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WAKO Light-Contact

Continuous fighting with controlled power — the bridge between point-fighting and the full-contact ring disciplines.

Origin

Introduced by WAKO as an intermediate discipline for competitors moving from semi-contact toward full-contact rules.

Light-contact keeps point-fighting's target restrictions and its ban on knees, elbows and clinching, but removes the stoppages. The bout runs continuously and judges score the flow rather than awarding discrete points, which forces competitors to think about sequences, defence and pacing for the first time.

Power is deliberately capped. Knocking an opponent down is not the goal and heavy contact draws warnings, so what wins is volume, accuracy and visible control. Competitors are also expected to mix hands and feet rather than defaulting to one, which the scoring reflects.

In practice it does the job it was designed for: it is where a semi-contact competitor learns to fight for two continuous minutes without the reset, before deciding whether to move up to full-contact, low-kick or K-1 rules.

Legal

  • Controlled hand techniques to the head and body
  • Controlled kicks above the waist
  • Foot sweeps below the ankle

Illegal

  • Heavy or uncontrolled contact
  • Leg kicks
  • Knees and elbows
  • Clinching and holding

What sets it apart

  • Continuous action, but power is deliberately capped
  • Judges score the flow rather than awarding discrete points
  • Competitors must mix hand and foot techniques
  • The designed stepping stone between semi- and full-contact

Scoring

System
Continuous scoring by judges, no stoppage for points
Rounds
2 or 3
Round length
2 minutes
Extension rounds
An extra round settles a tie.

Judging criteria

  1. 1Number of clean techniques landed
  2. 2Balance of hand and foot techniques
  3. 3Control and technical quality
  4. 4Ring coverage and initiative