The Different Types Of Kickboxing Styles

Here is a run down of the main types of kickboxing styles.

• Adithada (Indian Style kickboxing) – This type of  uses primarily knee, elbow and forehead strikes.
• Cardio Kickboxing (excerise based) – A form of kicboxing geared towards keeping fit.
• Lethwei (Burmese kickboxing) – This is the traditional Burmese martial art. Now adays it is fast becoming a a main kick boxing event. Here boxers are allowed to headbutt as a form of attack. The boxer is allowed to use any limb or part of the body to strike, and can land a strike on any part of the opponents body. No area is off limits ! This type is  also known as Bando kickboxing.
• Pradal Serey (Khmer “Cambodian” kickboxing) – This is allegdly the  predecessor ofMuay Thai. Pradal Serey has strong emphasis on using different elbow attacks.
• Gwon-gyokdo (Korean kickboxing) – that is a mashup between the 2 main types of kick boxing, mainly Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai. It is generally practised in Korea and is also known by the name ‘Kyuk Too Ki’.
• Muay Thai (Thai boxing) – Traditional Thai martial art of which has now grown into a popular kickboxing event with strong emphasis on knee and elbow strikes.
• Muay Boran (Ancient Boxing) – This was the predecessor of Muay Thai. It is like Pradal Serey where the use of headbutts is allowed.
• Japanese kickboxing – In ways this is comparable to Muay Thai. The main difference is in competition, where a different points system is used. This was the first  fighting style to adopt the name of “Kickboxing”.
• American kickboxing – The main difference here is that one is not allowed to kick any region below the waist.
• Savate (French kickboxing) – Here boxers are allowed to wear shoes in competition. This allows boxers to land more deadly kicks.
• Sanshou/Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) – This is similar to wushu/kung fu . Here throws are an integral part of sparring, so boxers are allowed to physicall grab hold of their opponent to land them on their back. 
• Shoot boxing – This is a Japanese form of kickboxing. It is similar to Sanshou/Sanda, where the boxers are also allowed to perform throws. The main stipulation is that the boxer needs to be standing when doing this.
• Yaw-Yan (Filipino kickboxing) – Sayaw ng Kamatayan (Dance of Death) is the proper name for Yaw-Yan. It comes from the school of teaching by the famous Napoleon Fernandez. Here kicks are generally in a downward direction, like a chop down to bring the user to the floor. It also has a big emphasis on hip pivoting to generate more speed and strength. 

You may hear your instructor mentioning these different types of styles, and therefore it is a good idea to have an overview of these 13 different styles of kickboxing. Generally they are all similar, but we have highlighted the main  differences from modern kickboxing.

originally posted by kickboxingguide.com