Originally Posted by
Kellen Bassette
Here's one that's bothered me for years...where is the roundhouse kick in all the old forms? The roundhouse is one of the most basic kicks in practically every striking style...and it is usually drilled and used pretty aggressively in most Asian martial arts.
The problem is that you never see roundhouse kicks in, pre-Communist forms, or in classical Okinawan Karate katas either. I'm sure someone will come up with some example, (maybe in Choy Lay Fut forms, not sure), but the question remains. If the roundhouse is such an important kick, why isn't it all over in the old forms?
Obviously the kick was utilized in TCMA, it's fundamental in Sanda; and it's the most natural, instinctive kick there is, besides the front kick. (Even untrained children will use some variation of a roundhouse kick on each other.)
The same phenomenon exists in classical Okinawan Karate. The roundhouse kick is drilled at every dojo out there, but not to be found in any traditional, (we'll say pre-WWII,) katas. This may be because most the classical Karate material is derived from Fujian Kung Fu systems, but why is the roundhouse so important to those arts today?
Then we have the different styles of roundhouses. The two most common variations are the snapping roundhouse, where the instep is used for the kick and the leg is rechambered after kicking, (what I call the Korean roundhouse,) and the kick with the shin; with follow through and no rechambering, (the Thai roundhouse.) I've trained under several different senseis and shifus and have learned both those styles of kicking, depending on the teacher, not the style.
Besides those, there is also the roundhouse with the ball of the foot; and a cutting roundhouse on a 45 degree angle with the heel. Of course there's tons of subtle differences in the "proper" execution, school to school, but we won't worry about the technical stuff.
I'm curious as to which kick you learned as the roundhouse. (I'm sure many of you train more than one version, but there's probably one style your school used day in and day out.)
I was told that the "traditional" Okinawan roundhouse kick, was with the ball of the foot, to the knee. In spite of the fact that 90% of Karateka, use the snapping roundhouse with the instep. I think this may be correct, (even though you don't see the other roundhouse in the old katas either.)
Now my theory. I think Karate borrowed the "Korean" roundhouse from Tae Kwon Do. I also think most of the early Chinese MA schools in the States; (and probably the Hong Kong schools,) did the same thing. Tae Kwon Do spread more rapidly than any other MA, due to their aggressive, world-wide, franchising. The "Korean" roundhouse was also popular in the early MA movies.
I think the roundhouse has always been around in TCMA, in various incarnations, but has risen considerably in importance since the '60's due to the reasons above.
Or maybe it was invented by Chuck Norris and he delivered each variation to the respective disciplines, while keeping the most powerful for himself.