What is kickboxing?

Some of you might have been wondering about what is special about “kickboxing” and what is the difference to “boxing”. Kickboxing developed in the second half of the 20th century from karate, Muay Thai and boxing. So the main difference to boxing is, that kickboxers are supposed to use both their hands and their feet in order to score. But kickboxing is not kickboxing, there are different disciplines. So let me give you a short overview:

 

  • Japanese Kickboxing developed from karate and was the first combat sport which was called “Kickboxing” in the 1960ies. Today it is called “K1”. The competitors are allowed to kick the lower half of the body, to do neck-wrestling and also knee strikes. They have to fight five rounds of three minutes.

  • American Kickboxing is a full contact discipline. The competitors hit each other with fists and feet but only above the hip but the use of elbows and knees is forbidden. In this discipline the fights often finish with the knockout of one fighter (the fighter falls to the ground and is not able to stand up again within ten seconds), a submission (that means that the fighter quits) or referee stoppage. But there is no KO, no submission or referee stoppage, the winner is the fighter who gets more scores from three judges.

  • International Kickboxing is very similar to American Kickboxing but it allows low kicks.

  • Semi Contact is not fought in a ring like the other discipline but in a tatami. The goal is to get as much scores as possible and every time one of the two fighters gets a score the fight is interrupted. So you have to be very fast to be the first one to score but it is also important not to punch too hard because otherwise you will be warned and after three warnings you are disqualified.

  • Light Contact is a discipline between semi contact and full contact and is also fought in a tatami. The difference to semi contact is that the central referee doesn't interrupt the fight for awarding scores, but as it is also allowed to use techniques from full contact, the central referee has to make sure the fighters stick to the light contact rules.

 

I started kickboxing at the age of 11 because I wanted to do some sport and at that time my trainer started giving lessons to children and I couldn't think of any other sport that I wanted to do. Since one year we also have a fighting team and are participating in tournaments. But when I was nominated to fight in the European Championships however I was really surprised and at first didn't know how to react. But then I thought that this was a very big chance for me and I don't regret fighting there because I gathered a lot of experience.

Wako83
This was the Austrian Team.

Angelika Schmidt

Angelika Schmidt

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