What is the difference between a Tae Kwon Do roundhouse and a Muay Thai roundhouse?

 

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Well this is a little bit of an oversimplification. There are actually several different types of Tae Kwon Do, and there are several different types of roundhouse variations in each one. Muay Thai also has several different variations of the roundhouse as well, but for the sake of simplicity we’ll look at the most common roundhouse in Muay Thai and WTF Tae Kwon Do (This is the style of Tae Kwon Do most popular in S. Korea and the style that is used in the Olympic Games). The most obvious difference is the part of the leg used as the striking surface. The WTF Tae Kwon Do roundhouse uses the instep as a striking surface. Also this kick to the body is designed to quickly sneak under the elbows of the opponent so the angle is always extremely upward. Good TKD players have roundhouses that move so much upward that they almost look like front kicks with the hips only rotating at the very end. Lastly the objective after landing a scoring kick in TKD is to adjust the distance so your opponent can’t return a kick. For this reason the most common method of throwing a single kick is to drop the kicking leg in front after making impact and advancing forward to got into an end position that’s chest to chest with your opponent, effectively jamming the distance for a return kick. Muay Thai on the other hand uses the shin to strike since it’s a bigger bone and does more damage. The shins are also used to check (defend) kicks so an extreme upward angle will be easier to check. For this reason the Muay Thai roundhouse to the body is thrown closer to parallel to the ground with a slight upward angle. Lastly the intention of each kick is different because of the difference in how points are awarded. In WTF Taekwondo accurate clean kicks are rewarded so what matters most is making contact with the target quickly. In Muay Thai even blocked kicks are scored if they are able to physically move your opponent or visibly inflict damage through the opponent’s guard. For this reason all Muay Thai kicks are aimed to drive through the opponent instead of stopping at the point of impact.