Kicking below the waist in tournaments.

[Dijita]

I've noticed that a lot of different styles that use a 3 point system do not allow kicks below the waist. No, I'm not implying that we should be kicking people in the groin, but what about the inside and outside thighs?

 

I'm just curious to this rule? Can anyone shed some light? I'm just curious because in our style it is one of the most commonly used techniques in a tournament that is also very effective at wearing someone down, or taking them down and I do not see the danger?

[Jinxx0r]

until you miss and blow out someones knee, LOL. Free sparring to learn, no way you should go below the waist (free sparring that is, one steps are different).

 

Too much of a training risk to do that in free sparring, IMO.

[WhiteBelt]

Don't see too many blown knees at my MT gym. Actually, I saw more bad knees at my last karate dojo.

[Dijita]

I suppose there is a danger with accidently kicking someone in the knee, but with sparring isn't there a danger that any kind of injury could happen?

[Pacificshore]

I suppose there is a danger with accidently kicking someone in the knee, but with sparring isn't there a danger that any kind of injury could happen?

True, but in a point sparring tourney, kicking to the inside or outside of the thighs does not constitute scoring areas. It makes for good set-up, but as someone pointed perhaps not allowed due to the potential knee injuries. Most tourneys try to limit their liability in this way by foreseeing preventable injuries.

 

Also, not all styles are trained to attack the thighs like Kyokushin, or similiar arts.

[Chirath]

High kicks show your flexibility. So I think thats why you get points for it.

[Fat Donkey]

The danger is very limited as any kind of hard contact sport is inherently dangerous to some extent. Believe it or not the sport with the highest rates of concussions and most sport related injuries is soccer/football. It beats out boxing (MA's weren't ranked). Also the more variety of attacks thrown against u the better a Martial artist u become. Some styles simply don't think of it as a legitimate target just as KK doesn't allow punches to the face. I think we pretty much all agree that a MMA style format is probably the closest test we can have for the strenghts and weaknesses of a particular MA.

[Reklats]

Kicking above the waist only is just part of the game. It's not about being effective. In soccer you can't use your hands, in point sparring you can't kick the legs. I guess it's supposed to make competition more interesting.

[Dijita]

Hehe, yeah these are all good points. Thanks for the enlightment.

 

I guess personally after doing point sparring, and continuous hard contact sparring... I find I have more fun with the continuous sparring because of the tactics involved with more places to hit a person. It's a lot of fun for me to block leg kicks, even though my shins think otherwise most of the time.

 

I think the biggest reason they changed the Kyokushin rules to not allow hand strikes to the face was because the risk was probably too high for injury since Kyokushin fighters punch bare hand in a tournament. In the old days of Kyokushin, even groin kicks were allowed!! Can you imagine? Yikes!

 

Oh yeah, one more question to those that point spar. When in class do you guys and gals still train to kick to the legs, but just not allowed to use it in a tournament? For example in our class, we train to hit to the face and block face hits, but we can't use it in our tournaments.

[jarrettmeyer]

In our tournaments, groin is allowed. Shots to the knees are not allowed, and that will give a point to your opponent.

 

A forward punch to the torso will not score a point. A reverse punch will. Any strike to the head will score.

 

Face strikes are not allowed until at least brown belt. If you're in the ring, and at least one of you is less than a brown belt, then no face contact is allowed by either combatant. Side, top, and back of the head are still valid.

 

It's not meant to be completely realistic. It's a sport. Good dojos distiguish the two.