Our kickboxing classes are “kitchen sink” sessions. We use a hybrid style of various disciplines, including our Wing Chun, Boxe Française Savate (classical and modern), Bare Knuckle English Boxing (18th and 19th century), Kenpo, conventional MMA striking practice, and miscellaneous techniques and tricks we’ve picked up along the way.
Is it Boxing or Kickboxing?
When we say boxing we mean the original meaning of the word: FIST FIGHTING. Not exclusively the gloved, punching only modern sport.
Prior to the adoption of the Queensbury rules in 1867, boxing involved standing holds, and throws. It just prohibited ground fighting, and blows and holds below the waist. In French Boxing, they allowed working the lower body, but still did not practice ground fighting. French Boxing, or Savate, included with its native techniques French Wrestling (And Charlemont praised Freestyle Wrestling, one of the precursors to our beloved Catch Wrestling!) and English Boxing. And in both French and English practices, boxing often included training in Single Stick or Cane, Great Stick, and Quarterstaff. Stick fencing matches were often the opening features of boxing matches.
In Chinese boxing, it was typically non-sport fist fighting, involving extreme tactics on top of the open striking, holding and throwing methods, and, of course, they all included the training of one or more weapons. In their sport formats, they also included knocking the opponent off the stage as a winning condition. Even our Kenpo aspect, while often sold as a kind of karate, and it is, uses the characters 拳法 which translate from the Chinese as “boxing” (literally “fist method”). Kenpo just happens to be the Japanese reading of the Chinese umbrella term for hand-to-hand fighting methods, which is a term many original Okinawan karate masters used for their art, which was originally southern Chinese Boxing.
Modern sanda competition was created to replace the old lei tai format, and was created by the kuomintang, the anti-communist party that Ip Man was a part of. Many people don’t think of Wing Chun as suitable for sport, but it is so close to bareknuckle style boxing that you’d have to be blinded by dogma not to see it. Sanda was a synthesis of Chinese Boxing and Western martial arts to create a modern kung fu boxing competition and training style.
Our multi-style fighting is based on the 4 components of classical Chinese boxing: Hand Striking, Kicking, Locking, and Throwing in conjunction with a mindset toward London Prize Ring and Broughton’s Rules boxing, and Lei Tai/Sanda competition. While it is almost certain you won’t find a competition using these rules anywhere around here, we believe that they more fully prepare you to use your striking in both MMA, and a “street fight” (that’s a complicated subject…) as they prepare you to deal with being grabbed and thrown on top of the striking.
See our schedule and tuition.
1457 W Southern Ave, Suite 4
Mesa, AZ 85202
(602)472-5918
BlackSunBoxing@gmail.com