When executing a turning kick in Tae Kwon Do....

Question

Do you kick with the pad of your foot, the ball of your foot, the heel of your foot, or the top of your foot??

Answer 1

in my taekwondo style (korean songham taekwondo) they call it a round kick but if you are kicking a bag for power or a hand-pad or breaking a board you would use the ball of your foot, pull your toes back as far as you can and kick with the ball. If you are sparring with someone or kicking a bag for speed kic with the top of your foot and point your toes for a longer extension.

Answer 2

When you do a roundhouse in taekwondo, you bring the knee up into the chamber position. Then you rotate the knee so it's nearly parallel to the ground (clockwise for a left leg roundhouse, anticlockwise for a right leg roundhouse), while at the same time, rotating the kicking hip towards the opponent. You then kick your leg out. You make contact with either the ball of the foot, or the instep. Don't forget to chamber your kick properly!

Answer 3

the blade of you foot(ot the pad what ever you want to call it)

Answer 4

If you land that kick square in the balls it won't matter what part of the foot you kicked with!

Answer 5

When you say turning, do you mean spinning?

Let me clarify for you:

side kick of any kind (regular, flying, spinning):  heel of your foot

ax kick: heel or bottom of your foot

round kick: top of your foot (like wear shoelaces would be), or shin

front kick, pushing kick, thrust kick: ball of your foot

outside crescent kick: the blade of your foot (little toe side)

inside crescent kick: arch of your foot (big toe side)

back kick: heel

James

Answer 6

Well if I am thinking of the right kick it is with the forward pad of your foot.

The only time you should use the top of your foot is for a slapping kick, I am not sure what you mean by the ball of your foot ?, The heel is only used by heel kicks. Most of the kicks that you use in TD will use the front pad of the foot, kicks like snap kicks and thrust kicks.

Hope this helps.  

Answer 7

If I'm thinking of the same kick you are --- ours is called a roundhouse kick --- then we are taught two different areas to kick with.

The roundhouse with the back leg uses the ball of the foot, and the roundhouse with the front leg hits with the ball of the foot. I prefer the top of the foot or instep roundhouse, but to each his own. I think we're taught ball of the foot roundhouse at yellow belt.

Answer 8

The contact point depends on your target. If you are kicking a heavy bag, a target pad, or an opponent during sparring (or if you find yourself in the unfortunate circumstance of having to defend yourself against an attacker), then the top of the foot. Reasoning: it's more natural to want to point the toes DOWN than to pull them back out of the way. And in a "right now" situation, it is best to let the body do what it wants to do naturally, rather than trying to force a technique.If you are kicking to execute a break, then you should use the BALL of your foot, the part of the foot which is directly past the joint where the toes end. There ARE people who break with the top of their foot, but this takes YEARS of conditioning before you are able to do this.

You can, with practice, use the ball of the foot for all targets with a turning kick. Nothing wrong with that at all.

EDIT for James:  The turning kick is a specific kick in ITF TKD - Dollyo Chagi. Starts like a side piercing kick - Yopcha jirugi - (some might call it a side thrust, thrust, pushing, etc.): with the front leg, body turns slightly away from kicking side (left foot kick, body rotates right), leg is brought up and chambered in kicking position, but instead of pushing the foot straight out, which would be a side piercing kick ,the foot snaps in from the side and makes contact with the top or ball of the foot. Now, if the contact is made with the foot sword, this is a Vertical Kick (Sewo Chagi) or Crescent Kick (Bandal Chagi). Inner foot sword, Crescent Kick. Outer foot sword, Vertical Kick. Different loading on both of these kicks too