Kicking below the waist in tournaments.

[Dijita]

Jarrett, groin shots allowed eh? Wow! That would be scary for the guys I would think.

 

I agree... it's just sport, and I'm not trying to make any comparison to a real fight, I was purily talking about the different rules that's all.

[jarrettmeyer]

Actually, one of the Black Belt women specializes in a form of tag that makes you think twice before throwing ANY type of kick. And she's fast, too. If she sees your weight shift, she'll be smacking your cup.

[Little Dragon]

wow thats a real ball buster...literally...

 

I guess thats why u should do a lot of feints?

[aefibird]

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.

 

In my karate dojo we train to kick to the legs. However, we don't do that much competition sparring. When members from my club enter competitions they tend to enter the kata division more often than kumite (point sparring).

 

Seen as my dojo is a bit of a hybrid of different styles, and we use techniques and tactics from all styles, I'm probably not the best person to ask about point sparring.

 

We were doing a little full-contact sparring this evening in training and I got my ear busted open by a hard punch - I "got my opponent back", though, and whacked him in the face and bust his lip open. Just another day-to-day training session at the Swinton bloodbath! lol

 

On a side note, to all those kyokushin karateka - is it common for you to enter point sparring competitions as well as knockdown/full contact? I ask, because I was at a point-sparring tournament on Sunday and there was a large kyokushin contingent there (couldn't miss 'em - they had the word KYOKUSHIN emblazoned across the backs of their gi's in red).

[nago]

Kicking in the legs in Japan and Okinawa is expected. I have never seen a tournament where this would not be allowed over here, but used much differently in different tournaments. In full contact you are trying to hurt your opposition in sport Karate it is mainly used to break someones balence before you try and score. In both cases it can be very effective.