Dijita

We do learn to punch to the face. We just don't punch to the face in our tournements because we fight without gloves, and if we punched people in the face without gloves... well there wouldn't be too many fighters left to fight in tournements. I agree though, that perhaps not applying our face strikes in tournements is probably a weakness, but I understand the reasons for it.

If it's late at night and I'm walking home, I carry my set of keys in my hand, with one key sticking out inbetween my fingers, with my hand in a fist. It would make a great eye gouging stabbing weapon should someone try to attack me.

Why not wear no gear like us Kyokushin practitioners and Muay Thai fighters?

Ahh I see, Aefbird. In that case... I want to be blue or green belt because it's the preetiest!

Maybe... maybe not... although it's not the point of the post. The point of the post is just to show some clips of Kyokushin tournements. Anyways, I don't really have that much respect for UFC anymore, now that a lot of it is faked.

Oh yeah, and a link to another thread with video clips

I answered the question, but the color is kind of irrelevent is it not? I mean different styles have different rankings. For example in Kyokushin under the IKO organization... your second belt is orange as compared to yellow in a lot of other styles. In fact yellow is considered a higher belt in Kyokushin IKO. Perhaps making a poll on what Kyu are you would be better? Though some styles have less Kyu's as well.

I guess it depends on what style. I'm sure the rules of contact fighting are different in different tournements. Here's a GREAT link with the full rules for Kyokushin: http://www.kyokushinmail.com/kshin_competition.html To sum up, you can win either through a point or through judges decision. A point is awarded for hitting someone hard enough that they are unable to continue fighting for more than 3 seconds ie: winding them, or a KO. A foul is hitting someone in the groin, a strike to the face using hands or elbow, or striking to the knees. If no point is awarded after the 2-3 min bout, then the judges decide who wins. Our tournements are fought without protection (no shin, hand, head guards). Unless you fight in color belt division (beginner) where it is mandatory for head gear, and optional shin and groin cup. But like I said, I'm sure every style has different rules.

Hehehe... this is a funny argument. Ahhh... Beka and Aefbird... the voice of reason on these boards. I know you were just kiddin mart... it's ok that your style isn't half as cool as KK.

The LA guys that I know are here: http://www.kyokushinla.com

Yay! I did not know about this.

Totally off topic.... but Krunchyfrogg.... your name sends shivers up my spine for some reason.

TJS, I'm a Kyokushin practicioner, and I will be honest. I would not feel comfortable enough to say that I can effectively block punches to my face. We practice them in our techniques, but we don't practice them in our sparring.

That's awesome! Having a great teacher like that will always make a world of difference.

I keep hearing of "World Oyama", what is that?? Is it different than Kyokushin or something? Or just a different branch of it, similar to the various IKO's?? I've met two fighters from the LA Dojo, they were both very nice. I will be visiting that dojo when I come back from San Diego this summer.

A co-worker of mine told me a story about his son. This weekand he was out bowling, and he went outside to have a cigarette. When he came outside, he saw a big guy slapping around some girl. My co-workers son went to confront the guy to try and stop whatever it was that he was doing, and the big guy swung at him. He avoided the hit, and immediately punched him hard in the face, just once and it knocked him out cold. The cops came and arressted the guy and the girl was thankful. The downside, is that when he punched the guy, three of his teeth got imbedded into his knuckles. Later on I guess it developed some kind of infection and spread up his arm. His hand was twice the size (but it wasn't broken), and he had to get anti-biotics and cast his arm up above his head. The thing is, he's never taken martial arts, he was just some guy did what he thought was right. I think this is a great story though, because I think it was great that he stepped in to deal with the situation and not walk away and ignore it.

I don't think he is trying to argue what style is better. I think what he is trying to say that Kyokushin is more geared towards training to fight because of it's hard style, or in other words realistic contact.

I agree for the most part, but I think you over exagerate just a fraction (we don't kill each other in class). Yes, in a tournement the object of the Kyokushin fighter is to try and KO their opponent, or at least hurt them enough that they go down and can't continue to fight. However this is for open tournement rules. There's still the color belt divisions in which head kicks have to be controlled. We're still allowed to attack the body as hard as we want however. (This is for IKO 1 anyways). This is just a way to introduce the practitioner into the open division. I agree though that Kyokushin is different in it's training techniques in that we do make hard realistic contact in class. Sometimes we put the gloves and shin pads on when it gets closer to a tournement just to reduce the risk of injuring someone before the tournement. We do TONS of bag work too. Kyokushin is a fighting art and it is evident in the training. I too respect the other styles, but I prefer Kyokushin over the others. Obviously as I wouldn't be training in it. Everyone has their preferences and it's just natural to have pride in the style that they train in.

I agree Beka, it's annoying. I think it's just a result of the media putting an emphasis on the elusive "black belt" I think theres styles out there that only have 3 belts, white, brown, black... maye Aikido (I might be wrong though). For our dojo... you can't test more than once a year.... and you have to have at least trained for 3 to 4 months in between testing. We have 10 kyus.... so getting to black belt is quiet a process. Then once you get to black belt it takes a REAL long time to go up in Dans. I also hate it when I go to a tournement and someone says to me "holy cripes!!! You're going to fight a green belt in your first round!" then it just makes me nervous

Lalena 10th Kyu (Orange Belt) Kyokushin IKO 1

What about Kyokushin? It's a style of karate, with fairly simple techniques, and we spare hard and a lot.

Hrmm, that's interesting. We have a guy in our class who is a black belt in TKD. He admits to his bad habit of always putting his hips to the side in a fighting stance because of his previous TKD training. Though he did TKD many many years ago (20-30 years), so maybe it's changed since then.

Agreed.

From the result of a post to a different thread, I had a question.... How do TKD fighters block their legs? From what I understand a TKD's fighting stance is more sideways. I'm curious to know. In Kyokushin we fight preety much facing our opponent, with hips preety much faced forward. If someone is kicking at our outer thigh for example, we raise our knee up and outward and block with our shins (with the same leg that's being kicked at). It's hard to describe, but hopefully you get the picture.

That's probably a good question. From my perspectice, when you go to a Kyokushin tournement, there is a lot of punching and kicking. Most of the kicks are generally to the legs, and then higher when properlly set up. As for spinning kicks, they aren't actually used that often. You would normally only see spinning kicks in the higher belts, and even then a fighter would probably only use it once in his/her fight. We don't even practice spinning kicks that often in our dojo. We do use A LOT of roundhouse kicks, front kicks, front snap kicks, and crescent kicks (both outside and inside). Mas Oyama is orginaly Korean, but immigrated to Japan at a VERY VERY young age... his name is actually japanese. I can't remember what his original Korean name was. Someone who has a lot more Kyokushin experience than me, please feel free to correct anything that I've said or add to it. Oh yeah, and just to add, our fighting stance is a lot different than TKD's. I believe TKD is more sideways, where generally a Kyokushin fighter will stand more head on. I like the head on approach because in my opinion it's much more effective to blocking kicks coming at the legs. I find in the sideways stance, the front leg is wide open. I don't mean to put TKD down or anything, my opinion is just biased of course.