THE HISTORY OF KICKBOXING

Promoters eventually realised this and put it down to the contact elementinvolved in Boxing and wrestling that wasn't so much present on the Martial Arts Tournament scene ( people want to see K.O's ). Although the Martial Artists involved did receive injuries through the contact ( as protective equipment was rarely used ) this wasn't in the so called rule book, as excessive contact was frowned upon and a competitor could lose through doing so.So the promoters along with several Top Martial Artists of the day gave birth to Full - Contact Karate. Some of these early bouts were still fought on the
matted area used on the points Tournament circuit, but eventually they succumbed to the Boxing Ring.Fighting for points and then Fighting Full Contact in the ring came as quite a shock to many Top Fighters at that time, mainly the stamina and conditioning being their main problem. Boxing gloves also robbed many a Martial Artist ofhis best hand manouvers and a big re-think was on its way.Martial Artists turned their attention to the way Boxers condition and prepare themselves for the ring and found that with this approach their bodies coped with the pressure that they could'nt handle previously.

Fighters suddenly made progress in leaps and bounds with their new found sport that was starting to get noticed amongst the general public and soon was becoming known as "Kickboxing" and so the sport was starting to come out of nfancy and to the forefront of many Martial Arts schools, who although keeping to their Traditional values started to introduce this to students who were competitively minded and wanted the challenge of the Full - contact arena. Kickboxing was now legitmate and accepted as a new breed of martial art.

Another side to the development of Kickboxing was the "Lets put on the protective equipment and go all out" approach by the late great Bruce Lee. Most people know him for his ground breaking Kung Fu flicks, but the truth is Bruce Lee was a Martial Artist first and a movie actor second using the latter to express his Martial way. Although Bruce didn't compete on the circuit, his training methods were very much Kickboxing orientated, along with trapping skills he borrowed from his Wing Chun Kung Fu background as Self Defence (the true meaning of learning a Martial Art) was his main objective. Bruce learned from every Martial Art and fighting System he could from many of the top Martial Arts instructors of the day and was certainly a pioneer of Kickboxing and the art of blending different systems of Martial Arts to suit his and his students individual needs.Bruce Lee was way ahead of his time and his approach to the Martial arts was whatever works for you use it. But Bruce wouldn't just put on your basic protective equipment, but instead would use kicks to the knee and finger jabs to the eyes so special safety equipment was implemented to protect these area's from any damage, this way he and his fellow students could practice what they preached and could walk away after with everything intact.

Bruce Lee trained several Top Martial Artists of the time . Joe Lewis, one of the pioneers of American Kickboxing was a student of Bruce's and puts much of his success down to the training he received from Lee. So in a lot of ways Bruce Lee is responsible for the development of Full - Contact Martial Arts as they are taught today in many Martial Arts schools across the world.

As Kickboxing was developing in the west, Thai - Boxing was carrying on with what it had been doing for the last 2,000 years in its native land. So called World "Full Contact " and "Kickboxing Champions" who had never fought abroad were in for a culture shock. As these Fighters ventured to Thailand and Japan, they soon had to return home with their tails between their legs as the Thai's were beating them hands down ,as they had never experienced the devastating knee, elbow and kicking skills these Martial Artists possessed. But as time went on the westerners learned from the Thai - Boxers and developed their own art to a higher level and today some of the best Thai and Kickboxers are spread Worldwide.