r/karate • u/MaryBeeCD • Aug 25 '26
Question/advice Mawashi geri - Practice/Analysis
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Style: shorin ryu matsubayashi
Objective is to focus on control over power, while keeping balance. The foot in the ground must keep still on my style but I make the exception and add rotation to avoid injuries on knees. About the leg in the air, it's important to me to keep glutes, psoas, isquios well trained at the gym. After the hit, the feet must not touch the ground, or fall into the ground. These muscles must keep the knee in the air to get control. I may try another video, focusing more in power and observing how easy is to lose control and forms. Any observation or feedback will be appreciated.
Edit: I'm 6 feet tall, that may help to analyze
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u/The_Bill_Brasky_ Shorei-Ryu Aug 25 '26
Don't drop front hand. Bad habit that may cost you teeth at some point. Pumping the kick like that doesn't add any power and drops your guard.
On the whole not bad, but foot needs to rise to the same level as the knee a hair faster. Don't be afraid to turn the hip over and add a little more whip to the kick.
You are correct to pivot the foot to avoid injury. Anybody who says otherwise is inviting knee and hip issues for their students.
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
The hand down is a bad habit, thanks I don't understand the knee-feet same level :/
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u/gray-ops Shotokan Aug 25 '26
One way to help with the habit, grab your gi. Is that technically correct? No. However, it helps with training your hands to not drop and stay in the same position when throwing the kick. Practice that then transition to just holding them up is easier.
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u/OyataTe Aug 25 '26
String a rope or closeline for your left hand to slide around on and prevent you from dropping it for several thousand reps. If your imaginary opponent steps right when they see the knee lift, they will impact their ribs into you before full power is generated and they can punch or hook your face, jaw or neck with zero protection.
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u/OyataTe Aug 25 '26
String a rope or closeline for your left hand to slide around on and prevent you from dropping it for several thousand reps. If your imaginary opponent steps right when they see the knee lift, they will impact their ribs into you before full power is generated and they can punch or hook your face, jaw or neck with zero protection.
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u/SrPantsarof Aug 25 '26
Careful with this one because dropping the hand isn't nearly as bad as people say it is. Pro MMA fighters do it all the time you can see it in their fights and training montages. This is something that I've seen a lot of polarization on. Dropping the hand can be dangerous theoretically but it also adds counter rotation to your hips so newtons 3rd law adds whatever power you put into your arm to swinging your leg. At close range it also allows you to kinda grab their guard and push off of them making the mechanics even easier while disrupting them a tad.
But often you just want a quick kick, or you're close enough to be worried about a hook or you want to combo from the kick or you don't want to make the kick obvious. It's like a 40/60 split between swing the arm/keep your guard up.
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u/LopsidedShower6466 48 M from Shoto to Shitō Aug 26 '26
In most styles of Karate it's generally bad form
in Taekwondo, not much of an issue
in Muay Thai, it's almost a requirement to drop the lead and shoot up the rear hand for torque and power generation
my two cents9
u/Tribblehappy Aug 25 '26
It's blowing my mind that a style exists that discourages pivoting the foot.
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u/ConfidentBird8173 Shotokan Aug 26 '26
Same. That torsion on your knees is begging for injury and a knee replacement by age 40.
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
At least in my dojo I was told to avoid foot pivot for mawashi. Maybe same style but different dojo have changed that
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u/BellyFullOfMochi World Oyama / Kyokushin Aug 26 '26
... yeaaaa I'd leave any dojo that says not to pivot.
Great way to blow out your knees.
This is not a style thing. It's an actual safety issue.
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u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Aug 25 '26
Did your dojo have anyone over 18 that was still walking around with both knees working lol?
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u/ComputerAbuser Aug 25 '26
Ha, funny, I immediately yelled at my screen to not drop your hand. In Kyokushin that's a quick return kick to the face.
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u/SeaworthinessHead613 Aug 25 '26
In your style what part of your foot makes contact ?
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
English not my native language so I think it's the bridge
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u/SeaworthinessHead613 Aug 25 '26
Thanks. I do Shotokan, so it's the koshi.
