What is your opinion of Kyokushin Karate?

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Kyokushin Karate has more dynamic kicks than any other Japanese martial arts. It was heavily influenced by Tae Kyon (Korea) which was the predecessor of Tae Kwon Do.

It's amazing how now, in the days of MMA, Kyokushin Karate has a pretty good reputation and Tae Kwon Do gets a bad reputation. They are actually quite similar.

Kyokushin does demand more physical punishment in training than TKD.

Georges St. Pierre is on of my favorite UFC fighters and he is a blackbelt in Kyokushin.

Goju Ryu and Kyokushin are my two favorite Japanese/Okinawan martial arts.

James

EDIT: Hwrang: The founder of Kyokushin Karate was born in Korea during the Japanese occupation. He was heavily influenced by watching the Koreans practice a form of TaeKyon. This is why you see you see hook kicks, crescent kicks, high kicks, jumping and spinning kicks in Kyokushin karate. You don't see those types of kicks in many traditional karate styles.

The sparring rules are also similar, with the exception of the protective equipment used in TKD.

It's true that many US TKD schools practice light or no contact sparring. As I said in my original post, there are greater physical demands in Kyokushin training than in TKD training.

But they are similar martial arts, the stances, the kicks, the punches, some of the training.

TKD just has a bad reputation because it's an Olympic sport and it got so popular so fast.

As soon as something get's popular, people start bashing it.

EDIT 2: We will have to agree to disagree. TaeKyon doesnt have the dobak in common, TaeKyon uses a more traditional "costume" than a TKD dobak. You see also Tae Kwon Do kicks in Extreme Martial Arts and alot of "American Karate", but you don't see those kicks in traditional Okinawan/Japanese karate styles.

James...Show more

Kyokushin is the "rough and tough brother" of traditional karate. The elements are in normal traditional karate but only a few of the traditionalists practice as hard as the Kyokushin guys do.
(As for the TKD being similar comment... I have never seen any TKD people practice with really hard contact. I once saw a class where they actually made contact but they were all padded up and their hits were not powerful at all. Their opponenets were actually slapping away the techniques. Try slapping away a real kick. Phhh...)...Show more

Kyokushin is an awesome style, we are not allowed to punch the head on kumite (hard contact sparring) but we still do practice the techniques, we don't use any protection equipment except for a groin guard so be prepared for the journey your about to endure. Also kyokushin is alot different to other styles of karate, and when people hear karate they think you cant fight soo dont listen to them...Show more

Jamesf24 Taekwondo has nothing to do with Taekkyon, which is the most anciente korean martial art, and so does karate, u can't say taekkyon is been influenced by karate coz is not true.Is taekwondo that has been influenced by karate.
Apart this i think in the competition, Kyokushin Karate is the best karate but in real life is equal to the others.

Jamesf24 i wouldn't never bash taekwondo coz i do Taekwondo ITF.
The kicks u said are tipical karate kicks and u can find them in every karate style.
I just wanted people to know that Taekkyon and Taekwondo are 2 completely distinct things, the only things they have in common is the Dobok and the concept of using many kicks.
Taekkyon apart kicks has many joint locks , sweeps and throws.Taekwondo is based on karate and the only things Taekwondo has different from karate are its acrobatic kicks, forms and taekwondo is also more faster....Show more

Kyokushinkai karate is a great art. I mean what else can I really say considering I am not a practitioner of the art. If I were 25 years younger I would have put more time in this art....Show more