Kancho Royama, Shihan Hiroshige, and others are working to reintroduce multiple elements of Kyokushin training that were taken for granted during the early decades following Mas Oyama’s synthesis of Kyokushin, only to be eroded in following years due to the booming popularity of tournament style fighting.
For example, in the days of Oyama Dojo and in the early days of Kyokushinkaikan, punches to face and kicks to the groin were commonplace in dojo kumite.
One early uchi deshi of Kancho Royama, Shihan Okazaki, told this week how when he was one of the first uchi deshi under Kancho Royama it was his job to pick up teeth during dojo kumite so that they would not be lost.
Of course Shihan Hiroshige stressed in his introduction to his face-contact seminar that this type of training is not for everyone in every dojo situation. Even in the early days, he explained, entire dojo populations of 100 students were reduced to less than ten following just one such full-contact face punching kumite session.
It is vitally important, however, Shihan Hiroshige stresses, that Kyokushin Karate regain the reflexes of face punch defense that Kyokushin fighters once had but then began to lose once tournament style fighting became popular and face punches were eliminated in the name of safety.
This can be done, he insists, in a relatively safe, fun way by introducing certain face-punching drills designed to develop these reflexes while avoiding injury among those in the dojo who aren’t interested in full-contact face punching kumite.
Work was being done to introduce Kyokushin competitions in Japan in which full-contact face-contact is allowed.
Some more progressive KK and offshoot schools will spar with MMA style gloves or the cheap cloth padded gloves (imagine getting hit in the face and not just getting bruised but rugburn too), and also do the traditional sparring as well. Truthfully if this catches on I think it will be great for Kyokushin.
Kidspatula is possibly one of the most filmed posters on Bullshido, yet you won’t even allow your face to come near a camera because you’re afraid I’ll steal your soul.
It’s funny that Hannibal should accuse me of hiding behind my keyboard when I’ve met half the fucking active posters on Bullshido and continue to do so.
Gloves were actually used, and when they were worn headshots were allowed, but it was more “manly” to fight in the bareknuckle matches. Seriously it was like a rite of passage. We had guys that Kickboxed and fought MT rules but if you didn’t do a bareknuckle fight you were a baby. Thats just how it was.
I’m not really sure for which training I should lean for.While on one side the sparring with gloves on reduces the risk of injurys to hands and wrist while on the other I just got a bad feeling that a few people might use it to bully noob white belts.
While I’ve always looked at Kyokushin tournaments as close to an endurance sport fighting without the money or fame that goes with it.It’s still very close to reality fighting in my opinion.
My solution.Include 2 types of events at KK tournaments.One bareknuckel fighting and the introduction of glove fighting (International kickboxing rules for this event ) .
