I've noticed that American point karate fighters stand sideways, lean backwards away from their opponents and rely on their lead hand and foot. American point fighters throw wild strikes at targets against which they would not be effective and frequently throw themselves off balance. Apparently this is an optimum approach but it looks like it would be suicidal in a street fight.

American point fighting

JKA, WSKA and WKF fighters stand up in a back stance and use reverse punches and rear leg kicks. They never use backfists. Their karate looks like karate and they look like they could defend themselves if the need called for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GrGu5NHqok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdDOuW8cm88

Is this caused by a difference in the rules? What are those differences?

While the first 3 videos show people who have very sloppy technique, I don't think it's a large enough sample to assume all American point karate fighters fight that way (the first 2 videos feature the same fighter.)

The problem with point sparring is that it doesn't really matter what it looks like, it just matters if you get the point.

Now, standing in a side-on stance and using lead leg kicks to keep an opponent at bay and using backfists as strikes is a sound strategy. Bill "Supefoot" Wallace made good use of that strategy for years. Just because you find a few people who look sloppy doing it doesn't make it a bad strategy, or a legitimate way of defending oneself, either. This side-on stance can be somewhat limiting, though, making it difficult to strike with the rear hand, and making the only really viable back leg options to be spinning kicks, which can be great counters or combo pieces.

The back stance approach can allow the fighter to have lots of offensive options available to them, more easily employing back leg kicks and reverse strikes. However, the tradeoff is that their body positions leaves more targets available to strike in the point system, therefore requiring good defensive capabilities, too.

The problem with point sparring is that it doesn't really matter what it looks like, it just matters if you get the point.

Now, standing in a side-on stance and using lead leg kicks to keep an opponent at bay and using backfists as strikes is a sound strategy. Bill "Supefoot" Wallace made good use of that strategy for years. Just because you find a few people who look sloppy doing it doesn't make it a bad strategy, or a legitimate way of defending oneself, either. This side-on stance can be somewhat limiting, though, making it difficult to strike with the rear hand, and making the only really viable back leg options to be spinning kicks, which can be great counters or combo pieces.

The back stance approach can allow the fighter to have lots of offensive options available to them, more easily employing back leg kicks and reverse strikes. However, the tradeoff is that their body positions leaves more targets available to strike in the point system, therefore requiring good defensive capabilities, too.

Solid post!!