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It is our intention to breathe new life and fresh
impetus into mat sports. For too long the businessmen
and the politicians have run our sport at world level to
the extent of financially crippling visiting world teams
with the costs of getting to a World Championships
spiralling out of control. To the extent of the people who really
matter "the competitors" not being able to afford to attend their
own World Championships. These enormous financial strictures have
seen the interest and participation of our sport sadly decline in
numbers over the last few years.
The establishing of the world’s first ever Points
Karate, Light Contact & Forms ONLY organisation has been
in the pipeline for a number of years. We at the W.K.C.
promise in perpetuity that the Council will only ever
follow the dictate of always keeping costs to a
minimum. Thus keeping in touch with not just the sport
in general, but also the people that take part, YOU, the
competitor.
We
bring to the table over 60 years of martial arts
experience, expertise, and tournament promoting. We can
promise all prospective and future W.K.C national Team
members from countries around the globe that our world
championship tournaments will offer a platform where you
can fight or perform without prejudice and without fear
of second rate referees and judges.
A World Championships is our own martial arts Olympics
and a good world organization should reflect this. We at
the W.K.C will always do so. Good luck to all of you on
your journey to the World Gold Medal.
World Kickboxing
Council 2010
WKC Beginnings and History
The martial arts can be one of
the most confusing sporting disciplines in the world,
totally distinct from all other sporting connotations.
You can only play football one way, tennis, rowing,
running, gymnastics, and virtually every other sports
discipline is practiced to a universal conformity.
Whereas the Martial art which is a generic term
generally used to cover combat forms from all over Asia,
is broken down into many various styles and forms of
fighting. The term martial art as used today is meant to
indicate fighting formats that originated in South East
Asia. There are many colourful and exciting disciplines
encompassed within these indigenous fighting arts.
From Japan we have Karate, jiu jitsu, judo, Aikido. From
Korea there is Taekwon-do, Hapkido, Kuk-Sool –Won. From
Thailand there is Muay Thai (Thai Boxing). Bando from
Burma (Myan-Mar) from China there is another generic
term used that of Kung fu. This name/term is used to
encompass at least five hundred different styles of
empty hand fighting. The list is endless, and then here
in the West we have the many various forms of wrestling
and boxing. From France we have La Savate. It would seem
that to the uninitiated there is a plethora of combat
systems that would seem endless. All fighting and
competing under different methods and rules systems.
In the early 1970’s with the advent of the Bruce Lee
films the many Eastern fighting systems were brought to
the attention of the world audiences. And what occurred
was one of the strangest and most unique sports
happenings ever experienced. Almost within two decades
the many varied martial arts systems experienced a boom
time, which resulted in millions and millions of
practitioner’s worldwide taking up one form or another
of martial arts discipline. At first people used the
martial arts for getting fit, keeping healthy, esoteric
purposes. But it would seem only natural with man’s urge
to test him/herself that these art forms took on the
mantle of competition.
Changes in the
Sport.
Almost overnight various formats were developed to
formulate a competition link between ancient fighting
disciplines and modern sporting concepts. Unfortunately
at world level there was no infrastructure, no set
format of rules, the elements of danger were still
included in the combat forms. As the martial arts
disciplines grew in popularity mans urge to meet his/her
peers on the competition floor demanded conformity, a
universal rules system, and a method that would ensure
the practitioners safety whilst competing at sporting
level.
Various groups came forward in an attempt to unite all
these Eastern martial disciplines under one set of rules
that would cover the many and various forms of combat
all under one umbrella. After many failures, petty
squabbles and political in fighting major world
organization’s were formed to overlook the sport at its
many levels. One of the first of these was the World
Kickboxing Council. (W.K.C.).At first other world bodies looked on to see if the W.K.C.
would fare any better than the organizations that had
come before. But within a few short years the WKC had
expanded its area of operations to eventually create a
global network of countries all within membership with
representatives each running successful organizations on
all five continents.
They created (through its members) National and
international competitions and tournaments whereby
martial arts practitioners could meet their peers on the
mats and in the rings to take their skills and talents
to world champion status.Then by the late eighties the sporting connotations of
the martial arts had exploded beyond belief and
tournaments were being held almost every week in all
countries of the world. These took over both in number
and interest from the ring sports. These connotations
had names such as Points Karate, Semi-Contact, Forms, and
Light Contact. And suddenly the mat sports were born.
The American Sports Magazine (Sports Today) opined that
the martial arts were the third most practiced sport in
the world today, indicating that a general consensus
estimation that there was in excess of 20 million people
globally training in one form or other of martial art.
Decline
The original World Kickboxing Council gradually fell
into the doldrums to consequently vanish without a trace
along with a few other world bodies. The World
organizations that remained incorporated these new mat
sports into their existing framework.
But like everything in the world sometimes when things
get too big they begin to fragment. This is what started
to happen with the organizations that were left. Add to
this in some of the World organizations the mat sports
were hijacked and their unscrupulous officials began to
siphon funds away from the sport. As a result of this
and trying to keep a writhing giant that was the sport
under control standards began to fall. Bad refereeing
continued rising prices, dis- organization in staging
championships and of course falling participation in the
number of competitor entries.
It was then that a group of very experienced martial
arts men and seasoned promoters said ‘enough was enough’
they resigned and stepped out of these world bodies and
went off to form a new world organization with the sole
interest of putting the mat sports first and foremost on
the world forum. They resurrected the W.K.C. (World
Kickboxing Council) and introduced points karate and
forms / kata into the existing divisions to take the sport back
to how it used to be.
The W.K.C. Today
From this rebirth the new W.K.C. can now boast
of being the only Sanctioning Body for mat sports only
Points Karate, Light Contact Karate, and Forms in the
world. Their mission statement and prime directive is
‘the competitor always comes first’ Their first and
continuing aim is to lower prices, improve refereeing
and judging, and be at the forefront of developing ideas
for sport safety, and technique advancements in
tournaments and competitions. But most of all to bring
the sport back to being Fun!
Each country within membership of the W.K.C. has a
president who is responsible for that countries
implementation of the rules and regulations. And to
overlook the growth and practice of the martial
disciplines as a whole. The W.K.C. has in place, a rules
committee, a health and safety committee, a child
protection officer, a refereeing structure, and always
each year there is an annual world council meeting. The
Council World Congress discusses the many aspects of
change within the sport, it designates via the
democratic principle of votes new rules and regulations,
updates and innovations within the sport as they come to
light.
Growth
Part of the concept of the W.K.C.’s growth is that it
will continually move forward and strive to improve
every aspect of its infrastructure. It will also
examine developments within sports science and sports
safety. Thus ensuring that in future years the W.K.C.
and its member countries will keep on growing from
strength to strength. And it will strive to be a
continuing source of inspiration to all of it's members
in the nations of the world and in keeping with the
spirit of brotherhood of the martial arts |
