Roundhouse-to-Back-Kick Chain Playbook
Mat Manual companion guide to "Miss With the Roundhouse, Score With the Back Kick." Print it. The article explains why a blocked or fractionally missed roundhouse starts a second exchange and why the refusal beats it. T…
| Art | Taekwondo |
|---|---|
| Family | Korean Arts |
| Level | intermediate |
| Format | playbook |
| Topics | kicks, sparring, competition, safety, training-plans |
Mat Manual companion guide to "Miss With the Roundhouse, Score With the Back Kick." Print it. The article explains why a blocked or fractionally missed roundhouse starts a second exchange and why the refusal beats it. This book builds that one chain — rear dollyo chagi (turning/roundhouse kick) into dwit chagi (back kick) on one continuous rotation — then runs it through a four-week build from shadow work to free rounds where the rush must be earned honestly.
Name: ______________________________ School: ______________________________ Grade: ______________ Start date: ______________ Lead side (circle): Left / Right Ruleset (circle): WT / ITF / School Current week (Part 11): ______________
BEFORE ANYTHING: PARTNER SAFETY AND AGREEMENTS ☐ All partner work in this book runs at agreed speed and agreed contact, stated out loud before each drill. Either partner can lower the speed or the contact at any time with one word, and the drill obeys instantly. ☐ Hogu (chest protector) is worn for all partner kicking work in this book. The back kick in this chain targets the body, center line, onto the hogu only. No back kick in this book is thrown at a partner's head. ☐ The back kick is the hardest kick in this book to pull. It is thrown at controlled contact in every card. A back kick that cannot be controlled to the hogu does not count as a rep, however well it landed. Any partner who feels back kick contact creeping up stops the set; the set restarts slower. ☐ Rushing drills (Part 7 and Part 14) send a partner forward into a turning kicker on purpose. They run at half speed until both partners have passed the card at that speed. The rusher's job is to arrive on the agreed line, not to win the rep by arriving somewhere else. ☐ Spinning work makes some students dizzy. Either partner may call a pause between sets for dizziness, no questions asked, and the session log (Part 16) records it. Dizziness is information, not weakness. ☐ Stop on any pain, dizziness, or loss of control, from either partner, with no argument and no finishing the set first. Log what happened in the session log (Part 16).
Part 1: The Chain at a Glance
One rotation, two shapes. If the turn stops between the kicks, it was two kicks, not a chain.
| Kick | Job in this chain | Body action | What success looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rear dollyo chagi (turning/roundhouse kick) | Score; if blocked or missed by a fraction, start the rotation | Full chamber, full hip turn, real target, thrown to finish | It lands and scores, or is blocked hard, or passes close enough that a rush makes sense |
| Dwit chagi (back kick) | Score on the partner who enters the vacated space | Same rotation continued; eyes over the shoulder first, heel straight down the center line to the body | It lands on the hogu of a partner who is actually entering; against a partner who holds distance, it is not thrown and the spin becomes the exit |
Chain law: the back kick answers the partner's response to the first kick, not the first kick itself. The five honest results:
| First kick result | Partner behavior | Back kick answer |
|---|---|---|
| Misses by a fraction | Rushes in on a straight line | Dwit chagi to the body, into the entry |
| Blocked hard | Steps in off the block | Dwit chagi to the body, early in their entry |
| Blocked or missed; partner holds distance | Stays out, guard set | No back kick. Finish the spin as an exit, reset |
| Lands clean and scores | Exchange pauses or resets | No chain needed. Take the score |
| Misses by a lot, base broken | Rushes, and you cannot spin | Recover to guard first. No back kick from a broken base |
Roundhouse-to-Back-Kick Chain Playbook
Mat Manual companion guide to "Miss With the Roundhouse, Score With the Back Kick." Print it. The article explains why a blocked or fractionally missed roundhouse starts a second exchange and why the refusal beats it. This book builds that one chain — rear dollyo chagi (turning/roundhouse kick) into dwit chagi (back kick) on one continuous rotation — then runs it through a four-week build from shadow work to free rounds where the rush must be earned honestly.
What's Inside
- Part 1: The Chain at a Glance
- Part 2: How a Rep Counts
- Part 3: The Three Rushes
- Part 4: Rush Drill Cards
- Part 5: First-Kick Honesty Cards: Thrown to Finish
- Part 6: Core Chain Cards by First-Kick Result
- …and 22 more sections
The full guide is a paid Mat Manual product. Checkout is not connected yet — no payment is taken on this page.
Free companion article: Miss With the Roundhouse, Score With the Back Kick — the full article, free in full.
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