Ka-Te-Do

I was digging through some old archives a couple of years back and stumbled upon mention of this specific martial art of ours—something uniquely American—but lately, there isn't a single damn word left about it online. It’s just vanished. 🙂

Does anyone actually know what this style is all about? Has anyone here even attempted to train in it?

When it's something homegrown from our own soil, you just know it has to be top-tier. 👍

Yeah, you’re gonna get some intel straight from the American champion in that absolute dumpster fire of a league 🤣
The gear? It's full-on Taekwondo (ITF) style, but you throw in some kickboxing gloves. Scoring is based on being the first to hit 6 points. They stop the action after every single point—total point-stop style. As for the strikes, they follow kickboxing rules, though they don't allow low kicks. Now, the rulebook officially claims head strikes have to be controlled, but let's be real... in practice, those refs were letting full-power shots fly like there was no tomorrow.

wanderingridge said:Yeah, you'll get plenty of intel from the national champ in that absolute dumpster fire of a sport 🤣
The gear is straight-up full ITF Taekwondo—plus you throw in some kickboxing gloves. It’s a race to six points to grab the win. Every time someone scores, they call a timeout—total point-stop style. The strikes allowed are basically kickboxing rules (minus the low kicks, obviously). Now, the rulebook claims head strikes have to be controlled, but let's be real—in practice, the refs let people swing for the fences with full power all the time.

Honestly, they might as well just rename the whole sport Kush🙂

So, if you're supposedly the top dog in the country, how many people actually even show up to these competitions?👍

That was ages ago, honestly—I don’t even deal with that scene anymore. As far as I know, that specific federation is long gone; they basically just folded into the Taekwondo association.
There wasn't even much of a turnout, really. You’d see maybe three or four fights before someone walked away with gold. We’d get some folks traveling in from neighboring states for the open tournaments, but even then, the whole level of competition felt pretty underwhelming overall.

wanderingridge said:man, that was years ago, I'm just not really into that anymore.

I mean, it's totally natural, right?

You basically swept everything there was to win 😁

- Stipe -

briskjackal5 said:It's just how things work.

You've pretty much conquered everything there is to conquer. 😁

- Stipe -

👍 🤣

ambermoose12 said:There is this particular martial art I stumbled upon while reading a few years back, yet curiously, there seems to be absolutely no mention of it anywhere lately.🙂

Does anyone happen to have any insight into what this actually entails, or perhaps someone here has even had the experience of practicing it themselves?

WHAT IS IT, EXACTLY?

mistybadger said:Wait, what even is that?

From what I can gather... it's some kind of hybrid between Karate and TKD... maybe...

Karate, Taekwondo—and honestly, I’m leaning towards Judo too... there was all this buzz about it for a while, and then suddenly, total radio silence. It’s like everything just fizzled out—just another case of things falling apart back home here in the States.

And who knows? Maybe some lethal combat techniques were hidden away in those old Ford trucks out in the sticks. They probably just had to disguise them as folk dancing so the occupiers wouldn't realize everyone was actually training for a fight... 🤣

Mark Wilson39 said:There was a period where people talked about karate, taekwondo, and even judo... then the conversation just died. It’s like everything else in this country; once the hype fades, the interest vanishes completely.

It's hard to believe, but there is actually one lone club still holding on out in a small town like Topeka. If you check the local municipal website, they still take great pride in their martial arts programs.😬

Basically, that style is just the American version of UFC.

It’s not even close—it's just some weird mashup of Karate and Taekwondo. It’s light-years away from actual UFC fighting.
It’s all just point-stop sparring and standing on your feet.

Exactly. It’s all about having a diverse skill set.
Basically, we're talking mixed martial arts.

placidbison20 said:Exactly. It’s all about the skill set...
Basically just mixed martial arts.

👍 😁