What is American Kickboxing? | A Beginners Guide

[@bigman6781]

The older I get the more I’ve come to appreciate American kickboxing especially distance management.

[@johnmcmanus7809]

Got to say thompson is my favourite fighter for many reasons, but he has very much this style.

[@TnarkivTnarkiv]

nowadays this style of kickboxing is very popular in the UK and Europe

[@kesenaememere8520]

Yep

[@izzdin6228]

I've seen online bouts with the American style ruleset in the UK, but EU? Which country? Because I just assume EU is majorly into either KB or MT.

[@TnarkivTnarkiv]

@@izzdin6228 I've seen lots of german, french, irish and spanish people at kickboxing events mainly

[@Andrew-qy1kz]

Dennis Alexio was another one you forgot. He was a legend even played in the movie Kickboxer with Jean Claude Van Damme.

[@Japanese_one_Tokyo]

Appreciate the video. I miss PKA kickboxing I did in my teens. Was really good and fun and safe

[@Petch_Wsr]

I like to think that karate combat is basically just a new version of american kickboxing

[@freshprinceofgettingdisres2089]

Unfortunately no because it’s bas rutten who owns it so it’s more of a karate mma as he is a Dutch fighter and there’s mostly kyoukushin over there and the American karate is shorin ryu

[@toyoseries]

Not to mention that it is also slowly morphing into another kickboxing organization since there's been a bunch of rule changes and muay thai fighters started showing up at a "Karate based" competition. I think it might be just to be more appealing to a wider audience for views.

[@thunderkatz4219]

@@toyoseriestbh muay thai is overrated

[@davetozin9502]

@@freshprinceofgettingdisres2089 Bas Rutten does not own Katate Combat. It's owned by 2 Wall street guys, and essentially they're using the league to push Web3 and Crypto. Most of the roster are made up of Shotokan practitioners and American Karate. There's very few fighters on the roster with a background in Kyokushin karate.

[@dandruff3414]

​@@freshprinceofgettingdisres2089Bas has a Kyokushin background. Given the fact, if Bas owns it, why is kicking to the thigh not allowed?

[@victortorres7851]

Amazing video sir. Thanks for sharing. 👍🏽 I grew up in the late 80's and 90's kickboxing PKA style. Back then a black belt meant something because you had to train for ten years and fight full contact to earn it. I switched to Dutch kickboxing and thai in my early 20's. The footwork and sidekick from American kickboxing threw so many thai fighters off back then. I missed competing PKA style, it was fun. Heck there is still one of my fights from the VHS era floating around on KZbin somewhere. I was in kickboxing pants and Karare boots😅

[@jopalo31675]

It’s called full contact today. The sport still exists, today mostly over seas.

[@rauldelarosa2768]

Sadly here we see only mostly muai thai kickboxing...a few sanda Chinese kickboxing places... I'd love to find an actual American kickboxing place here .

[@sorenpx]

@@rauldelarosa2768 Me too. I live in the US and I have no idea where I could go to train in, and compete in, American kickboxing. I know where to go for Muay Thai and MMA. There are multiple places in my city for that. But American kickboxing? No.

[@rauldelarosa2768]

@sorenpx I found one place it's called Platinum kickboxing.. American kickboxing with knees and elbows.. is how I would explain it it's not cheap though.. They're a multiple location place. If money is not an issue you can train twice a week for $160 approximately. Or once a week for 140 monthly. At least that's the price down here if money wasn't an issue I would do it for the sparring. Right now we train once a week at a Sanda fusion place.. that incorporates some Thai kickboxing in Western boxing and dirty boxing as well which is really fun.

[@michaelquebec6653]

Excellent 👍👌 Personal favorites are Bill Wallace, as well as Dennis Alexio.

[@iamalonewolf1]

There is a Spanish Author with an amazing in-depth book on the history of Kickboxing. His name is David Leonardo Barcena and the book is Historia del Kickboxing in Japon. He is currently working on a sequel research project for kickboxing in the West. I highly recommend it.

[@sorenpx]

Cool video. I grew up in the late 80s and 90s and, while I was very young when the full-contact kickboxing scene was at its peak, I remember it and have spent a fair amount of time in the last few years watching old matches and highlights. I think it was a very cool scene and an awesome era of martial arts, and I appreciate the ruleset and wish that it was more popular today.

[@evanking0588]

I miss American kickboxing I wish they would bring it back to the US

[@rauldelarosa2768]

I think there's a few schools that teach it... right now I'm learning boxing and got a book on karate kicks I'm going to study and just teach myself the best I can a version of American kickboxing.

