Soon to be New To Kickboxing

[StrengthIsBeauty]

I need a new challange... I'm thinking Kickboxing...

does anyone have any advice for someone looking to get started? 8^D

[gerbilOFdoom]

I'm assuming you mean you'll be participating in the personal defense and contact sport, not the fitness activity:

I'd suggest a pure martial art, personally. From what I know, a mixed martial art like kickboxing won't give you as much form work (the basis of all combat) as a true martial art.

But if you want to do kick boxing, a few things to keep in mind so you'll get comfortable with it faster:

-Get as flexible as possible before going into it

-Don't get distracted when you spar, stay focused and tune everything else out. Moving your eyes to look at someone who walked through the door is how you lose.

-Keep at it! Much of the advice I would give you were you in the dojo practicing with me I won't put up here on the forums because you'll learn much better through actually doing things than reading what I have to say. Make sure you're getting in to a good dojo, avoid the McDojo's. Here's a decent guide: http://mcdojo-faq.tripod.com/

If you're looking to get into kickboxing for fitness and don't care about practicality at all:

-Ignore everything above.

-If you DO go to a McDojo, remember that what they teach you most likely won't apply in a real fight. If you get in a self-defense situation, your best bet will be to haul 'yer rear out of there.

[Centurion]

I've been kickboxing for close to 2 years now and I'm gonna have to disagree with a lot of what the above poster has said.

Kickboxing is not a "mixed" martial art, and when you say it isn't a "pure" one either all that means is that its a western martial art as opposed to an eastern one. Just because we don't spend hours doing breathing exercises or katas doesn't mean much

Form work is not the basis for all combat, sparring is much more important if you want to learn to fight/defend yourself. I've seen people who are amazing at forms/hitting pads but have never sparred before and they fall to pieces when sparring because it is a completely different style.

Flexibility is important from kickboxing but you will gain flexibility from training. I was completely unflexible when I started, I'm considerably better now though still not great but that's to do with my body type. Flexibility will come but in the mean time you will learn to fight in style that accomodates how flexibile you are.

I'll agree that it's important to find a good school, which can be hard as kickboxing can be such a vague term (essentially people use it to describe any rule set that allows kicking and punching which can include TKD, Muay Thai etc.) so do your research and try out a few different clubs if you can. Hopefully you'll find a good one because its a fantastic way to get/stay in shape and is also great fun

[ETFnerd]

if you do real kickboxing, wear the face shield... you don't want to show up at your wedding with a broken nose or some other disfigurement...

[Hermione Gainser]

I'm going to get more simple than these folks: try out a few schools in your area. Some offer advanced or real kickboxing training, some offer fitness style and some both. You can almost always do a trial class or two for free or cheap $5-$10 is the most I've seen.

Doing this will help you figure out what feels good, where you feel comfortable, etc. If you find a good school you'll have good trainers and the rest will come in time. As you train more you'll learn more and be able to move schools should you feel your training is lacking.. so on and so forth.

Get your own hand wraps and gloves. Some schools offer free use stuff..but ew.

Be careful... it's addictive Have fun!!

[gerbilOFdoom]

I've been kickboxing for close to 2 years now and I'm gonna have to disagree with a lot of what the above poster has said.

Kickboxing is not a "mixed" martial art, and when you say it isn't a "pure" one either all that means is that its a western martial art as opposed to an eastern one. Just because we don't spend hours doing breathing exercises or katas doesn't mean much

Form work is not the basis for all combat, sparring is much more important if you want to learn to fight/defend yourself. I've seen people who are amazing at forms/hitting pads but have never sparred before and they fall to pieces when sparring because it is a completely different style.

Flexibility is important from kickboxing but you will gain flexibility from training. I was completely unflexible when I started, I'm considerably better now though still not great but that's to do with my body type. Flexibility will come but in the mean time you will learn to fight in style that accomodates how flexibile you are.

-Kickboxing is a derivative of Muay Thai, minus shin and elbow contact. It also incorporates karate and boxing, but what makes it mixed is that it removes elements of its original style for the sake of sport. Shins/knees and elbows are the most effective tools for a close-quarters fight but are not allowed in kickboxing. Besides, kickboxing is a Japanese martial art which makes it eastern, not western.

-I've seen people that spend all their time sparring and they're pretty darned good but they stay pretty darned good the whole time. Working through forms and understanding them is what causes vast improvements in sparring. Someone who is terrible at forms and hitting pads will be terrible at sparring and will have a hard time hitting a target. The point of forms and hitting pads is to develop balance and technique so that the body knows what to do when it needs to happen. If I've spent time working with forms to understand a certain combination and time practicing the strikes in that combination to the point where my body does them automatically with full force, I don't need to think about it when I'm pumped up on adrenaline defending myself. I just do the combination, which was developed by masters who spent their lives studying martial arts and not me when I was sparring someone, and I'll be dealing out some serious damage. Yes, sparring is important because it trains a person how to react to his target fighting back but to truly become a skilled fighter, a person must study form. I'm not saying this for my ego, I'm saying this because it is a point emphasized by both of my sensei's. When one first started learning, he focused only on sparring and disregarded the forms. He was good. It wasn't until the rest of his class became far better than him that he realized the forms really do make a huge difference. Once he took his forms seriously, he was able to catch up and then some.

