Last Saturday, me and some friends decided to do a little free sparring in the backyard, with pads and such. All of us are instructor grade and pretty advanced in our respective styles. What struck me when we began free-sparring, was that the stuff we were doing looked almost identical to kickboxing, except for some trapping and throws.
I've witnessed this before at the Sabaki challenge, a full-contact karate tournament held by some Karate school who's name I forget at the moment...
Anyway, seeing blackbelts in Shotokan, Wada Ryu, Goju, and other karate styles degenerate from wonderful pre-set demonstrations complete with spectacular throws, and reverse punch knockdowns, to sloppy, slappy, kicking fests once the full contact tournament begins is rather depressing.
I can't really name a Kung Fu counterpart, except for Chinese kickboxers, but they're kickboxers, and they look a lot better than what I saw at the various Sabaki challenges.
So is Kickboxing the pinnacle of arts like Karate and/or Kung Fu? In the end, when it comes to fighting with these styles, are we to become nothing more than sloppy looking kickboxers? Is all the forms, kata, etc. we learned for nothing?