8 International Sport Science Student Studies (I4S), 2022, Volume 4, Issue 1 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/i4s Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Int ernational S port S cience S tudent S t udies (ISSN:2687-587X) 1. Introduction Kickboxing which is one of the contact sports, is a famous defense and combat sport today. Kickboxing has become a recreational sport among widely held amateur and professional competitions. Individuals have practiced it for health, hobbies, and leisure activities, without aiming to compete. In this research, we aim to draw the attention of athletes, trainers, and sportspeople to this subject by considering the athletes who practice kickboxing, one of the defense and combat sports, from an amateur, professional and recreational perspective. Amateur The French word amateur is defined as “doing a job not for making money, but only for pleasure, enthusiastic, curious (anyone), anti-professional,” and “doing a job without being a profession or field expert” (sozluk.gov.tr, 2020). * The study was presented at the 6 th Edition of the International Conference SEC-IASR 2022 “Sports, Education, Culture - Interdisciplinary Approaches in Scientific Research” 27th – 29th May, 2022. 1 Yozgat Bozok University, Şeftali Vocational School, Yozgat, Türkiye. E-mail: metin.gumusay@yobu.edu.tr 2 Mersin University, Sport Science Faculty, Mersin, Türkiye. E-mail: cankoc_01@hotmail.com Amateur, Professional, and Recreational Kick Boxing Sport * Metin Gümüşay 1 , Mustafa Can Koç 2 Abstract This study aims to evaluate the amateur and professional kickboxing sport in terms of recreation as it becomes popular day by day. This study was carried out using a compilation-type method. The literature has scanned and associated to amateur, professional, recreational, and kickboxing sports. While amateurism is expressed as doing a job without any profit, professionalism transforms the activity done as profession and for profit. The unprofessionalism can also be considered a step before becoming professional. There are significant differences in the competition rules of amateur and professional sports branches. Kickboxing, which is made as an amateur sport, makes a distinction between tatami and ring styles and allows the athletes to compete in the style that suits them. In the recreational kickboxing branch, individuals prefer kickboxing as a hobby, health, and leisure activity. Today, it is also possible to encounter that some individuals started as recreational activities and proceeded to amateur and professional level. As a result, in addition to the practice of kickboxing as an amateur and professional athletes, it is seen that individuals prefer a very intense form for recreational purposes. From another point of view, it can be said that the recreational features of defence and combat sports are gradually increasing. Key Words: Amateur, Kickboxing, Professional, Recreation Citation: Gumusay, M., & Koç, M.C. (2022). Amateur, professional, and recreational kick boxing sport. International Sport Science Student Studies, 4(1), 8-14.