What Is Kickboxing?

Kickboxing is a sport combining style and technique of boxing and kicking (from the word itself). It is practiced as self-defense, general fitness, or a full contact sport where the male are bare-chested wearing shorts and protective gear:

• mouth guard
• hand-wraps
• 10-oz boxing gloves
• groin guard
• shin-pads
• kick-boots
• protective helmet (for those who are under 16 usually)

 The female boxers wear a tank top and a chest protection in addition to the male protective gear.

Kickboxing is derived from various Asian Martial Arts including Muay Thai, Kyokushin and Burmese Boxing. It originated in Japan and was created by the Japanese boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi for a variant of Muay Thai and Karate that he created in the 1950s.

Often kickboxing is confused with Muay Thai -- which also known as Thai boxing. Those two maybe similar but kicks below the belt aren't allowed in kickboxing.

Kickboxing is popular in mixed martial arts and professional wrestling competition.

Actually, I've heard of this sport through my hubby who is a kick boxer. He practices this sport as general fitness and self defense. Though he practices kickboxing as a full contact sport sometimes but personally I prefer it as general fitness and self-defense for him. Just can't bear seeing him in a sport where physical force is involved.



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickboxing