Kickboxing In U.S.

Kickboxing was the biggest combat sport for martial arts back in the 80s and 90s. Full Contact Karate became American Kickboxing, add in International Rules (low kicks), Oriental Rules, K-1, San Shou, and Muay Thai. Kickboxing's popularity has declined as it used to be televised on ESPN (and it did appear on Showtime), but the sport still lives. All MMA fighters train in kickboxing and you will see a lot of matches in the sport decided by hands and feet, especially when you have to good grapplers. As far as pure kickboxing goes, I don't see that the skill level has greatly improved. The reason I say that is there are a lot of coaches with little to no real experience teaching. Now this goes for martial arts in general, not just kickboxing. Look at most guys who box or wrestle. They usually have coaches with experience. As I've mentioned in previous threads, today you got all of these stand up coaches who happen to be a little older than their fighters, if not the same age. It's like white belts teaching white belts. The good thing about my ancient years in kickboxing is that you had to go to a boxing gym to learn the hands and most of us got very experience trainers to coach us. Because of those experiences I was able to transfer that background to kickboxing, muay thai, shidokan, etc. and I felt that my kickboxing skills could compete with any other form of kickboxing (I started out as an American above the waist kickboxer). K-1 is starting up again and I'm waiting to see some American kickboxing stars develop. We haven't had any in long time. So, you young guys get to work and represent.