Doesn't hurt me or anything but usually whenever I do a crescent kick whethor it be outside or inside, my leg and hips like pop. Not like knuckle popping, but like it feels like the joint pulls away a lil' and then clunks back into place. And if it doesn't than I make so it doesn't feel weird.

Any ideas, because I don't want to have any long term problems with something like this.

Sounds to me like what my specialist calls 'dancer's hips'. I had this myself. The clunking is caused by a thickened (inflamed) tendon. If it doesn't hurt now, it will later.

See a sports doctor ASAP. And give up leg swings as a 'warm-up' - do very slow front, side and back kicks to warm up instead. I do this. I haven't had 'clunky hips' since I gave up leg swings 20 years ago. Some people can get away with leg swing warm ups - you're probably not one of them. After your hips recover, you can practise mikazuki/osoto gari *after* you are fully warm from slow kicks.

My 2 cents...

i know what you're talking about. i only get that when i go too high or haven't warmed up sufficiently

I have the same thing, I think it's a tight psoas muscle but I might be wrong. All I know is every time I have my psoas worked on the noise/clunk is gone temporarily. So, see a doctor or find a good clinical massage practitioner.

I agree 100% with what Dan said about doing a less harsh warm up routine as well.

This is a simple psoas stretch that I use (along with a couple other things) anytime I do any kicking:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http...=image&cd=1

Is the "clunk" on the outside or inside your hip? I have the same thing on the "outside" off and on, but think mine is from the iliotibial band. If i am not careful, i get pain on the outside of my hip and into my knee. Some things i do that seem to help:

the stretch in this article, but i've always done it with the arm of the side i want to stretch raised over my head (zach's stretch is good too!)

very light dynamic warm-ups before practice raising the leg with the knee bent first--straight leg dynamic raises made me almost unable to walk for about a week

watching leg position when coming DOWN from a kick--also i found that making sure the quads and abs are engaged is helpful, instead of just swinging your leg down without thinking

massaging the itb with the heel of my hand from the hip to the knee--this works like magic

of course, this may not be your problem, so you should find someone who can identify what is going on

The "clunk" is the swollen tendon moving over the joint (when it isn't swollen it just glides over). It is caused/exacerbated by the foolish "warm-up" of leg swings. Don't do them as a warm-up. Simple. Some people have strong hips and it doesn't bother them, but this is despite doing the exercise, not because of it.

The only other noise in a joint is the 'pop' of nitrogen bubbles when you crack your knuckles. This is not, in itself, harmful.

Contary to common impressions, your hip isn't going out of joint. If it were truly out of joint you would be in agony and require hospitalisation and relocation under some sort of anaesthetic.

Trust me - I used to have clunky hips. I went to see sports physicians who treat dancers and martial artists. I stopped doing leg swings. I started doing slow front, back and side kicks - slow through every part of the movement. I haven't had clunky hips since.

Don't do leg swings. Do slow kicks. Simple.

Yeah, that freaked me out when i found out about the tendon clunk--made me imagine it was getting sliced into. Leg raises with the knee bent don't bother me and seem to help with getting height/stability for the straight kicks we mostly do. How slow do you do your slow kicks?

Still have to do uchi/soto mawashi kicks though, and core muscle engagement really seems to help with avoiding the clunk with those.

Not too slow - but constant and controlled through the whole move, holding for a second or 2 at the end (esp. side thrust). Do them against the wall (holding on). Do 10 each leg to the front, then 10 each leg to the side then back kick, then mawashi. Side is most fun, front is most important. Imagine you're Bruce Lee - do whatever it takes, just do them.

My brother also had clunky hips. Now he can put out a slow yoko geri to head height and comfortably hold it there for ages - and no clunking (he's in his mid-forties).

Go to http://www.wuweidao.com/news_files/archive7/archive7.htm and scroll down, you'll see a picture of him doing kicks. He was never a natural TKD type kicker, so this tells you something. The guy he is kicking (slowly) is 6'4"!

I forgot I could just paste the picture in: