rotation drills for rear kicks?

[neil_totally]

I've still got tons of work to do on getting better rotation on my kicks. A drill we've been working on with partners is to have our partner black or catch while also stepping out of the way, to force us to rotate further to make a connection.

So, with that in mind, I did a few rounds on just rear kicks on the bag yesterday, but stood about a foot or two off center (to the left, I'm southpaw), shadow boxing a short combo facing directly forward before throwing the kick, which now has to go further before making impact with the bag.

Is this bullshit or worth continuing? Any other drills worth working to improve my rotation?

 

[cakemuncher]

I did a few rounds on just rear kicks on the bag yesterday, but stood about a foot or two off center (to the left, I'm southpaw)

This is wrong. You shouldn't be off center to the left. Your body should be centered right before the kick and then step slightly to the right so that you can penetrate more with your kick. In other words, your right foot must be to the right off the centre line. If your right foot is on the center line, your body is already positioned too much to the left.

The rotation is just about adding the hip rotation. It shouldn't be affecting the correct body positioning, stance and footwork.

 

[shinkyoku]

This is a pretty good drill for improving using the hips. Cliff note: stand in deep horseriding stance. rotate your body with small jumps using your hip. first do a few degree twists, gradually increase to 90 degrees, 180 degres and eventually 360 degrees. once you learned how to use the hip, then you can start adding the kick standing in a more natural fighting stance.

This vid shows the exercise as part of a warmup exercise. He has a video specifically of using it to improve the back kick, but I cant find it at the moment.

 

[mikiemike87]

The only drill Thais tend to do for kicks is repetition kicks. Everyday we started a round with 10 on each side, during the round were double kicks followed by a single, and end the session with 50 consecutive kicks on each side.

Personally I feel how you start the kick is more important than the rotation the repetition style drilling starts to shave off all the extraneous motion in the kick. So coming up really straight on the base leg, not "chicken winging" the kick gets worked out in repetition. If you want to work on the single shot power, I like to precede the single kick with a double kick to remind myself to keep the kick economical before blasting the single roundhouse full rotation.

 

[DoctorTaco]

Kick slowly. Step offline and rotate your front foot clear around so that your heel is facing the bag as your rear shin touches the bag. Hold for a few seconds then rotate back to your fighting stance.