striking

[beeja]

Hello,

Pls read below context:

An all-American and a judo team captain, Tim had always dreamed of winning a national title. He had worked hard, and he was good at his sport. But repeated injuries over several seasons had continually denied him his dream... Tim decided to join his friend in the national Chinese kickboxing competition.

Because he had never been in any kind of strking competition before, he called USA Boxing ...

My question is, at first read I thought that "striking" here mean "fighting", like Kang Fu fighting but when reread, he was a judo team captain, so how come he had never been in any kind of fighting race. So, I think "striking" here may mean "unexperienced" or "new and exciting" game for him. Am I right? Please advise.

Thank you, Beeja

[euncu]

***neither a teacher nor a native-speaker***

Maybe, he's talking about the involvement of contact. Kick-box matches may be semi or full-contact, but I'm not sure if any contact is allowed in Judo.

[IHIVG]

'Striking' does not merely signify a phisical contact. 'Startling', 'remarkable', 'salient' are all close synonyms for this word.
Maybe what is meants by "striking competition" here is that the rivalry is so intense and strong that he's never seen something like that before. He should have though, he's an athlete... hmm.

*Not a teacher.