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u/GKRKarate99 Shotokan 1st Dan formally GKR and Kyokushin Aug 25 '26
Yeah, from my Shotokan training we kick koshi/ chusoku, I prefer to kick with the shin but that’s due to Muay Thai and MMA training
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u/SeaworthinessHead613 Aug 25 '26
I prefer the instep, but that's due to broken toes. The shin is a devasting weapon :-)
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u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Nothing like sparring karate with someone that did Muay Thai and all of a sudden they’re receiving your kicks with their shins lol… at least you can tell immediately what’s going on it’s such a distinctive style, but as a style that never practices conditioning to or from the shins it suuuucks lol
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u/SeaworthinessHead613 Aug 25 '26
Ha ha yes, I sparred with a kickboxer when I was younger & more arrogant, had just got my first dan and then bam, he had me all over the place. It was a good lesson.
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u/Blast_From_The_Pa_ Japanese JJ Kyokushin Aug 25 '26
I don't get the position of your left leg on the opponent 's body: do you try chusoku or shin?
Right leg I can see clearly a classic mawashi geri chudan with the instep.
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u/Fighting_Deer1974 Aug 25 '26
I second this. Also, when kicking with your left leg, after impact, your left hip immediately drops/sags (for lack of a better word). Compare with right leg kick, where you hip position remains correct during hiki ashi.
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
You mean that it's landing too low or too high?
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u/Fighting_Deer1974 Aug 25 '26
No the height is not relevant, the position of the hip throughout the kick, including the pulling back should be the same. Your lower body should be facing the target. With your left kick, after impact, your hip returns too soon to a front facing position (you pull back the left hip).
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u/Training_Singer2526 Koryu Uchinadi Aug 25 '26
Great hip Rotation. I dont really understand why the foot has to keep still, i teach to rotate it almost 180° for safety and Power.
You could try raising the knee in Front of you, Not to the Side, to Not spoil what you're gonna do.
Idk whats your desired contact Spot, but shouldnt you try to kick with the shin and Not the top of the foot? Seems very risky and also Not very effective to me.
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u/Consistent-Ranger446 Aug 25 '26
You'll get more power if you turn your hips and bottom foot more. No sense kicking soft.
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u/Bors_Mistral Shoto Kobudo Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Absolutely save your knees, no idea how that can be an "exception". I do like rotating the foot together with the hips rather than pre-positioning it though. As others said, keep the hands up.
Last thing, the technique starts with lifting the leg off the ground, and ends when it touches down. I know it's easy to forget and just do the first half (until the impact) tight and fast, and then kind of relax on the way back, even if the knee follows the right trajectory. Need to keep in mind that it should be fast in, fast out.
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
I think you are right. The mawashi goes from the ground to the opponent, then returns flexing the knee and back to the ground. There's a variation that rises first like a mae Geri but then turns into a mawashi. It's like a faint.
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u/Capital_Craft Aug 25 '26
Drive the leg with your hips if you want more power ie. Turn over your hips, as others have said. That is slightly slower but more powerful, so it depends on what you're going for.
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u/Klutzy_Assignment391 Aug 25 '26
With what part of your leg are you hitting the target?
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
English is not my native language so i think it's the bridge
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u/Klutzy_Assignment391 Aug 25 '26
Careful there not to break the bones in your leg.
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
What's your style and what of the feet hits the target?
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u/Klutzy_Assignment391 Aug 25 '26
I was trained in shotokan and fudokan but I recommend using the shin bone, as they do in Muay Thai. What is the recommended way in your style?
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u/Regular-Employ-5308 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Maewashageri as per the comments is such a treasure trove of technique and there’s a LOT which is style dependent .
I’ve come from a Shotokai background and mine looks nothing like yours but that’s fine, different prioritisations ….
But , what is NEVER talked about is how tall people and shorter people have to fire a very different chain of muscles to get the kick out cleanly . Quads, ab/adductors and piriformis all give a vastly different road to balance and power generation.
It’s worth doing partner work with them ‘lightly’ bracing against your foot as you slowly go through the whole movement to feel what’s going on in your own body.
Once you have that down you can start picking out the efficiencies 🙌
This is why it’s so difficult to recommend technique improvements from one person to another , you might be feeling things completely outside of someone else’s experience frame .
You’re 6’0” and as a woman your centre of mass is gonna be wildly different I think from probably most people’s ideas of what’s possible to pivot and when.
Shorin ryu is very kung fu derived and as such your roundhouse has big “it’s a front kick until it isn’t” vibes
Pivot is required at a point that honestly I think the kick motion takes away your ability to perform easily. Once that bent leg is up , you’re in full balance stabilisation mode and you’re planted . Pivoting is seriously a tough thing to execute from here. Heel planting is literally gonna lock out your leg and the ITB tension will prevent pivoting . This is why we see Muay Thai stepping out a tad and angling the lead foot at 45 , to pre-create the pelvic angle to kick through .
