Following Through on Kicks

Here is a common tchnique taught when first learning Muay Thai: you perform a high head kick (round kick) and you completely follow through with the kick spinning completely around. When you make the 360 you raise up your leg in a shielding position to maintain your balance. Again, this is an excellent training method to perform when first learning. It is, however, a terrible tchnique for actual sparring. After all, would you want you have your head turned when you kick?

Now, this is not to say that the aforementioned tchnique is not a valuable training tool because it provides a number of positive attribute developments that include the development of throwing the kick, the development of opening the hip, the development of maintaining balance and the development of proper mechanics of a shin block. It is not, however, a decent method to employ in actual application