Arguments, mostly about rules
Longer pieces that did not fit anywhere else: why the low-kick chain works mechanically, what 1988 actually taught, why two welterweight champions can be seven kilos apart, and why most fighters do more hard sparring than the evidence supports. Posts carry the date they were written, and an updated date where the claim inside can go stale.
- Rules6 min read
There is no such thing as “the rules of kickboxing”
Sixteen codes are in active use and they disagree about leg kicks, knees, the clinch, throws, head punches and footwear. Almost every argument about the sport is really an argument about which rulebook you mean.
- Technique4 min read
Why 1–2–low kick is the most-drilled sequence in the sport
It is not tradition and it is not habit. The cross leaves your body in exactly the position the rear low kick launches from, so the kick costs nothing to add.
- Training4 min read
You are not killing the nerves in your shins
The folk explanation for shin conditioning describes an injury, not an adaptation. What actually changes is bone density, and it changes over years.
- Rules4 min read
The rule that decides close fights and nobody explains
Under K-1 and GLORY rules a draw is not declared. If the cards are level an extension round is fought — which means every fighter must be ready for one round more than the scheduled distance.
- Technique5 min read
Why good boxers lose their first kickboxing fights
It is not the kicks they can’t throw. It is that every habit their footwork rests on assumes nothing is going to attack their legs.
- Training5 min read
Most fighters do more hard sparring than the evidence supports
The cumulative exposure that matters in combat sports happens in the gym, not on fight night. A camp needs some competition-intensity work; the rounds beyond that carry cost without benefit.
- Rules3 min read
Two welterweight champions can be seven kilos apart
Division names are not standardised across promotions. Comparing champions without checking the actual limit is close to meaningless.
- Training4 min read
The Dutch pad round is not conditioning work
It looks like a fitness session and it is not one. The purpose is removing the decision point in the middle of a combination.
- Rules4 min read
Two promotions, the same rules, opposite instructions to the judges
ONE and GLORY permit almost exactly the same techniques. One tells its judges to reward accumulated clean striking; the other tells them to reward nearly ending the fight.
- History4 min read
What 1988 actually taught, and what people got wrong about it
Rick Roufus was not outclassed by Changpuek Kiatsongrit. He had a blind spot that was invisible from inside his own rulebook, which is a different and more interesting problem.
- Gear4 min read
What to buy first, and what to wait on
Wraps, gloves and a mouthguard get you through your first three months. Everything else is a decision you are not yet equipped to make.
- Fighters5 min read
Ranking heavyweights across eras requires admitting two things at once
Rico Verhoeven’s reign is genuinely dominant and the division he dominated is thinner than the one Hoost, Aerts and Schilt worked through. Both are true.