A roundhouse kick, more properly called a ‘turning kick’ in Taekwondo, is a type of kick where the body is turned sideways, and the foot strikes laterally.
While ’roundhouse kick’ is the term used quite commonly for this type of kick – particularly in America and particularly by non-martial-artists – in Taekwondo it is called a ‘turning kick’ – so-called because you must turn the body to the opposite side, bringing the leg and foot round with it, as you perform the kick.
Traditionally, this kick is performed using the ball of the foot. The ball of the foot is a very tough part of the foot, so the foot is generally not injured when striking with it. Traditionally, the kick may also be performed at 45 degrees.
In a more modern setting, the kick may be performed with the instep. In sparring, the sparring equipment generally prevents the ball of the foot from being exposed, and the shielding provided by the sparring equipment itself means that there is generally no injury to the instep when kicking in this way, so in sparring the instep is generally favoured. The instep may also be favoured in a self-defence setting – shoes also make it hard to expose the ball of the foot.
In some martial arts, the shin is used for the roundhouse kick. This generally requires special conditioning. Taekwondo generally does not explicitly use the shin, but it may occur in sparring simply because the shin is covered by the sparring equipment and a shin hit will, in many rule sets, still score a point.
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If you'd like to learn more about the Korean terminology used in Taekwondo, consider buying this book: Taekwondo Terminology. It contains an extensive dictionary of terms used in Taekwondo, as well as explanations on how to pronounce Korean words, and aspects of Korean grammar.
