Kickboxing rules

[Johnlogic121]

In kickboxing competitions, they sometimes get a competitior who is only mildly trained in kicking and whose primary expertise is at conventional boxing. To preserve the sport of kickboxing as a sport in which the legs are used to kick above the waist, most kickboxing competitions require that each competitior make a minimum of eight attempts to kick his opponent above the waist. Before this was a rule, boxers would dodge around kicks and come to such close range that they would pummel the kickboxer relentlessly with all the force they could muster. Since boxers only work on their hands, they have a natural advantage in close range over kickboxers who split their training time between hands and feet. Boxers are also skilled at getting a good outcome from a clinch, also. So kickboxers tend to have a disadvantage against pure boxers when they cannot keep the other person away with their high kicks. However, if the kickboxers can use low kicks to the legs, they usually tire the boxers out so badly that the boxers can hardly stand, and boxers are typically quite unready to defend their legs from determined low kicking assaults. Boxing is surviving as a sport even with the emergence of the Ultimate fighting Championship contests. Do you think kickboxing will become more popular? Should more kickboxing tournaments allow kicks to the knees and the thighs to give them some edge over people who focus on boxing training methods? Would spectators prefer to see more of the low kicks like we see in the UFC in pure striking contests? How do these events effect the way people tend to train as martial artists? -JL

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

No, i want kickboxing to stay right where it is, i've seen several bouts before and adding low kicks will only make it more like the UFC, and God knows we already have one of those. The kicking rule is good and almost got a guys disqualified if he didn't knock our guy out first. I think it's fairly popular, atleast where iam in NE it is.

[ShoriKid]

Unless something changes the odds of kickboxing regaining the popularity it had twenty years back, let alone surpassing that level, are very slim. Within the different rules sets, American Kickboxing{all kicks above the waist}, European{allowing kicks to the legs} and Asain Rules{kicks to legs and knees to body and sometimes the head} each has areas that they are more popular, but none of them dominates completely. Most sanctioning organizations have catigories for competition within each rules set.

What sort of contact/targeting rules are prefered by the audiances at events depends largely on how they are formated. The WCL allows for leg kicks, knees to the body and it's fights are exciting. However, it is a very young organization and may not last long. As long as leg kicks must be followed up with techniques you will not see multiple rounds of leg chopping as the first round or two of Thai boxing goes toard. That, however, is part of the way Thai Boxing works. The first round or two is for feeling out so leg kicks and jabs are most of what you will see. The real action comes in the second half of the match. I can appriciate what a thigh kick does to balance, speed and power of a fighter as time goes on, so I like their inclusion in matches. I am not that average fight fan, or even the average kickboxing fan though.

Do events that are televised affect how martial artists train? Only if they either compete, and there by need to stay in touch with the most popular rules, or if they are looking to try something they thought looked interesting. Adding legs as a viable target will change the way you fight though, and the way you train. Your stances will shorten and you'll get more up right and not be as prone to fight with your lead leg out or in a side-on stance. Same things happen if you open up sweeps and throws too. Any change in contact rules will change the mentality and practices of the recieving fighteras well as the one on offense.

[bushido_man96]

Kickboxing should stay the way it is. If you add leg kicks, then you essentially have Muay Thai, which we already have.

[joesteph]

f the kickboxers can use low kicks to the legs, they usually tire the boxers out so badly that the boxers can hardly stand, and boxers are typically quite unready to defend their legs from determined low kicking assaults. . . . Should more kickboxing tournaments allow kicks to the knees and the thighs to give them some edge over people who focus on boxing training methods?

 

So long as elbows and knees aren't brought into the weapons arsenal, and the fight remains a standing one instead of standing and grappling, then I'd say to allow kickboxers to strike the thighs.

 

I'm not in favor of strikes to the knees. Drawing the line there, along with a red light regarding elbow and knee strikes, as said above, would keep kickboxing a striking art adequately shy of Muay Thai.

 

"Nothing below the belt" was the way of the past; thighs have been recognized as a legitimate target for years now. The boxers who enter the kickboxing ring will have to adjust to four weapons striking from head to thigh; they'll have to train for it before entering a kickboxing ring.