The Art of Eight Weapons and the Short Round Kick (diary entry)

02.02.16   This special two-hour session comprised of the seventh and eighth lessons in the CCMA course on Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. I made use of the time we had by using the “Art of Eight Weapons” to access the short round kick. The short round kick was a particular technique and tactic taught to me by the late Tony Hayes of Warwick Warriors/Hayes Muay Thai during my intensive yearlong study at his school. It possibly has its origins as a flinch response using one leg, where the user jammed an onslaught from an opponent whilst he was cornered. However, it also has its application as a strong opening technique used to break down an opponent’s defence in the much the same way as a flying knee or the jumping thrusting front kick of American/Japanese kickboxing.   We began with a warm-up on the focus mitts, incorporating basic punching combinations with round kicks. We then looked at the mechanics of the traditional Thai round kick. Unsurprisingly, and in contradiction of many Muay Thai “purists”, there are distinctively different ways to throw this basic and most famous of their kicks. In the UK, alone, I have seen krus with a sliding scale of the extent that they flex their knee joint prior to making contact with the shin. I appreciate non-Thai boxing martial artists might be scratching their head at the apparent pedantry and geeky attention to detail I appear to be going into here, but this is a genuine area of dispute. Some krus chamber the knee as much as most karate or tae kwon do teachers would and some krus teach kicking with a completely straight leg throughout the technique’s execution. I have seen variations in-between both and have personally favoured a kick that is about 85% straight prior to impact. Whatever your justification or personal preference, all Thai round kicks seem to share these distinctive traits:   • They are thrown using hip as the main hinging force rather than the knee joint. The description that most of us use to describe the action is that it is “swung as if you were swinging a baseball bat”. The Dutch Thai/Kick Boxing hybrid puts a distinctive and very effective downward angulation on the kick.   • The kick is thrown in a fluid slicing motion through the target whereas many other versions of the round kick tend to be thrown using a type of snappy staccato fashion. Some krus teach their boxers to kick round in 360 degree sweep when shadow boxing whereas others prefer that they return just past impact with a shin-block in order to cover. • As a rule, the round kicks impact using the shin. However, there are rare odd occasions when this is not the case. I even have a typical mass-produced tourist tee-shirt I bought in Bangkok, describing the round kick and explaining that the instep of the foot is the impact weapon.   So, in conclusion, the Thai round kick is a fluid and sweeping kick that generates explosive force from the hip flexors (and the rest of the body behind that!) and impacts using the shin. We then moved onto other punch-kick combination work, bringing teeps at different ranges. This moved onto defences and we focused on the shin block. It might be argued that the short round kick evolved from a high shin block. Shin blocks are typically used to block leg kicks, but might intercept mid-range kicks, especially when used in conjunction with a strong side guard. Next we looked at close range weapons, the elbows, knees and some clinching. The straight knee and the flying knee can be used in a similar fashion as the short round kick to startle an opponent’s defences and cover distance. The diagonal knee comes up in a very similar way as the short round kick, but its execution is different.   Finally we arrived at the short round kick. It always reminded me of a lead leg side kick when used defensively and a lot of force is used by the hip in a thrusting motion. We also looked at the guard position and the importance of sometimes using a long guard and something Tony Hayes used to call a checking block. Although primarily used as a mid-section kick, the short round kick can be used against the back of the hamstrings quite effectively.   The lesson was finished with a series of intensive one minute rounds on the focus mitts:   1. Western Boxing 2. Kicking 3. Kickboxing 4. Elbows 5. Knees 6. Clinch, Elbows and Knees 7. Full Muay Thai   We then ended the session with a series of warm-down exercises. Photos are all those Tony regularly used for publicity work for Warwick Warriors.  

RIP Kru Tony Hayes 1975-2010