Kickboxing: History, Rules, Techniques & Benefits
What Is Kickboxing?
Kickboxing is a popular professional sport, similar to MMA or boxing. Many cities have martial arts studios that offer specialized classes in kickboxing. However, with its high energy vibe kickboxing is quite popular with the general public as well. Many gyms offer non-contact kickboxing classes as aerobic exercise and with good reason. There are lots of benefits for using kickboxing as a form of exercise.
Kickboxing is said to be an evolved version of Thailand’s martial art form Muay Thai. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Siamese soldiers of Thailand practiced a kind of boxing known as Muay Boran. The martial art continued to develop as a combat system until the 19th century when it was popularized as a form of recreation, self defense, and physical fitness. It also evolved into a kind of sport event with rules and use of safety accessories including gloves. By the 1920s, the style was prominently known as Muay Thai
Some years later, a Japanese boxing expert Osamu Noguchi came across the art of Muay Thai. He always wanted to develop a kind of fighting technique that had the soul of Karate but allowed full striking. After studying Muay Thai, he merged it with full contact techniques of Karate and boxing, which eventually became what we know today as Kickboxing. A few years later,
the first kickboxing organization, called Kickboxing Association, was formed in Japan. Today kickboxing is being practiced with a number of unique movements all over the globe.
Essential Must Know Kickboxing Techniques
1. Punches– Kicks and punches are an essential part of kickboxing workout. Everybody who thinks of being serious about it needs to learn theory while practicing the techniques. What it means is that you have to learn about anatomy. Those who want to be good at punching have to know that strength plays a role but not the main one. Get yourself a pair of kickboxing gloves and focus on your accuracy, speed, and technique and develop it through practice. It is important to remember that for a more powerful punch, you need to go through instead of withdrawing immediately after making an impact. If given a chance, try kickboxing workout with a bag to practice punches and kicks.
2. Kicks- It’s very likely self-explanatory, but the big difference between boxing and kickboxing workout is that people use legs a lot. The power of the kick same as with punch depends on the concept of going through. Also, what is important is how fast you can twist your body. In the case of kicks, the focus is on hip – faster twist implies a stronger kick. There are a lot of kick techniques that you can learn in training, and they improve with practice.
3. Pace- The speed is crucial in kickboxing. But moreover changing the rate and rhythm of your movements is a fantastic way to confuse your sparring partner. If you want to improve the pace, follow some cardio kickboxing workout videos to get some ideas.
4. Footwork and Balance- Mastering footwork is one of the kickboxing essentials. There are plenty of exercises that will help with perfecting it. One thing that we recommend is SAQ
(speed, agility, and quickness) drills. Keep in mind that you need to warm up before and do them for 2-3 minutes per round.
5. Defense- As you already probably know, martial arts are more about defense than offense. Include in your kickboxing workout routine everything that relates to blocks, dodges, parries, and so on and practices them at least as much as you focus on punches and kicks if not more.
6. Feints- If you at least saw a kickboxing workout youtube video, then it is clear what is feinting. We can say it’s bluffing designed to confuse the partner or opponent. This skill needs a lot of practice, and it is good to test it out with different sparring partners.
7. Assess the time- If you are new to combat sports, then it is possible to wonder what does time have to do with fighting. Well, time is more important than you think regardless of whether we are talking about defense or attack. To understand what we are talking about, try the following exercise with your partner instead of a standard free fight. Throw punches and kicks at your partner while she or he tries to react by blocking and dodging your kicks and blows timely. After some time, change roles to have a clear picture of how vital is the right timing.
8. Stamina and Endurance- They are crucial for having a successful kickboxing workout. If you aren’t in good shape, your opponent will eventually win. There are plenty of ways to improve them, like jumping rope, interval running, and so on. Train as hard and as long as you can. Just keep your gloves clean and make sure to takes breaks as needed.
9. Sparring- And this is the part everybody was waiting for, and that makes everyone happy. Sparring or free fight is when you enter a ring and try everything that you have learned with your partner. It is considered to be the best kickboxing workout. However, beginners shouldn’t do it unless they have worked enough on their punching and kicking as well as other techniques and features.
Kickboxing Rules you Must Know
- All kickboxing matches should happen in a boxing ring.
- Any rival in full contact kickboxing must go up against a contender in a similar weight class as themselves to guarantee a reasonable battle.
- In the wake of tuning in to the ref’s guidelines, the two contenders contact glove and the battle starts.
- Adjusts typically most recent 3-minutes and the quantity of rounds relies on the experience of the warriors in question. There is a 1-minute break between each round. Title battles are for the most part more than 12 x 3 moment rounds.
- Every warrior must endeavor to overcome their adversary by utilizing punches and kicks to the body and head trying to thump their rival out.
- On the off chance that the two warriors neglect to thump their rival out or power the arbitrator to stop the battle, at that point the battle is made a decision on focuses. The warrior with the more noteworthy number of focuses is announced the champ.
- In the event that the two contenders have a similar measure of focuses, the match is viewed as a draw.
Benefits of KickBoxing
Many people can find it strange because the sport appears to be appealing only to those muscular men who are lifting weights at the gym. Nevertheless, there is plenty of kickboxing workout benefits. We will here mention some of those that we find interesting.
- Improves cardiovascular health
- Speeds up weight loss
- Increases confidence and self-esteem
- Has a positive impact on mental health
- It’s a great self-defense technique
