Kickboxing can be described as a generic term for a sporting martial art that, while similar to boxing, uses feet as well as hands for fighting.

Forms of kickboxing that have been labelled under this term [1] include:

Muay Thai - Thai boxing/kickboxing (strong emphasis on knee and elbow strikes) 
Savate - French kickboxing (Allows the use of shoes) 
San Shou - Chinese Kickboxing (Takedowns and throws are legal) 
Bando - Burmese Kickboxing (Any part of the body may be used to strike and be struck) 
Japanese kickboxing (Similar to Muay Thai, but elbow strikes are prohibited) 
Full Contact Karate - "American" Kickboxing" (Most of the time padding and in some cases body armour is used) 
Shoot boxing - Japanese kickboxing which allows throwing and submission with standing (similar to San Shou) 
There are many additional deriviatives of these forms, as well as combined styles which have been used in specific competitions (e.g. K-1). The rules of 'kickboxing' also vary between these different styles.

The term kickboxing is disputed and has come to become more associated with the Japanese and American variants. It must be noted that many of the above styles do not consider themselves to be 'kickboxing' as such, although the public uses the term generically to refer to all these martial arts. The term itself was created by the Japanese boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi for a variant of Muay Thai and Karate that he created in the 1950s; this term was later used by the American variant. When used by the practitioners of these two styles, it tends to refer to them specifically rather than the martial arts they were derived from.

The rest of this article deals with the Japanese and American deriviatives of 'kickboxing'. For the other martial arts see their relevant articles. 



History
Kickboxing, as a deriviative of Muay Thai, Karate as well as other styles, was created to compete effectively against these martial arts. The initial development of the styles (as well as the name) was in Japan. However there were also similar influences taking hold in the United States, and martial artists from many disciplines toured both areas allowing the development of a common kickboxing standard.


Initial Japanese development
Kickboxing (as a specific martial art) has its roots in Muay Thai and Karate. It was developed as a competitive sport by Japanese boxing promotor Osamu Noguchi. He wanted to introduce the Muay Thai style of fighting that he had seen in Thailand. Muay Thai fighters were taken to Japan in 1966, and fought against 3 karate fighters of Oyama dojo (Kyokushin kaikan later). Japan won by 2-1 then. Noguchi and Kenji Kurosaki (Kyokushin karate) studied Muay thai and developed a combined martial art which Noguchi named kick-boxing. The Kickboxing Association was founded in Japan soon after this.

Kickboxing boomed and became popular in Japan as it began to be broadcasted on TV. Tadashi Sawamura was an especially popular early kickboxer. However, the boom was suddenly finished and became unpopular after Sawamura was retired.

In 1993, as Kazuyoshi Ishii (founder of Seidokan karate) produced K-1 under special kickboxing rules in 1993, kickboxing became famous again.

The sport has spread through North America and Europe.


Rules
These are rules used in American Full Contact Karate. Opponents are allowed to hit each other with fists and feet, striking above the hip. Using elbows or knees is forbidden and the use of the shins is seldom allowed. This is in contrast to Muay Thai where the use of elbows and knees are allowed; in fact some Muay Thai practitioners consider kickboxing a "watered down" version of Muay Thai. Fighters and promoters can agree to various rules including kicks only above the waist, kicks anywhere, no knee strikes, knees only to the body, and so on.

Bouts are usually 3 to 12 rounds (lasting 2 - 3 minutes each) for amateur and professional contests with a 1-minute rest in between rounds. The round durations and the number of rounds can vary depending on the stipulations agreed to before hand by each fighter or manager. A winner is declared during the bout if there is a submission (fighter quits or fighter's corner throws in the towel), knockout (KO), or referee stoppage (Technical Knock Out, or TKO). If all of the rounds expire with no knockout then the fight is scored by a team of 3 judges. The judges determine a winner based on their scoring of each round. A split decision indicates a disagreement between the judges, while a unanimous decision indicates that all judges saw the fight the same way and all have declared the same winner.