Here is the question.
From what I seen, every one drops the hand when they throw a rear leg round house kick. IF the right leg kick is thrown the right hand drops.
Pro-kung fu fighters do it, pro Mui thai fighter do it. Old grand pas do it.
I personally throw full power rear leg kicks and my hands don’t move. They stay up near my face. I try droping the hand, and no power was added or speed or accuracy or anything.
I am about to go on the revolution, and begin to condemn the hand dropping habbit.
Can anyone prove me otherwise?
Than you.
is that like a hobbit that can’t stop pickpocketing?
Not everyone does it. Some people do it to add extra twist from the hip, like a counter balance. It’s just another technique among many. They’re only bad if you lose, they’re good if you win. I’ve seen a lot of fighters win with sloppy technique but good power. Go figure, the horizon gets further away. 
The “counter turn” at the waste is what drops the hand. That is used to help generate more power as you are using the added twisting force from your upper body as well as your lower body.
I know what you are talking about.
I move my arms, but I don’t let them hang.
If some one does a right rear leg round kick.
do this 1. left leg thrust front kick or side kick
2. Right leg ex kick.
That will teach them.
I used to do that until I got hit in the face a few time. Now I keep my hands up. Pain will break a lot of bad habits.
what you described is a sloppy technique and a bad habit!
this is mainly due to the teacher not nipping this in the bud and the student when learning how to generate power relied on (as david said) counter balance.
This is sloppy and never should the hands leave from the guard when protecting the face.
if all that power is redirected and the opponent comes into attack what good is the hand doing down at the side of your body? nothing.
A good kicker does not use the arms in what I call a slot machine movement. this is like a boxer dropping his guard when throwing a punch. a sloppy mistake.
I took this to mean a slight drop of the hand. You are right, never drop the hand enough to weaken your defense. But that slight dip (less then an inch) will be noticed just in turning your shoulders opposite the kicking direction.
bo hou chuan.
understood. and I agree with a slight drop. however you said
The “counter turn” at the waste is what drops the hand. That is used to help generate more power as you are using the added twisting force from your upper body as well as your lower body.
This is not the way to generate power. you can generate power whilst keeping the upper body and arms in a guard position, though harder this is the proper way.
the same way it is not neccessary to wind up in order to genertate power in a punch.
Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it is outrageously sloppy to use counter weight when kicking.
Attack and defend at the same time will impede one or the other. You can’t have your cake and eat it too in other words.
I’ve learned forms that drop the hands when kicking. It’s actually a legit technique.
Now, if you were doing a front toe push kick, you can leave your hands up.
If you’re shoveling, again, keep em up.
If you are in range, it’s probably a good idea to keep your guard up. BUt as we’ve seen in numerous videos of chinese martial arts fights, there seems to be a lot of hand dropping, not keeping the guard up etc etc. The ‘bagua fight’ video is a perfect example of fighters who don’t get the importance of keeping your guard up.
That macao match is another one and teh list goes on and on and on. In theory it is sound to keep the guard up and ready as much as possible. IN practice, it seems to be the opposite with many kungfu fighters. Go figure.
I agree, we were taught never to drop the guard on a roundhouse.
you can generate power whilst keeping the upper body and arms in a guard position,
Yep, we are agreeing. 
Still in guard position, as you turn your front shoulder back, it drops your hands, it also drops your shoulder. I guess I am talking about very slight drops though. If you drop your hands to your waste when kicking, good things only happen to your opponent.
Yep, we are agreeing. Still in guard position, as you turn your front shoulder back, it drops your hands, it also drops your shoulder. I guess I am talking about very slight drops though. If you drop your hands to your waste when kicking, good things only happen to your opponent.
Most MA drop the closer hand to the opponent on roundhouse kicks. I would hardly say it is sloppy or wrong. I personally don’t do it, but I see the advantages of using the hand as a counterbalance. the torque allows the kicker to regain balance faster and not overcommit forward weight into the kick. Keeping both hands up makes this more difficult in my opinion.
It also arguably makes the round kick faster as well. Visualizing it, it may seem easy to counter, one may think “oh his/her hand has dropped, I’ll just close in and hit him/her where/when they are open.” but it is much much much easier thought and said than done. Some people can roundhouse kick nearly on par with the speed of a jab.
Yeah, I hate those people, but it’s just jealousy. For my style (personal style that is) I don’t kick above the solar plexus often. Occassionally I will, but it’s more to close distance and distract so I can crowd and punch.
brothernumber 9
Im confused you said that you didnt think it was sloppy or wrong however you then said
the torque allows the kicker to regain balance faster and not overcommit forward weight into the kick. Keeping both hands up makes this more difficult in my opinion.
this is my point. you should not rely on your hands for balance though it is easier. As I had said, and if your kicking is good and taught properly you will not overcommit your forward weight and not have to use the hands to counter. this in turn keeps the hands protecting the face.
We love to fight kickers as when they do drop the hand it is very easy to redircet and attack the face and while our opponent is balancing on one leg and in this sloppy case with only one hand protecting his face easier to hit.
Again a good boxer does not have counter his punches when properly executed. this should be alike in MA wether we are using the hands or the feet. again I stress it is harder but more correct and advanced.
The only time I’ve seen the hand drop for a roundhouse is to protect the groin and that was all. I can’t visualize gaining more power by throwing the shoulder in addition, just poor balance and an open door to the upper body.
Warren
I haven’t read all of this thread yet, so this may have been said, but dropping the hand acts like a counterbalance on the body. Notice that when thai fighters do it, they also raise the opposite hand, covering the face with it. The face is then guarded by the arm on one side and the shoulder on the other.
…
huh?
it’s really only sloppy when you don’t perform or understand the full kicking technique. When you do the kick, you step out at an angle - this is to get you out of the way of the opponent’s cross, which is a common counter to the roundhouse. Also, as stated above, you bring the opposite arm to the side of the face with the dropped arm, protecting it.