[@AmericankickboxingMMA]

The reason why American kickboxing became not popular in the U.S. is Majority of Americans love beautifully high kick and not boring low kick, low kick might be effective but boring, and when low kick was allowed in American kickboxing the beautiful high kick disappeared. Majority of Americans also love wrestling since high school. That's why MMA is so popular in the U.S today.

[@chitownmo]

The sport was not well promoted. That was the problem. Low kicks were not a viewing factor as they were prohibited but should have been allowed. Competing against other established combat sports(Boxing.Wrestling.), let alone team sports was an issue as well.

[@sorenpx]

I agree that allowing low kicks changes the dynamic and not necessarily in a positive way. Allowing them may be more "realistic" in comparison to a street fight but we're talking sports here. Disallowing low kicks leads to the practitioners doing a lot of cool kicking techniques that they may not otherwise do.

[@MA1980c]

Low kicks were allowed in the ISKA and WKFA kickboxing organisations that you yourself referenced. Rofus belonged to one of those. However, Thai low kicks were not known or popular at that point.

[@johno5605]

It's a shame we don't see this anymore as it's mesmerising to watch but due to Rufus's loss to Changpuek kietsonggreit, kickboxing evolved from exposure to Muay Thai.

[@SRMP970]

You can still learn from it

[@TheNEOverse]

Wonderboy is a good throwback.

[@johno5605]

@@TheNEOverse for a geezer who looks like a choir boy

[@TheNEOverse]

@@johno5605 Its in the name, dude owns it lol.

[@johno5605]

@@TheNEOverse I still think the Muay Thai influenced variations of kickboxing are superior

[@schizoidboy]

I first noticed kickboxing in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. In that scene where the characters are watching a Thai Boxing match and I noticed the fighters were wearing boxing gear but also kicking each other. Later I watched a karate tournament and it seemed more like they were boxing rather than using karate kicks. I think for the most part karate matches just flat out used boxing because it forced the fighters to move more.

[@stewartheather5654]

Welllone best write up ive seen so far

[@carterflips2720]

Great video about a sport that ended to quick

[@L1nosProfessor]

Way to go, man! But also think about a video about the origins of kickboxing (how it started, how its name became official, grading system) and then you can post a video listing your favourite kickboxing and muay thai movies.

[@KeyserSoze23]

Kickboxing emerged when Karatekas kept losing to Muay Thai fighters and they had to change up their style.

[@toyoseries]

Didnt one of them actually win that fight? Even so, they even say that their style may need some upgrades or tweaks to keep up with it.

[@AmericankickboxingMMA]

​@@toyoserieskyokushin karateka win via knock out against Muay thai 2 out of 3 in the 1960"s, the only one karateka that lose created Japanese kickboxing by combining boxing with kyokushin.

[@AmericankickboxingMMA]

@@KeyserSoze23 Original Kyokushin has face punching, that's why Original kyokushin are knocking out Thai men since the 60's by Punching and using Kyokushin low kick.

[@AmericankickboxingMMA]

@@KeyserSoze23 Japanese kickboxers and Dutch kickboxers are knocking out Thai men since the 60's by Punching and using Kyokushin low kick.

[@Shojushoju]

Great video!

[@JakeHunter2010]

Awesome history video of one of my favorite styles 💯🥊🥋

[@robertfeiner7409]

Great video! I did a ton of ring set up in the 90’s on Long Island where uskba kept going through the 2000’s due to Ny being the last hold out to legalize mma. It was brutal to see no low kicks and no knees after watching tons of the golden era k-1 fights and mma. Alas that was NY back in the day. Glad it’s gone/evolved :)

[@sorenpx]

What was brutal about it? Do you think it's brutal to watch boxing because it doesn't allow anything but punches?

[@mvkuri]

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and respect to you for sharing this wonderful video that contains your sincere and meticulous efforts. By the way, I would like to ask you to do your research and research on the contributions of Korean karate, Tangsoo-do (Mudeokgwan Taekwondo), and taekwondo in the formation of American kickboxing. Korea is the second country in the world where karate, born in Okinawa, was introduced, following Japan. It was introduced in the 1920s in Japan and in the early 1940s in Korea. Karate was a non-mainstream martial art that was unfamiliar to Japan until the 1940s. It was slowly becoming known in Japan around university clubs. In the movie Sugata Sanshiro by Akira Kurozawa, produced in the 1940s, karate was described as a villain's martial art. However, Koreans who came to Japan to study have practiced karate (mainly shotokan karate) as early as the 1930s. Introduced to Korea in the 1940s, karate has been combined with karate, martial art from Manchuria in China, and Korean traditional martial art (especially, a lively and diverse kicking technique represented by Taekkyeon) in the space of over a decade, and has acquired unique characteristics of Korea as various literary groups fiercely compete. It was the birth of the so-called Korean karate. At that time, karate in Japan and Okinawa was following the sundome-style rules (no-contact karate), but Korean karate competitively practiced the "direct contact rule" from the very beginning. In the process, the principle of kick method changed delicately, numerous revolutionary kicks were born, and various attack and defense techniques were formed. In addition, the position of the body's center has changed.

