Kyokushin punches

[MrNice]

Hi,

So I've got a question I'd like to get an answer on:

- Are kyokushin punches far different than other karate punches? Or is the difference that semi contact styles only do two punches and then move away?

Regards,

Me.

[Wado Heretic]

Depends on the practitioner. What I have found in competing in Kyokushin style tournaments is that they tend to punch from the guard, and have a degree of a wind up and covering motion not dissimilar to boxing. They also tend to have more of a digging effect as though they are designed to punch through, rather than make contact and do percussive damage. This is dissimilar to many karate styles which tend to punch from the point of origin, and seek to deliver all the power on the point of contact. However, I suspect this is merely a result of Kyokushin punching evolving to work within the knockdown spectrum. An ergonomic evolution rather than an intended one as it were.

Plus I fight in the heavy weight or open weight, so other weight classes may not have the same run into and batter each other approach that heavy weights can survive and dish out.

I will say my own way of punching, based on Wado and Shorin methods of power generation does tend to confuse my opponents from a Kyokushin back ground in the early minutes of the bout. I tend to use my punches as stop hits, and attack the center line with an aim on the liver, floating ribs, above the kidney, or solar plexus. They do seem to expect a barrage of punches coming from outside rather than being kept at a distance and suffering low kicks. Well, I confuse people who have not watched the fights of Hajime Kazumi anyway

Hopes this helps but I have never studied Kyokushin, merely been on the receiving end. I hope it provides a useful contract at least.

[Hawkmoon]

Hi guys,

Do we punch differently?

I guess so, as mentioned above we do punch form the guard, as we also have a boxers approach to punching!

Its more application and focus to punching rather than some secret do this not that type of thing when we train.

So an important point to make is Kyokushin take fighting extremely seriously as such we fight form the guard to reduce the chances of being hit, this means we need to generate as much (or more) power to have the same effect as a punch that comes form 'way' back in the bodies posture!

(The traditional Karate punch if you like)

The result is we tend to focus a great deal of time, effort and energy in our training to create that power and so the boxers approach to punches, hip rotation and so on comes through in our fighting!

In our dojo we have some Tang so Doo students working with us, we have kick boxers work with us, both systems love what we do, both say they are learning to fight better because we fight so differently to what they have done before!

One guy has even started to bring home silverware from his tournaments that he competes in!

Previously he had said he felt he was at the end of his fighting career, so he'd come along to our dojo just to experience Kyokushinkai karate to gain a broader knowledge of MA so he could be a better teacher now his fighting career was coming to an end.

He is also now considering entering some knockdown tournaments coming up later this year!

Do we punch differently?

Answer: Maybe.

I'd offer a better question is do we have a different approach to fighting (and so punching)?

A typical session at the dojo, about 2hrs long, will have a student spend 70-80% fighting! (100% if a tournament is coming up)

Answer: Yes absolutely yes!