Kickboxing is a popular sport that is a derivative of Muay Thai boxing. In full-contact kickboxing competitions, all athletes wear specially approved gloves, foot protection and shin guards. There is no kicking allowed at knee level or below. Kickboxing rounds are two minutes long, and there is a one-minute break between each round.
Full Contact Kickboxing–Compulsory Kicks
The sport of full-contact kickboxing is about throwing punches and kicks. To assure that fighters develop their kicking ability and not just get caught up throwing punches, the rules demand that all fighters throw at least eight kicks per round. Fighters who don’t throw all the kicks required incur a 1/2-point deduction from their score for each kick they fail to deliver.
Freestyle Kickboxing
Freestyle kickboxing is not as rigid as full-contact kickboxing. Roundhouse kicks are allowed above knee level. Kickboxers may also deliver sweep kicks and ankle level in order to knock their opponents off their feet. There are no minimum amount of kicks that have to be thrown. Judges in freestyle concentrate on effective combinations and not the number of kicks.
Japanese Kickboxing
Japanese kickboxing is considered to be more wide open and aggressive than either freestyle or full-contact kickboxing. Athletes are allowed to punch each other while in the middle of a clinch. This cannot be done in the other versions of the sport. Knee strikes are allowed to the upper body. No fighter is allowed to wear padding on his shins or feet. Rounds are three minutes in Japanese kickboxing.
About this Author
Steve Silverman is an award-winning writer, covering sports since 1980. Silverman authored The Minnesota Vikings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Football — The Top 60 Players of All-Time, among others, and placed in the Pro Football Writers of America awards three times. Silverman holds a Master of Science in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism.