[@mvkuri]

American kickboxing was generally based on American karate, which is believed to have come from Japanese karate. However, this is partly different from the truth. Karate was introduced to the United States during the 1950s to 1960s. This was the beginning of American karate history. However, a calm examination of the facts reveals that karate introduced to the United States came from Okinawa and Korea as well as Japan. In Korea, the fighting style was already differentiated by its dynamic movements, which were distinct from those of Japanese karate and Okinawa, and by its ingenious and unique kicking techniques. In other words, Korean karate had already acquired its own characteristics and had a differentiated personality before the 1950s. If you look at the early days of American karate, you can see names such as Japanese, Okinawa, and Koreans who learned Okinawa karate while stationed in Okinawa, as well as Koreans in Korea, Tangsoo-do (Mudeokgwan Taekwondo), an American who learned Taekwondo, and an American who learned Taekwondo in the early days in the United States.

[@mvkuri]

Immediately after the Korean War, General Choi Hong-hee, the division commander of the 20th Division, attempted to integrate all Korean karate and Kwon-beop under the name Taekwondo, which takes its name from Taekkyeon(which provided unique characteristics in the kicking technique of Korean karate), a traditional Korean martial art. (This traditional Korean martial art gave Korean karate the distinctive changes from traditional karate in Japan and Okinawa. And Choi Hong-hee was then the first leader to recognize that these changes gave Korean karate its own uniqueness. This outstanding recognition gave Choi a basis for his willingness and motivation to integrate all bare-handed martial arts under the name of taekwondo.) However, many leaders of the Tangsoo-do at the time preferred the historical name Tangsoo-do and were opposed to Choi's political moves, which led to years of difficulties in integration. Korean martial artists who came to the U.S. from Korea during these times introduced their martial arts by naming them Korean karate, or Tangsoo-do(Korean karate), or Taekwondo(Korean karate), to match the American reality where karate was already introduced.

[@mvkuri]

If you look at American karate's fighting skills and fighting styles during the full-contact karate and American kickboxing periods, you can see that it is taekwondo (standing, moving, and kicking). However, because the name taekwondo was unfamiliar to Americans at the time and was already familiar to the name karate, and because Korean taekwondo leaders in the U.S. jumped on the bandwagon, it created a misconception about American karate and American kickboxing history, and this misconception has been firmly established as the truth.

[@mvkuri]

Taekwondo has also gained popularity in action dramas and action films due to its performance in Hong Kong martial arts films since the 1960s (especially in kick techniques). Taekwondo's unique kicks were utilized in key scenes, even though the martial arts featured in the drama or film were not Taekwondo. For example, 90 percent of the kicks he used in Bruce Lee's films are Taekwondo kicks. Most of the kicks used in the Karate Kid drama that gained huge popularity in the United States were Taekwondo kicks, and even Cobra Kai, who appeared as a villainous group, was Mudukgwan Taekwondo(Tangsoo-do).

[@rauldelarosa2768]

I'm trying to find some practicing American kickboxing teachers here... it's not easy to find. But I'm looking.

[@ricardoblikman2676]

You forgot WAKO.

[@artisticsolarninja]

American kickboxing is a No clinch no knees and no elbow style american karate

[@bryanking1428]

Low kicks are like that guy who plays fighting games and just keep sweeping over and over. Might be effective but it doesn't make for an enjoyable spectacle and it doesnt mean you are skillful.

[@curtisdavis92]

That’s what the Rufus brothers thought until…

[@bryanking1428]

@@curtisdavis92 change the rules to no leg kicks and see how it goes. We can see how Muay Thai falls apart in MMA already, so why do t Thai boxers fight under no leg kicks rules? Cause they know they'll be losing.

[@curtisdavis92]

@@bryanking1428 it’s 2 different sports. Nak Muay would lose in American kickboxing and vice versa. I’ve competed in both in WAKO. Both require a different skill set. I wouldn’t say one is easier than the other.

[@curtisdavis92]

@@bryanking1428 I will agree a higher level of dexterity is needed for American, but the clinching, knees and elbows of Thai require a higher level of iq.

[@bryanking1428]

@@curtisdavis92 not sure about how much iq each requires. It would need to be studied. American or kickboxing rules based more on karate usually has a lot of techniques that you never see in Muay Thai which gives other counters, combos etc.