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.