Crescent kicks are used as dynamic stretches in northern Kung Fu, but they also show up in the forms and are given various fighting applications.
The outside crescent is a useful technique if you know how to make it work, but aside from stretching, a lot of people seem to have pretty vague ideas about applying inside crescent kicks. The most common methods I hear are: knock something out of someone's hand, knock down the guard, feint and hit them with something else. There doesn't even seem to be a strong consensus on whether one should hit with the heel, ball, sole or inside edge of the foot.
I've noticed that when many Thai boxers shadow box, they don't turn their hip over on the round kick, the way they would on a bag, pads or an opponent. The reason you often see this poor form, even from good fighters, in a style that puts so much emphasis on turning the hip over, is because it is very difficult to do in the air. When you throw a Thai style round kick in the air correctly, it has a tendency to spin you around, much like it would if you were to completely miss your opponent. I've often noticed in shadow boxing, round kicks start to look suspiciously like sloppy crescent kicks.
Round kicks are noticeably absent from most traditional Gong Fu forms. I'm not convinced that it is because these kicks were never used. I suspect it is because round kick can really ruin the "flow" of a form. Crescent kicks, on the other hand, look beautiful when thrown in the air, transitioning smoothly to the next movement. But have you ever thrown a real hard inside crescent on a heavy bag? Great way to jack up your knee....
This brings me to the fancy kicks. Tornado kicks are quite simple to do as a crescent kick, but those rare occasions when people use them to knock someone out, they are typically round kicks, hip turned over, connecting with the shin. Again, quite difficult to perform in the air, a tornado kick as a round kick, but pretty simple to throw against a heavy bag.
Even the Lotus kick, (jumping, spinning outside crescent,) seems suspicious. I've seen the application presented as a regular spinning heel, (wheel) kick. Makes me wonder why not just show it as a regular spinning crescent? Spinning heel requires the hip to turn over as well. A normal outside crescent can make sense from a fighting standpoint, but when you add the spin you would have to be so close to your opponent to land it that spinning seems overly impractical. Contrast with the spinning heel, which is far more powerful and thrown from ****her away. The spin makes more sense and is less risky. Of course, the lotus kick looks better and flows much better in forms. If you're going for the look of aerial kicks, flying, spinning heel is very difficult to throw smoothly in the air. It requires excellent flexibility, far more so than the crescent kick variant. It also is tougher to flow with into your next move.
So...the point I'm eventually making here....
What if the crescent kicks in forms are actually performance kicks that evolved from more practical fighting techniques? What if the entire strategy of the inside crescent kick is the re-engineering of what was once actually some version of a round kick?
Thoughts?