 - the ball of the foot.

Ok, my logic (take it for the 30 or 40 cents it's worth):

When you swing a chain, the end of it moves the fastest. Your shin is NOT moving as fast as the portion of your leg that is further down. How much loss compared to how much gain (in regards to the hardness of an instep vs a shin) is what you have to decide.

I've thrown bad kicks, using the instep, only to hyper extend the doodoo out of my ankle. Never had anything similar happen when kicking with the shin.

Ball of the foot is fairly hard, well padded, and at the speediest end of the whipping leg. ALSO the ball of the foot can be substituted with the TOE when you are wearing a sturdy pair of tactical boots which I normally am

It also protrudes past that "line" created by your thigh, shin, and instep helping it kinda get up in there if that makes sense.

Someone brought up the subject of kicking above the belt and reminded me of what I was told at a school in Tampa FL - the only time you kick a man in the head.... is when he is on the ground

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OneKickWonder · Purple Belt

Ball of the foot is no longer an option for me for roundhouse. As per my opening post, and the reason I asked about instep vs shin, I have arthritis in my big toe joints. Put simply, my toes can only bend a small amount. In my left foot, I have about 45 degrees dorsiflexion at my disposal. In my right foot it is considerably less than that. Less than 30 degrees. In a normal, healthy toe joint, when you reach maximum dorsiflexion, the ligaments will restrict any further movement, and cartilage will serve as a last buffer. Push too far and it will sprain. A few weeks of conservative treatment will normally fully restored it. With osteoarthritis, the limit is imposed by bone surface grinding against bone. Any knock that impacts the joint means considerable pain, sometimes for several weeks. This is when I usually dust off my walking stick and stop training for a while.

This is an issue I see regular in the martial arts community. There is a widespread, inate reliance on all conditions being perfect. Like humans all have the exact same specification, can train the same way, can perform the same techniques etc. I hear it all the time. Advice like, be light on your feet and keep moving is a common one. Few people consider that the very nature of combat means that at any point, you may no longer be able to move one of your arms or legs freely. People train for the conflict that might happen 'in the street',that street being a well lit street with a good level surface and plenty of room to move, on a day when your whole body is functioning at its best, and you're wearing loose fitting clothes, and your attacker completely fails to do anything that might impede your ability to move freely.

A minority (it seems) do consider more realistic things. Limitations. The need to improvise to make the best of a less than perfect situation. The need to look for ideas from styles outside of one's primary style for variations that they can pinch, to help make their main style work better for them.

Trailer_Ape · Yellow Belt

TJ-Jitsu · Blue Belt

Kicks should ideally be made with the shin and not the instep or ball of the foot. Simply stated the shin is the only part of the leg worth hitting with that’ll survive a significant impact. So if you’re going to power, go with the shin.

This does not mean one *cant* use the instep or ball of the foot when kicking however....

Most snap kicks are done so as to sacrifice power for speed, and usually help with those that are less flexible. In other words, getting your shin to someone’s head is difficult for more people rather than less. As a trade off you can snap the kick and end up with a karate style kick. It does the trick if it lands clean and still has KO power.

Think of kicking with your shin as swinging a bat- you don’t care so much precision because it’s going to wreck whatever it hits. A snap kick is like a whip- if it hits its intended target (usually the head) it’ll do damage... but it has to be precise

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