How long before I can kick properly?
A usable low kick in a few weeks. A kick that feels like yours takes months. It is a whole-body turn from the floor up, not a leg swing.
Faster than you think for something usable. Longer than you think for something good.
The Thai round kick is not a leg swing. It is your whole body turning like a bat. The lead foot pivots until the heel points at the target, the hip comes over the top, the arm on the kicking side drops and swings past, and the shin is just the last part of a rotation that started at the floor. The day somebody stops kicking with the leg and starts kicking with the turn, everything changes inside one round.
The other one you get early is the teep, the straight push kick off the front leg. It is the jab of the legs. It stops people walking at you and it keeps you in the range you chose.
Timelines. A few weeks and your low kick to the thigh lands with real weight, because it is short and it forgives a lot. Body and head kicks take longer, because they want balance, hip mobility and the nerve to stand on one leg in front of somebody. Three to six months of steady work and kicking stops feeling like a stunt.
Pivot the standing foot every single time, no exceptions. That one thing speeds up everything else, and it gets fixed on the pads with a moving target, not from a description on a screen: what pad work is.
Sore shins in the first month are almost always technique rather than toughness: does kicking hurt.
If your hips or knees have a history, tell me on day one, and see a doctor about anything that hurts rather than aches. Ask me when you message me.
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