 Kyokushin karate is a full contact, knockdown style of fighting and is one of the roughest forms of karate there is. However, the original form was even more brutal and was also a precursor to the MMA that we see today. So how exactly did Kyokushin stand out to become the ruthless style of karate than it is? Well there's gonna be three elements that we're gonna look at today that not only pave this road but are basic enough that you can adopt it into your own training regardless of what art you practice. Those three elements are the mindset, the pressure testing, and the adaptation that was involved. And if you stick around to the end, we're gonna talk about how this episode is going to impact the course of this channel going forward and how I will take these same elements and apply them to my art of Kempo. Now Masoyama, the founder of Kyokushin, is probably one of the most formidable karate masters in history. To implement his mindset, we have to understand his background. Now we cover this in greater detail in our History of Kyokushin episode, but let's do a quick recap. Oyama was born in Korea in 1923 and he started studying Chinese martial arts at a young age from a Chinese farmhand living on the family farm. In 1938, Oyama traveled to Japan and enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army's Aviation School and found himself taken part in World War II. At the conclusion of the war, he moved to Tokyo and over the next several years, he began training in the arts of Shotokan Karate and Gojiryu Karate. Now, Oyama was very serious about his training. He believed that the arts should be powerful and effective and he strived to constantly push the envelope of his training. He also carried a lot of resentment from the war. He lost many friends in battle and during the following American occupation, he often found himself getting into many, many fights with the American military police. So in an attempt to find stability and peace of mind, he vowed to spend three years training in isolation up in the mountains. So he packed up, he built a shack, and he spent an initial 14 months of training until his sponsorship ran out. And then he was able to return later for an additional 18 months of full-time karate training in complete isolation. He returned to society, a hardened man, now armed with a mission and a powerful application of karate techniques. In 1953, he opened up his first school simply called Oyama Dojo. Now this is a term used lightly as it was really just an empty outside lot, but in 1956, it moved inside into a ballet school. It was when he opened the school that the real pressure testing began and when Oyama started teaching, what many began to call the strongest karate. The teaching was based on the form of Goju Ryu, but cranked up to 11. He drilled discipline, endurance, and fighting was full contact with very few rules. In fact, you know, open palms, elbows, knees, strikes to the head, strikes to the groin, they were pretty much all allowed. It was almost a no-holds-barred situation. Now I'd like to include an excerpt from the MartialWay.com, which is a wonderful website with tons of great Kyokushin content. In the description down below, you'll find a link to the site. Now in regards to this topic, the blog says, Oyama Dojo members took their kumite very serious, conscious that they were practicing a fighting sport and expected to be hit and to be able to hit. With few rules and restrictions, they fought with strikes to the head, with a palm or fist wrapped in towels. Throws, grappling, and kicks were allowed. Even strikes to the groin was a normal practice. The kumite continued until one of the competitors was knocked out or surrendered and gave up. It was one of the first true mixed martial arts. But toughness and hitting hard weren't the only adaptations. The Oyama Dojo attracted many students from a variety of arts. This Jisen kumite, or full contact style, was very different and a fresh change from the point sparring or kumite where strikes stopped just short of making contact. Oyama style of sparring was designed to work and break your opponents. This varied roster of students, which estimates some say went up to 700, brought with them their own flavors of their own martial backgrounds. Masayama closely observed the fighting and he would take note of any techniques that he liked. Over time, he would collect them and implement them into his own system and teaching himself. And speaking of himself, Oyama loved to take part in these fights and he did not go lightly. To quote various official Kyokushin websites, A fight never lasted more than three minutes and rarely lasted more than a few seconds. Masayama's fighting technique was based on the samurai warrior's principle of one strike, certain death. If he got through to you, the fight was over. If he hit you, you broke. So if he blocked his punch, your arm was broken or dislocated. If he didn't block it, your rib was broken. Because of his strength and skill, he became known as the God Hand. Oyama also established a 100-man kumite, a competition in which a combatant has to face 100 sequential opponents, full contact, and rounds lasting one and a half to two minutes with only a few brief breaks in between for hydration and each round has to be spirited with active engagement. Oh yeah, and all the opponents are a round robin of skilled black belts. This challenge still exists today, but very few have actually completed it. Hey guys, don't forget to pick up your own colors of combat t-shirt. We've got a brand new collection, 22 designs over multiple different martial arts. That way you guys can wear your art with pride. So get your own now. Check out the link in description, artofwendouge.com, slash store. In 1964, Masayama officially renamed his organization to International Karate Organization Kyokushin Kaikan, along with a codified curriculum that was an amalgamation of Shodokan Karate, Gojiru Karate, and a melting pot of all the techniques that he isolated from the other arts that he observed. This set Kyokushin as a unique and concrete fighting system that even to this day is still known for its devastating full contact fighting. So I think that the key takeaway here is that, regardless of what arts that we train, we should always strive to push the boundaries, keep an open mind to what others are doing, and adapt other techniques that could make your own fighting style stronger. This is literally why the UFC and sport MMA is so good. The fighters are honing their strengths and they're mixing in other arts to round themselves out into truly formidable opponents. So what does that mean for this channel? Well, this year we're going to try a few different approaches. For those who don't know, my background is 30 years in the American Campo. We're still going to produce videos of various arts in their history, but in the spirit of compounding systems, I will be looking at techniques from a variety of other arts and see how I can assimilate them into my own campo training to make it stronger. And for those of you who are not campo guys, I will also offer some campo nuggets that perhaps you may find useful yourself. After all, sharing is caring. Now we do currently have some ideas being drafted, but if you would like to submit any particular recommendations of techniques or combinations from your style, please list them down below in the comments and we'll be happy to consider them. Now Kyokushin is a truly unique fighting style and to fully appreciate its history, you don't want to miss our origin of Kyokushin special. You'll get to see just how tough Masayama really was and why they called him God Hand.