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Why the long pants?


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Why do American-style kickboxers (of Full Contact Karate lineage) wear long pants and not shorts? I could understand if they were wearing gis, for tradition, but long shiny pants? I don't see any advantage.

Anyone know?

Battling biomechanical dyslexia since 2007

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I wear long trousers when doing mine because... well, actually, i have no idea, i'd prefer to wear shorts :P

Willing - Believing - Achieving


Orange Belt: Freestyle/Sport Karate - Kickboxing - Boxing

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My instructor says it's pants when you don't kick below the waist, and shorts when you do, so you can see the opponent's knees - a no-strike area. We wear shorts. Perhaps the pants are a European kickboxing fashion statement. :P

Only as good as I make myself be, only as bad as I let myself be.


Martial arts are like kinetic chess. Your move.

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I have noticed the different outfits, but I didn't know what the method behind the madness was. After reading the posts above, it does make good sense.

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I don't think that I've ever seen the long pants for kickboxing, I've seen shorts but I don't know. The rules of teh fight probly would affect it somehow.

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

-Saul Alinsky


The soft and the yielding overcome the rigid and the hard, but few people put this into practice.

-The Tao Te Ching

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I don't think that I've ever seen the long pants for kickboxing, I've seen shorts but I don't know. The rules of teh fight probly would affect it somehow.

If you can catch some old ISKA Strike Force matches on ESPN late at night, you can see some of the long pants matches. I never really related the different clothing to the different rule sets. But, it does make sense.

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European Kickboxing is done in pants with no shirts. Christoph Delp is a German kickboxer and MA writer. Two of his books available in the USA, Kickboxing and Fitness for the Full Contact Fighter, show people in pants. As has been said, I believe it's because they don't kick below the waist, so the knees are not at risk.

Only as good as I make myself be, only as bad as I let myself be.


Martial arts are like kinetic chess. Your move.

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Also, with the Thai rules, wearing shorts makes the knees visible, hopefully helping to make sure the contact to the legs is above the knees.

Has anyone ever heard of any Thai fights where a fighter 'missed,' and took out the opponent's knee?

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