I almost always use my kicks to "take the opponent's space". They set up my punches, and also interfere with the opponent's footwork. "Leg chi sao", if you will.

I lean towards speed also. For me it's more about speed and simplicity. I watched a muhammed ali ( sorry about the spelling i have no idea how to spell his first name, i'm a bad speller anyway ) fight the other night and man watching him evade those punches was like poetry in motion. He really knew how to move. The fight i watched with ali in it was awesome. anyway just thought i'd add that. peace

I have been on it's receiving side many times, seeing as I fight Muay Thai. I am not calling it a sluggish kick, I am comparing the movement speed of the attack and the contraction, a forceful, cutting through motion, compared to a snapping, expand-and-contract motion of a roundhouse.

I kind of did a hurried explanation, so my main point was very obscure.

Chang,

Then I politely withdraw my objections to your previous post, and agree. Your explanation is good!

-B

Although the arcing motion does take a little more time, it is still a hard technique to evade due to its range; often forcing you to block it rather than simply evade and even blocking the technique is damaging as well as dangerous.

If it were possible, I would want the learning and mastering of a technique to go something like this. Learn crazy powerful technique, practice crazy powerful technique in sparring and otherwise to make crazy powerful technique more powerful and crazy fast as well. Use said super-crazy powerful/crazy fast technique in competition.

Thank you, and sorry for the miscommunication.

Chen Zen- I totally agree. The roundhouse is a beautiful weapon, especially against taller opponents. I don't enounter them too often, I am 6' 2", but when I do, I use a series of alernating left-to-right roundhouse kicks to the midsection, almost like a "Roundhouse Blast" in comparison to the straight blast. It works very well, and the advance is fast, so my opponent tends to back up rather than circle me. Great distance closer.

strike with speed, after repeating 100000 times there will surely be power. How do you strike with power? hit hard

Well this has always been my way of thinking about, there will always be someone bigger. By that I mean when it come sto on the street, most "street fighters" train more for mass and strength to make up for their lack in technique, therefore no matter how sloppy your punch is as long as it lands with all your mass behind it someone is going down (course this doesn't account for if someone is able to dodge it or counter, but thats my next point). So in order to be able to take on these big guys (if my only choice is to fight that is) you need speed, as well as good technique, to be able to avoid these slow but powerful attacks.

Now you may call this flawed logic and thats fine. If your wondering how I came up with this, its simple observation from what I've seen. If you look around much of the uneducated public (when it comes to martial arts) has the general consensis that bigger is better, the more muscle mass you have the more successful you will be in combat. Anyhow just what i believe, and if there are flaws in my logic then feel free to correct me, so I can correct it myself.

i think for most people this depends on their build as well as their technique, right now (i'm still growing a lot) i'm built for speed over power so i'm better hitting thick and fast and evading, wheras if i grow into the body shape of my dad then i'd be better suited to power and landing heavier blows (hes a stocky bloke) my 1.14p