# muay thai side kicks



## drummingman (Oct 30, 2006)

are the side kicks to the shins of a person in muay thai a safe thing for a person to do? i mean,i keep seeing footage of guys doing the side kick to someones shin and then BAM his leg breaks at the shin (im talking about the person doing the kicking) .it just seems that its so easy for this to happen.and i can't see someone being able to come back from such an injury in the future and keep fighting.


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## Hand Sword (Oct 30, 2006)

Side kicks aren't usually employed in Muay thai fights, mostly round kicks. How did you see them used? In general, there's a lot of power behind a side kick. Even blocking it causes damage. Best to move out of the way.


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## drummingman (Oct 30, 2006)

maybe im calling the kick by the wrong name.im talking about when a person swings his leg from the outside into the opponents shin or their side or head.
i can see this maybe not being as dangerous to the person kicking if they hit the ribs of another person,but when it hits the other persons shin or head it just seems easy to cause a break in the person kicking.
maybe this kick is called a round kick,im not sure.it has been a long time since i studied muay thai so i can't remember.
there is footage of this type of kick from the thread "is this real footage" in this section of the board.


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## Hand Sword (Oct 30, 2006)

Yeah, sounds like a round house kick. In that case Muay Thai practitioners condition their shins to take the abuse, and continue their careers. Their shins are like steel poles! Besides, they are "triangling" their leg to take the incoming blow. It's the strongest formation for the leg in defense, occasionaly a leg breaks, but, mostly not. as for the side of the leg, a big muscle and the biggest bone to take the hit. Again, they are conditioned phenomonally for this, all over their body.


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## drummingman (Oct 30, 2006)

can a person keep this type of kicking up into old age? i ask this because i imagine that if a person puts years into muay thai training that even when they are not competing they will use this as their main source of self defense on the street if they are attacked.


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## Hand Sword (Oct 30, 2006)

It's tough to do anything in old age LOL! However, If you're referring to the round kicks, It's possible, I've seen aged Karateka do fine in the kicking game. As for street self defense, you probably won't see an attacker use a round house kick. It's almost always a few swings, maybe a low type of quick kick, and then the grabbing starts, with swinging. Or, your caught unawares and find yourself grabbed, or just sucker punched or hit with an object.


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## drummingman (Oct 30, 2006)

well i figure that if a muay thai person is attacked on the street that their training will just kick in and they will do what they have ingrained into their muscle memory.
i would imagine that if a muay thai person were to fire one of those round kicks into the knee area of a street thug it would be rather devastating to the thug.


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## Hand Sword (Oct 30, 2006)

To part 1, as with all styles and systems. You play how you practiced. As to part 2, umm....Yep!


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## thaistyle (Oct 30, 2006)

Hand Sword hit the nail on the head.  Muay Thai fighters condition their shins to the max.  Lots of bag work.  As for them breaking, in my experience, there was already an existing fracture that caused the initial break.  I never had any breaks, but I had a massive hematoma on my shin.


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## deanjones (Oct 30, 2006)

Are you talking about this?






It's still debatable if that was real or not.  Looks pretty real though...   I've always wondered about that myself.

You can condition your shins by deadening the nerves in your shin area as well as possibly increase bone density by physical conditioning.  However, if you have naturally brittle bones, this is obviously a problem.  I can imagine even for someone with well conditioned shins could easily break their leg if hitting the shin of another fighter at full force.  

However, it makes you wonder how well conditioned that guy was...


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## Andrew Green (Oct 30, 2006)

It's real, and a injury that has happened more then once, there are even a few different videos of the same injury occuring to different people.  It's not common, but it does happen.  

Boxers occasionally break their hands when punching, and without the gloves, gauze and tape if they fought the way they do now barefisted, there would probably be broken hands in every fight.


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## chris_&#3617;&#3623;&#3618;&#3652;&#3607;&#3618; (Oct 30, 2006)

Andrew Green said:


> and without the gloves, gauze and tape if they fought the way they do now barefisted, there would probably be broken hands in every fight.


 
one reason i dont like punching , the other reason being my kicks whip ***:whip1:


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## Jimi (Oct 30, 2006)

You can not realy condition shin to the point of being unbreakable, you can absolutely condition shins to a level that an unconditioned shin is very likely to take damage. Every bone can break, but toughening the shis can stack the deck in your favor, but that does not mean rolling the coke bottle will make your shins unbreakable in X amount of weeks of conditioning. PEACE


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## deanjones (Oct 31, 2006)

I think that would be more along the lines of deadening nerves as opposed to conditioning the bone.  You can condition the bone by proper diet, of course, but also weight training helps a lot in building bone density.  Causing your bones to manage heavier loads of weight will build density in the bone and cause it to be more dense and hense a bit stronger.  Even doing simple kicks to harder bags can build up density.

True you can't make a bone non-breakable... but, you can absolutely build up density in the bone and make it tougher.


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## drummingman (Nov 2, 2006)

can a thai fighter keep fighing after such a bad break? it seems that it would end their career.if im right it would seem that they would get rid of these kind of kicks just so the person does not take such a chance on blowing out their career.
but maybe im wrong and thats why they still use the kicks.


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## Andrew Green (Nov 2, 2006)

Career ending injuries are a threat in every sport, even "non-contact" ones.  It's rare, but it happens.  People occasionally getting shot doesn't stop hunters.  Car crashes don't stop driving, a rare broken leg won't stop Muay Thai.


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## drummingman (Nov 2, 2006)

well thats true,but it may for the fighter who breaks his leg.


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