EDIT*
Rewatching shows your correct self-mod with the foot angle pre-set but your knee raise is in the attack vector so your pivot issue is at square one again. It’s a catch 22 situation.
Your top line doesn’t come over your pelvis and there’s a tiny hunching , plus the lead hand is counter torquing the kick leg which is super revealing , your body is in balance panic mode and won’t commit to a kick that it knows has poor biomechanics for your shape.
I defo feel a slow partner session of resistive kick work is the best way to understand the best mechanics for you in this particular situation.
All the best with your kicking journey 💜
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u/chrisjones1960 Aug 25 '26
I can not say what is correct for your style, but I teach a kyokushin offshoot style of karate, and for a middle level kick like this, we strike with the shin bone. That means the toes will be pointing in the direction the kick is traveling ( which with us, for a middle level kick, should be horizontally, excepttbfor certain circumstances). You look to be making contact with more the side of your calf, toes pointing more upward. Also, can you explain why your style wants to keep the standing leg still, not pivoting into the kick?
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
We used the foot boy I will try and see with the shin bone
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u/chrisjones1960 Aug 26 '26
The shin is preferred in kyokushin type styles, as it does more damage (big strong bone) and is less likely to get damaged (little tiny bones in the foot).
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u/FXTraderMatt Shotokan & Okuno Ryu Nidan Aug 26 '26
+1 on using the shin. I started in a style that used the foot, but eventually injured my foot once I got stronger and hit harder. The podiatrist told me the bone hardening you can do to shins and wrists is not possible with the foot because too much of it is made up of soft tissue rather than bone. The soft tissue doesn’t harden the same way.
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u/Strict_Yard5874 Aug 25 '26
Some good points about the lead hand, and there's a reason it's a bit of a problem beyond just dropping your guard.
You are decelerating your kick with it as you impact - that shoulder pulling back prevents further rotation of your hip into the kick, which is why your kick is coming in at a slightly upwards angle - you're putting the brakes on your hip rotation.
For power, try to get that lead hand moving across your body in the direction of the kick. This will keep it in guard, pivot your shoulders, and in doing so open up your hips. You'll get way more power kicking this way.
All that said it's a very tidy kick.
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u/Administrative-Fix21 Aug 25 '26
Your mawashi geri has good power and range. I would turn that hip over a bit more when you kick. Hitting your target the way you do puts lateral pressure on your knee and can cause issues over time. Plus that quick little roll over will help add even more power to your kick.
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u/Beyney Aug 25 '26
hand down has to be fixed, not sure of style differences but you should be turning hips more into the kick and stiffening your foot as it looks rather ”loose”
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u/Comprehensive_Mud803 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
From the video, it looks like leg’s impact vector is shifted upwards. It should be perpendicular to the impact surface for deep impact.
To get the feeling right, it helps to train with middle kicks where the leg is parallel to the ground. (Geometrically speaking: parallel to the ground will be perpendicular to the sandbag).
You can observe this be looking the direction the sandbag moves: to the side should be better, slightly up means your force vector is also slanted upwards. (Downwards doesn’t work with sandbags, but they give killer low-kicks when used on a real opponent’s thighs).
Second observation: your feet are not extended.
Unless you want to kick a chuusoku mawashi to break rips or hit inner organs, you should kick with the foot extended (haisoku). It’s more difficult, but it won’t risk your toes.
You hit with the shin anyway in full contact, and against a sandbag. Everything will hurt the foot bones.
Third observation:
Your hip rotation is incomplete. You rotate, but not enough, resulting in what I wrote above for the first observation, the angle of impact. Try rotating just a bit more.
For the rest, ganbatte. Osu!
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u/SugaX12 Aug 25 '26
Kick THROUGH the bag before you snap back. You wanna feel the power going from feet to hip to leg to bag. Generating the power will teach you how to compensate and balance on back foot. Kinda like front snap kick is a spear. You wanna go THROUGH the opponent.
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u/ntroopy Aug 25 '26
Keep your hands up, if your opponent catches your leg or moves in on you during the kick, you’re gonna want those hands up.
