Brian,

No, pure Kyokushin would discard grabbing and throwing in their competitions and in fact tell people to not grab, but to punch in its stead. It is an "idealized" concept of using almost exclusive kicks and punches to get the job done. It is not that these things are not trained, but that they are not focused upon.

In fact, if you see some of the older videos of people doing 50-man and 100-man kumite sessions (fighting these number of people one after the other) it was mandatory for the person doing these to hold onto small wooden sticks so as to not open the fists for grapping and only allow punches. If the stick were dropped it was considered a penalty

Daido Juku, on the other hand, is Kyokushin derivative that goes from standup to grappling.

Thanks for that info!!

First off, it WAS the thin cloth fist, shin&ankle pads...

Second, we only did the head tap thing in PRACTICE/training not during actual matches, or during belt test etc.

Hi mate, kyokushinkai vs shotokan from me here: I have done both shotokan and currently training in kyokushin, Kyokushinkai is more about power, concentration and mental accuracy but I did have a bad experiance with shotokan, my shotokan teacher used to make us sit there doin nothing for half the lesson, I found it a waste of money, take my word for it kyokushinkai is much better and if you would like more information then I do train with hanshi steve arneil who is mas oyama's (founder of kyokushin) adopted son, so if you would like to know more drop me an email at jackstanden93@hotmail.co.uk or if you have msn add me, see you soon, also soon I am going to be starting my own kyokushinkai forum and I would ,like as many members including moderatiors as possible so also email me if you would be interested in it!! osu, jack standen