Kyokushin karate

[trey friedmann]

I was curious about the kicks in kyokushin if they are more high kicks as in tae kwon do or more lower below the waste or both. I am thinking about getting into this art

[sensei8]

Albeit, I'm not a Kyokushin practitioner, but if I may offer my answer to your question.

Punches and kicking techniques are very similar to other Karate styles, but Kyokushin places a lot of emphasis on low leg kicks. Kyokushin is full contact and toughens you up. But because of no hitting to the face I would not rely on it exclusively; imho, cross training is the key.

[isshinryu5toforever]

You can hit to the face, you just can't punch to the face. Fights would end pretty quickly if you punched people in the face with no protective padding. That said, some of the organizations, Kyokushinkan among them, are experimenting with various hand strikes to the head to see which they want to allow. Eg, you can use open hand strikes to the face, but not punches.

As far as leg kicks vs head kicks, you have to be able to do both to win in Kyokushin. Most of the time, you wear people down with leg kicks, but you end the match with a head kick. Kyokushin uses knockdown rules for more competitions, so you need to be a bit of an all around striker. You can't just rely on one skillset.

[Kuma]

Kyokushin fighters are much like any other full contact style in which, despite the same background, they can have very different fighting styles.

Some guys will be very specialized in one area. Yashuri Shichinohe

is very technical all over, yet his punches are absolutely terrifying. He practically chases people off the mat with them. Then you have Norichika Tsukamoto whose amazing kicking abilities and combinations are awesome to watch. Though he can punch with the best of them, his kicking ability is awesome.

Then you have guys who favor a specific range. Hajime Kazumi likes to fight up close, using powerful punches and low kicks with the occasional middle kick thrown in. He's never thrown a high kick in a tournament, but that didn't stop him from winning the All Japan five times. Or fighters who use their weaknesses to their benefit. Ryu Narushima was always one of the smallest guys out there, but he trained his high kicks so that he could knock out his opponents with either leg, front or rear, at any time. You can have your simple fighters too, like Hajime Kazumi, or your flashier ones, like Andy Hug. Andy Hug had one of the most incredible axe kicks you'll ever see and vicious spinning kicks.

Kyokushin is a great art (admittedly, I'm biased). I think if you have the opportunity to at least try a class, go for it just for the experience. It is very different from most other martial arts styles.

[evergrey]

Yar, there are a lot of low kicks, but we kick to the head too. It just doesn't usually look as fancy. Though sometimes someone gets lucky and actually has the opportunity to make an axe kick actually work... usually when the person is already doubling over. :}

I get punched in the face a lot at my dojo, but it's always controlled punches. Very irritating ones. Which is the point, because I am not keeping my guard up!

OSU