Jump to content

How to improve shadow boxing kicks


Recommended Posts

I've always admired those with a beautiful strong shadow boxing kicks. The ones that cut through the air with complete focus and balance. The one that comes from the hip and snaps like a whip. I've tried to find a good example, you can see something similar here:

I've been trying to improve my own kicks like this but can't get the hip movement right (kick on pad/bag no issue). I was given two pieces of advice, one (very funny) is to twirl like Cinderella to get used to the full twisting movement. One was to kick and then midway in: grab my ankle, pull it towards my thigh/buttock and balance on the ball of my foot while connecting with my hip power. 

Still, it's just hard to get it right. It's way easier to hit a target than kick through the air. 

Anyone having some kind of advice? Just a matter of iteration plus repetition? It's a bit of an ego thing of mine to get it right...but of course also, learning to kick through the target than just hit it. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

For me the trickiest part of shadow kicks is that a target actually interrupts the overall trajectory, so not hitting anything kind of makes the balance difficult. If your kicks on pads and the bag are fine, I recommend kicking a few times, then just back up so you "miss" the target and try to throw your kick exactly the same as when you hit the target and see what that looks/feels like. Then you can recreate it and do it a gazillian times.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/31/2021 at 5:44 AM, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu said:

For me the trickiest part of shadow kicks is that a target actually interrupts the overall trajectory, so not hitting anything kind of makes the balance difficult. If your kicks on pads and the bag are fine, I recommend kicking a few times, then just back up so you "miss" the target and try to throw your kick exactly the same as when you hit the target and see what that looks/feels like. Then you can recreate it and do it a gazillian 

This is really helpful!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

When I was starting with Muay Thai I had exactly the same issue that it felt strange to just kick air.
If you have a partner at hand, let him/her hold pads or "something" for you and every now and then they shall move back so that you miss.
Since you don't know when this will be, you will kick your normal way.

At the beginning I was afraid of my already damaged knee because of that twisting move. So when kicking "something" my mind was free, when kicking air it was blocked. So when my trainer helped me by "missing" I still could kick normally and get used to the twist.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Most Recent Topics

  • Latest Comments

    • I can only comment on Perth. There's a very active Muay Thai scene here - regular shows. Plenty of gyms across the city with Thai trainers. All gyms offer trial classes so you can try a few out before committing . Direct flights to Bangkok and Phuket as well. Would you be coming over on a working holiday visa? Loads of work around Western Australia at the moment. 
    • [someone posting that students shouldn't be allowed to spar without 6 months in Foundations Class]   Not to respond too directly to the above statement, more to just this kind of advisement which is maybe common, but it just shows how far trad Muay Thai development was from today's class centric, out of Thailand (but probably in some parts of Thailand too) is. They are just two very different worlds and practices. Sparring, especially as it seems it was in the Golden Age...was part of foundations. Yes, there was a lot of grueling bag work or shadow boxing, but sparring playfully in space was part of young fighter development. It's not this extreme, but its a bit like saying you shouldn't get on a surf board until you have the fundamentals down for many months. The point was to assemble fundamentals in relationship to others. And, I certainly understand there are huge differences between these worlds, Westerners spar with different intents. It's only to point out that what Thais traditionally achieved was through very different sensibilities over what Muay Thai even was.  It much more than this, I hope to finish an article on how trad Muay Thai is developed as social rite of passage way-of-life development, but at minimum there is a huge difference in concept in how skills should be acquired.  
    • Just published a rough copy of my watching notes for all 11 of Wichannoi's fights:  
  • The Latest From Open Topics Forum

    • I can only comment on Perth. There's a very active Muay Thai scene here - regular shows. Plenty of gyms across the city with Thai trainers. All gyms offer trial classes so you can try a few out before committing . Direct flights to Bangkok and Phuket as well. Would you be coming over on a working holiday visa? Loads of work around Western Australia at the moment. 
    • Hi, I'm considering moving to Australia from the UK and I'm curious what is the scene like? Is it easy to fight frequently (proam/pro level), especially as a female? How does it compare to the UK? Any gym recommendations? I'll be grateful for any insights.
    • You won't find thai style camps in Europe, because very few people can actually fight full time, especially in muay thai. As a pro you just train at a regular gym, mornings and evenings, sometimes daytime if you don't have a job or one that allows it. Best you can hope for is a gym with pro fighters in it and maybe some structured invite-only fighters classes. Even that is a big ask, most of Europe is gonna be k1 rather than muay thai. A lot of gyms claim to offer muay thai, but in reality only teach kickboxing. I think Sweden has some muay thai gyms and shows, but it seems to be an exception. I'm interested in finding a high-level muay thai gym in Europe myself, I want to go back, but it seems to me that for as long as I want to fight I'm stuck in the UK, unless I switch to k1 or MMA which I don't want to do.
    • Hi all, Does anyone know of any suppliers for blanks (Plain items to design and print a logo on) that are a good quality? Or put me in the right direction? thanks all  
    • The first fight between Poot Lorlek and Posai Sittiboonlert was recently uploaded to youtube. Posai is one of the earliest great Muay Khao fighters and influential to Dieselnoi, but there's very little footage of him. Poot is one of the GOATs and one of Posai's best wins, it's really cool to see how Posai's style looked against another elite fighter.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      1.4k
    • Total Posts
      11.5k
×
×
  • Create New...