True. I can also keep up a guard while kicking. It depends on the situation and kick. But if I'm trying to cause as much impact as possible, I'm turning my front foot damn near to 9 o clock and letting my rear leg fly with as much force as I can generate
From my experience, you don't need to open the foot that much, 10/11 o clock is enough, since the foot will pivot to 9 anyways, and more if you miss the target making you do a full spin
I normally only open it that much if the combo endswith a rear roundhouse. My coach taught me this way. I couldn't very well go against him. He would ask me wtf am I doing.
Whatever floats your boat
There was one guy in thai boxing during the 90s, his high kicks were ugly as fuck, like sketchy, like really he looked like a giant retard most of the time while throwing them. But they were actually extremely effective. His name was peter aerts. Here on the second kick, you can see he opens his right foot at 2 o'clock almost 3, to shift to 4 (if not 5) right before/on impact https://youtu.be/kbWlq4yW3Vs?t=261
And that's not his ugliest kick lol
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