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u/gkalinka Aug 25 '26
Not bad at all. More rotation of the body generates more power and velocity. Against a real opponent, you want to draw back the foot/leg from him as fast as possible. So aim for a fast and hard kick and an even faster retraction. Since you are standing on one foot only, this is only possible with a counter-movement of your body. Start with lower kicks to shins etc, the work up higher. Just my 5ct.
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u/cfwang1337 Tang Soo Do Aug 25 '26
This is mostly fine if your goal is to throw a quick, chopping roundhouse to the torso.
A couple of technical nitpicks:
- If you're throwing a quick, chopping roundhouse to the torso, don't drop your hand. Dropping your front hand is okay when paired with a couple of (basically opposite) conditions:
- You have some distance with your opponent and lean back considerably, so that your opponent's arms are in no particular danger of reaching your face (see here).
- You're fairly close to your opponent and are pushing down on your opponent's collar (cf. a reverse collar tie) or dragging down their lead arm with your lead hand. You may want to consider using your knee instead, though, depending on the exact distance.
- To "lean back considerably" and gain more height (or distance), you would also want to rotate your supporting foot much more. As u/No_Departure_2997 mentioned, pointing your heel at your opponent allows you to turn your hips over better. It doesn't have to be a strict 180-degree turn, but in general, the more you turn, the more distance/height and the better the hip turnover. Again, if your goal is to snap a kick quickly into your opponent's torso from the outside edge of punching range, your current level of rotation is fine. Just make sure you set it up properly with some other techniques (e.g., punches at head level) first.
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u/Creative-Wafer8488 Aug 25 '26
No good....
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
Any advices?
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u/Creative-Wafer8488 Aug 26 '26
Don't drop your hand—keep both hands up to guard. Raise your knee and use your hips; you need to crack his ribs or smash his neck. Good speed, but that habit of dropping your hand...
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u/bashomatsuo Aug 26 '26
In TKD, these are called half tuning and not full turning. You have to pivot complete on your standing foot to gain the power.
In half turning, step out of the line to the left a few inches as you plant your foot.
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u/terryjamesthorpe Aug 26 '26
I'd be on the side of hands forward here, I'd always assume a follow up technique (strike or block) rather than assuming that that kick is a finisher, having both hands up hives you options. Otherwise it's a decent kick (although I'd be inclined to hit with the ball if the foot rather than the face if it.
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u/Necessary_Ear_1100 Aug 26 '26
What style requires your anchor foot to stay still? That’s a blown hip/knee situation right there. If anything, I’d say your form is good but rotate anchor foot and hips more for better stability and posture.
Plus quit flinging your arm down etc. arms hands need to stay in place. Otherwise, structure is broken, balance is broken/or harder and you’re opening yourself up for attacks.
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u/jigof7272 Aug 28 '26
Yo soy estudiante en un dollo de karate y este video me serviría mucho para mejorar las patadas ya que tengo problemas para alzar bien la pierna y la rodilla
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u/Flaky_Performer7960 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
Are you really a black belt?
Anyways, you don’t pivot into the kick, you artificially pivot your foot, but your hips are still squared.
You’re not kicking into the bag, you’re kicking at an awkward upward angle.
And there isn’t much power nor control in your kicks — you’re falling backwards from the rebound of the kick, you’re not controlling the rebound
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u/MaryBeeCD Aug 25 '26
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I'm a black belt but my kicks are one of my weakness. I came here searching for advices :)
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u/No_Departure_2997 Matsubayashi-ish Aug 25 '26
Three points.
First point: You need to pivot way more on that plant foot. The heel should be almost pointing at your target.
Second point: You need to figure out how to turn your hips over on the Mawashi geri. Right now they aren't coming all the way through. Your leg is rising at an angle into the bag which isn't good. If it was against a person you would catch elbows. You also lose most of your power by not turning hips over on the kick.
The end position as you make contact with the bag should be hip turned over and your leg coming in at a 90 degree angle to the bag. Heck, if you can manage it, a very slight downward turn as you come through would be even better.
Third point: Dropping your lead hand as a counter weight to the kick is fine. You just need to have your rear hand up to catch incoming punches. I try to keep it a bit in front of my face if I'm kicking like that.
Speaking as a fellow Matsubayashi practitioner and member of the WMKA, you sort of have to abandon some of the perceived fundamentals of the style to have a good Mawashi geri. But that line of thinking opens up a whole other can of worms.