Proposal: bareknuckle, full-contact Karate with no kicks, just body punches and nothing else.

[Wastelander]

8 hours ago, KarateKen said:

This brings up a good point.  I also think that kind of training is likely to create a bad habit of defending only the body, so if a real encounter happens, they could be more vulnerable to head strikes.  I have seen many fighters, of various experience and skill levels, go for head shots first.  

Statistically, the vast majority of male-on-male violence is made up of punches to the head, and I have seen many Kyokushin fighters struggle with defending head punches because of the emphasis on punching the body in their competitions, even though knees and kicks to the head are allowed. I expect this ruleset would have the same result.

[DarthPenguin]

16 hours ago, Wastelander said:

Statistically, the vast majority of male-on-male violence is made up of punches to the head, and I have seen many Kyokushin fighters struggle with defending head punches because of the emphasis on punching the body in their competitions, even though knees and kicks to the head are allowed. I expect this ruleset would have the same result.

Wholeheartedly agree - it would be similar to a lot of modern judoka struggling with takedowns that involve leg grabs as they have never learned them since the rule changes. One of the main points of training is to build muscle memory so you respond faster / on instinct. This type of training would lead to know muscle memory being built to defend head strikes. Even if the fighter was able to 'manually' try to respond to such strikes they would inevitably be slower than one who defended it on instinct.

[Nidan Melbourne]

On 5/8/2025 at 5:04 PM, KarateKen said:

This brings up a good point.  I also think that kind of training is likely to create a bad habit of defending only the body, so if a real encounter happens, they could be more vulnerable to head strikes.  I have seen many fighters, of various experience and skill levels, go for head shots first.  

I competitons I go to (more WKF based tournaments than anything); head strikes are common as initial techniques being thrown as part of a combination. 

However what I do get annoyed by regardless of tournament style; is how fighters get so comfortable doing the same combinations even when the opponent has gotten used you throwing the same combination over and over. 

 

[Himokiri Karate]

On 4/9/2025 at 5:58 AM, Zayd_Nofal said:

I have read much about arts such as wrestling and BJJ, and its fighters are said to be formidable due to the simple fact that they can go 100% on a regular basis with very low injury risk. By the time a wrestler or BJJ practitioner has had a few competitions, they have more actual fighting mileage than most striking practitioners, in terms of full-intensity fighting.

 

 

 

NANI!!????


They CANNOT go 100 percent!!!!

I train in sambo/judo and believe me, you cannot go 100 percent. In fact BJJ fighters get tons of injuries and ground fighting can be brutal because some people cant control themselves and spaz out big time trying to power through the next move.

In judo and Sambo, you have to breakfall like a million reps for very long time and have EXCELLENT conditioning, you have to be very strong and flexible to endure all the turns, twist and high impact throws. This is not something you gain just walking to a grappling gym even if its a more of a lax ground style absent of big throws and takedowns.

Also you can easily pull a muscle when you are defending submission attempts and getting suddenly reversed or countered in submission exchanges and scrambles. 

If you train with Japanese and Russians, they take conditioning VERY SERIOUSLY and are stringent with making sure students are well trained in the basics to keep themselves safe from the chaos of grappling and the intensity that comes with it. 

BJJ culture has a tendency to, how do I put this, glamorise what they are offering...
 

[KarateKen]

After six pages of discussion, I think it is clear that the proposal is full of risks.  Injury, cost, retaining students, ect, and furthermore is very limited in what it teaches the students.  The risks are much higher than the reward.  I encourage the OP to reconsider this proposal, if that has not been done already.