Powerful Muay Thai kicks


Muay Thai kicks are lethal weapons in every Muay Thai fighter's arsenal. The main difference between Thai boxing kicks and any other martial art kicks is that they utilize shin instead of a foot to deliver a hit. This makes it much more powerful than a standard kick and it reduces the risk of a leg injury. Hard, fast and precise - a truly devastating weapon.



Types of Muay Thai kicks:


A Push kick also known as a teep is - literally - a foot jab. Straight foot-thrust should be done in a single fluid motion: raise your leg, thrust it straight out and then pull it back in and place it down.
A teep is meant to target hips, abs, solar plexus and - on some occasions - a face. Targeting the other guy's face with a teep is one of the cockiest ways to show a domination in the ring.

Push kick serves as an intercepting kick against other kicks and punches and it also helps to keep your opponent on the distance. If you prefer to kick and punch your opponent and you don't want to get into clinch and some nasty elbow and knee exchange a teep is going to be your best friend.
The only thing you have to careful about is to not let the other fighter to catch your foot and counter attack with a leg sweep.

You can also use a front kick to set up an attack. It goes well with push kick+round kick or even a push kick+elbow combination like:

  • left push kick+right round kick
  • right push kick [close the gap] + left elbow and raise a right elbow immediately after strike to protect your face from the counter.



Roundhouse kick is a semi-circular, 45 degree kick used in low, middle and high levels to target different parts of the opponent's body: the lower section with thighs and knee joints, midsection kick that aims for the rib cage and a head kick which also goes for a neck.

Thanks to its power and effectiveness are the most common kick used in K1 and a various MMA competitions like UFC. It is a very powerful kick: it generates a compressed power equivalent to an impact of a car at 35 mph. A well delivered roundhouse kick has the same impact on a human body as being struck by a baseball bat. There are two different types of low round kick:

  • low kick, which targets thighs
    • kick to the outside of the knee joint or thigh
    • kick to the inside of the knee joint or thigh
  • midsection kick, which targets rib cage
  • A high kick which targets head and a neck
  • And a special kicks like s cartwheel kick



To perform it, bend a leg a little and swing it to the designated area of your opponent's body. Move forward to kick and keep your guard up. It is useful to wear your opponent down and limit his movement by targeting his legs.


Muay Thai kicks are very effective with simple punch+kick combos like:

  • jab+cross+low left kick
  • right cross+left hook+low right kick
  • left jab+right cross+low left kick+right cross+left hook+low right kick


or more sophisticated punch+kick or punch+kick+knee combinations like:

  • left jab+right cross+low right kick
  • left jab+right cross+low left kick+right cross+left hook+low right kick
  • left jab+right cross+left hook+[switch leg] left kick+right knee




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