-Better to work on flexibility before starting than to procrastinate and leave it all for class time. Being flexible reduces the chance of injury. Imagine slipping while sparring, causing a leg to get set down so the spreads are happening... and then more slipping happens. That "oh crap" moment when you hear tendons popping is the worst time to try to get more flexible. Yes, you can get by without flexibility but it is safer to be more flexible before something goes wrong.

Point is, my suggestions are made in the interest of safety and practicality.

[ETFnerd]

-Someone who is terrible at forms and hitting pads will be terrible at sparring and will have a hard time hitting a target.

My 35 years of experience in the martial arts tells me that forms are useless for fighting. Boxers and Muay Thai fighters don't have forms...

not saying you can't learn something from forms... but it's 2,000 year old technology... there are better ways to achieve what little you get out of forms and of course what you can't.... sparring, conditioning and drills are what matter...

[gerbilOFdoom]

My 35 years of experience in the martial arts tells me that forms are useless for fighting. Boxers and Muay Thai fighters don't have forms...

not saying you can't learn something from forms... but it's 2,000 year old technology... there are better ways to achieve what little you get out of forms and of course what you can't.... sparring, conditioning and drills are what matter...

Conditioning and drills are part of forms. Forms aren't 2,000 year old tech. They're 2,000 years worth of knowledge. This coming from my instructors' combined 90 years of experience, not to mention the experience of their instructors before them.

Now, what new technology do we apply to martial arts today that didn't exist in decades past? The ways that students learned in the past still apply today. Conditioning, drilling, sparring, and studying forms have been done for centuries. The ultimate goal is to become an effective fighter and to become disciplined. To bring a rather popular source into play, Chuck Norris developed Chun Kuk Do with forms and studies forms. Chun Kuk Do is designed for practicality. Therefor, forms must have an important role.

But this argument has been going on for decades and nobody has won, so I rest my case.

[Centurion]

-Kickboxing is a derivative of Muay Thai, minus shin and elbow contact. It also incorporates karate and boxing, but what makes it mixed is that it removes elements of its original style for the sake of sport. Shins/knees and elbows are the most effective tools for a close-quarters fight but are not allowed in kickboxing. Besides, kickboxing is a Japanese martial art which makes it eastern, not western.

A common misconception but kickboxing did not develop nor is it a derivative of Muay Thai. It started it's life with karate practitioners wanting to do full contact competitions, i.e. full-contact karate. When they realised that the knife-hands and backfists from karate were pretty useless when wearing gloves they also incorporated the punching elements from boxing. So yes it started life in Japan but the kickboxing we know today, i.e American Kickboxing, was developed in America and as such is a western art

-I've seen people that spend all their time sparring and they're pretty darned good but they stay pretty darned good the whole time. Working through forms and understanding them is what causes vast improvements in sparring. Someone who is terrible at forms and hitting pads will be terrible at sparring and will have a hard time hitting a target. The point of forms and hitting pads is to develop balance and technique so that the body knows what to do when it needs to happen. If I've spent time working with forms to understand a certain combination and time practicing the strikes in that combination to the point where my body does them automatically with full force, I don't need to think about it when I'm pumped up on adrenaline defending myself. I just do the combination, which was developed by masters who spent their lives studying martial arts and not me when I was sparring someone, and I'll be dealing out some serious damage. Yes, sparring is important because it trains a person how to react to his target fighting back but to truly become a skilled fighter, a person must study form. I'm not saying this for my ego, I'm saying this because it is a point emphasized by both of my sensei's. When one first started learning, he focused only on sparring and disregarded the forms. He was good. It wasn't until the rest of his class became far better than him that he realized the forms really do make a huge difference. Once he took his forms seriously, he was able to catch up and then some.

As ETF said, there aren't any forms in boxing and Muay Thai and right there you're gonna find some of the best fighters on the planet. Maybe there is some benefit to forms but frankly the best way to get good at something is to do it and fighting is no different, if you want to be able to fight you had better start fighting

-Better to work on flexibility before starting than to procrastinate and leave it all for class time. Being flexible reduces the chance of injury. Imagine slipping while sparring, causing a leg to get set down so the spreads are happening... and then more slipping happens. That "oh crap" moment when you hear tendons popping is the worst time to try to get more flexible. Yes, you can get by without flexibility but it is safer to be more flexible before something goes wrong.

Point is, my suggestions are made in the interest of safety and practicality.

I understand what you're trying to say but I don't like that mindset. Everyone has to start somewhere and you may never reach your ideal flexibility, you achieve nothing by delaying starting because you want to wait until you're more flexible. Actually doing it will help your flexibility, as will the stretching that will be done at any good class and there's no reason you can't start and still work on flexibility in your own time.