Bamboo

Kickboxing is a type of martial art that combines such other styles as boxing, karate, and Muay Thai. It is relatively new, having been created in the early 1970s as a reaction of many who disliked the competition style of these older and more traditional martial arts.

Kickboxing Competition

The creators of kickboxing designed competitions so that full contact could be made from punches and kicks. However, protective gear can be worn during matches, including helmets, chest protectors, and shinpads. Set rules protect the welfare of both opponents, though they can differ with each school, organization, and country. For example, kickboxing rules in Japan state that elbows are allowed, while in Europe, elbows are not.

The types of kicks and punches are similar to other styles. There are front and sidekicks, roundhouses, straight punches, upper cuts and so on. Sweeps and knees also exist. Training focuses on strength and endurance, combining the cardiovascular training of boxing with the strength training of karate.

There are no longstanding traditions in kickboxing, and it is considered fairly open to interpretation, unlike other martial ars styles. Therefore, within kickboxing, there may be several different types, accordign to the instructor and school.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 5:42 pm and is filed under General Martial Arts Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.