Wanting to become more flexible

I do kickboxing and there are some pretty serious tournaments coming up soon. I really, REALLY love kicks and I can't reach head height with axe, hook and round-house kicks yet and I would really like to be able to.

What sort of exercises help with these - especially the roundhouse and how often should I do them?

Will I limit my growth or anything by stretching daily?

Thanks

Well you have come to the right place then for advice.
Firstly I would like to point out it will not damage growth or prevent growth in any way unless it is performed incorrectly.

Seeing as you want to be able to do high kicks I advise dynamic stretches. These should be performed in various different ways; side, front, behind, etc.
A great link to look at to understand what these look like is:

web page

I would advise doing most of these dynamic stretches.
Also have you read or can you get hold of Thomas Kurz's 'Stretching Scientifically' seeing as he shows a lot of stretches, which would be rather hard to explain without images.
In the fourth Edition of this book it even has a good workout for kick boxers in it.
It is only a sample workout but he says:

General warm-up:

Rotations of joints followed by skipping, and then the dynamic stretches as mentioned.

Specific Warm-Up:

Knee Kicks followed by roundhouse kicks

Main Part:

This could be paddle drills or kicking a bag

Cool down:

Front lunges, side lunges, isometric stretches, relaxed stretches and jumping rope.

This is pulled straight out of a sample workout in his forth edition book. I think its a great workout but I would advise you to read the whole book before jumping in with any stretches you are unsure about.

You may even want to ask one of you instructors as they will probably be rather flexible. Just ask what they did to become so flexible.

I hope this helps, and keeps you busy for a while. I always used to be rather poor with my high kicks but I felt that the best thing was dynamic stretches as they are very beneficial for kicking.
Good luck

Thanks so much Tezza that site is huge!

So if I'm right I'll wake up every morning and do all the leg dynamic stretches he has listed and do 4 sets of 12 repititions on each leg switching in between.

Auch, I shall do 20 leg raises a day to maintain my leg strength or something?

This looks great thanks again Tezza you have shown me the light! I'm going to get all the videos he's listed after the dynamic stretches and watch them doing them in order awesome

Glad to be of help,
I always to do them every morning as it helps to give me a fresh start to the morning and you should notice a bit of a difference within the first few weeks. What you have sounds fine and is not too much for a beginner, so I should say its an okay load for you.
Also please remember not to push yourself too much as you don't want to damage something so that you have to start all over again.
Good luck

Hey I've started it and doing it most mornings and can really feel it. The only problem with it is how long it takes me to get through the kicks Thanks again this really is going to help!

Glad to see that it is helping you. I noticed a difference straight away when I started doing them and am still seeing an increase in flexibility.