hi guys, there was a tournament near me that someone at our dojo told us about. He prounounced it ky-o-ku-shin and apparently its a type of karate. Im thinking about going in it since it is nationals, but im not quite sure what kyokushin is. Can anyone explain? ive heard it is quite brutal. And if anyone has been to one of these tournaments can the explain what happened EDIT (he also said i dont have to do kyokushin to do it)

This video seems appropriate

Basically Kyokushin is full contact knockdown karate. The rules are usually something like this: Full contact to the body, including legs.

Punching to the face isn't allowed, kicking however, is. Throwing, clinching and grappling isn't usually allowed either.

Oh, and you don't wear any gloves, equipment will probably be a gi, cup and some shin guards.

If you're up for the hard contact, you should go

yeah, as long as you have the permission of a registered club or something, but I dont know. I just wasnt sure what it was. thanks for the vid. Scared me a bit but ill still go

Crab, no offense but if I were you I would hold off entering that tournament. I am going by the vid you posted and if you go in that type of tourney and fight the way you did with you bud, you might not live. Or you can always try it and see how you do. What is the worse thing that would happen, you loose some teeth or get legs the color of midnight.

maybe go watch one first and then decide if you wanna enter.

Concur with Mr Moyer 100%. Go and have a look, but I'd hold off entering such a comp. until you've done some training. You could get seriously injured if you don't train up first. Kyushokin is a tough arena by all accounts.

Am not saying you aren't very capable, but if you remember when you boxed Grizzly (you weren't use to full contact boxing) and look what happened! I'd get use to Kyushokin first before I'd enter anything if I were you.

Definitely wait a couple of years before entering a competition like this. I entered much a lighter contact competition after 7 years of training and I still got KOed.

Interesting that punches to the face arent allowed and no gloves are used. But they allow kicks. That makes little sense to me. Whats so brutal about this kind of fight. Going by the rules posted above, it seemed rather watered down.

I think it's got more to do with the attitude of the people who are doing the fighting. The lack of protective gear of any kind including gloves is a big thing though. Even in the UFC these days they wear gloves, as you know.

I believe they don't allow punches to the face as there is a risk of injury (to the person throwing the punch) due to the fact that they don't wear gloves. Most arts that use gloves (and I know this from my boxing days) do this to protect the hand from injury, and reduce the amount of lacerations to your opponent. They aren't designed to allow you to hit harder. And as a lot of full contact karate people rightly say, you aren't likely to be wearing gloves in the real world. And frankly, I'd rather take a jab in the face over a full throttle roundhouse kick to the head anyday!

They are allowed punches to the body though, including hooks, and they are allowed elbow strikes. I think that is right at least.