Why is everyone trying to knock karate?
flubber asked:
They say that its useless in the streets, bla bla and that its for wuses. I do karate competitively and every sport has rules! If we went by what the anti karate ppl say, we would all stop playing sports bc they are useless! Karate requires alot of skill, strategy, physical fitness, coordination, speed and edurance. And just because we don’t use full contact in tournaments, doesn’t mean that we are going to bounce around and tap someone in a street fight! It’s not like we’re going to break out into a kata in the middle of a street fight! It’s to develop strength, endurance, speed and efficient movement and any martial art when practiced at a high level can develop these things.And to the MMA fighters who think that their fighting style is realistic..doYOUR competitions involve guns and knives?NO!Karate on a competitive nat’l or int’l level is highly competitive and the athletes are highly skilled. Any non martial artist try sparring with them and see if you can keep up! so why hate?
Mary
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They say that its useless in the streets, bla bla and that its for wuses. I do karate competitively and every sport has rules! If we went by what the anti karate ppl say, we would all stop playing sports bc they are useless! Karate requires alot of skill, strategy, physical fitness, coordination, speed and edurance. And just because we don’t use full contact in tournaments, doesn’t mean that we are going to bounce around and tap someone in a street fight! It’s not like we’re going to break out into a kata in the middle of a street fight! It’s to develop strength, endurance, speed and efficient movement and any martial art when practiced at a high level can develop these things.And to the MMA fighters who think that their fighting style is realistic..doYOUR competitions involve guns and knives?NO!Karate on a competitive nat’l or int’l level is highly competitive and the athletes are highly skilled. Any non martial artist try sparring with them and see if you can keep up! so why hate?
Mary
February 11th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Alexander
I think mostly because there are no requirements to take Karate…like a LARGE majority of people whom do karate are dorks or nerds. not saying Karate wouldnt be cool to know, or a great way to go in a street fight but its idk…wierd.
MMA and ultimate fighting and shit is entertaining because its more no holds barred type fighting. Karate is different in the fact that points are given for certain touches and withdrawls etc. in UFC or MMA it usually very obvious who is winning the fight.
just sayin…its looked down upon because anyone wanting to do karate can…its not like football where you’ll get cut if you suck, if you suck at karate you try to get better
February 13th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Brady
Hi Flubber !
I understand where you’re coming from. As a fellow karate-ka, we are here to stay. We been around for a while and will continue to do be around for a long time.
People who put down karate as well as other martial arts are those who just don’t get it or just another insecure loudmouth who’s got nothing to do but provoke others.
Flubber, I am happy with my karate, I don’t really care to know if they work on the street or not, because life is just way too good to be out on the street trying to all macho.
I am happy with my life, I have good friends, caring family and students who never worry about it either.
As karate-ka, we know our capabilities to fight and protect our life when the need arises. We must never forget that we also train to be humble. Beating people up on the street for no reason but to inflict violence is just plain stupidity. Where I come from we call this group..criminals !
We will always cross the path with these self proclaim braggarts who will declare that their martial arts is the most dangerous arts known to man. You and I knows that anytime some loudmouth thinks he is the baddest, there is always someone badder to take his place.
The greatest online braggarts are usually the biggest online cowards.
I have a high respect for MMA athletes, its their fans ( MMA Wanna-be /poseurs) that I cannot stand.
In the end, we as a karateka have no need to justify ourselves and our art. Let just keep the peace within ourselves and let the fools play their way.
February 16th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Carter
all fighting styles have strengths and weaknesses. Theproblem with karate is that it takes too long to become proficient. In bjj and boxing after 6 months you can become quite the fighter whereas in karate you are still a white or yellow belt who hasnt done any full contact fighting. Thats not to say you wont. Karate is more for the long term patient person who is in no hurry. The real training in karate comes after black belt.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:56 am
Justin
Because they are just plain rude, misinformed people. I have great respect for karate, several of my friend took classes and a couple have black belts. I know the skill and determination involved.
February 18th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Aiden
yeah, i have to say that i contribute to that realistic martial arts talk. I’m not a person that says Muy tai is the only stand up thing to do. The reason that people say a style is not realistic is because there is a lot of mcdojos around. the black belt factories, and the i can kill you with one strike from my small finger, is what make people question many styles. Why karate, TKD, and Kung Fu, because there are marital arts that every one knows. many people that look to make $ use those names (mostly tkd). This is to Hardcore UFC fans George St. Pierre is a karate-ka (kiocoushion karate), is he a wimp?
February 20th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Henry
I know how you feel, I do Tae Kwon Do and people say that it is the crappiest Martial Art to have ever been designed and that I should do BJJ or Muay Thai or some other such Martial Art just because it is in fashion at the moment. All you are experiencing is people have switched their attention from Tae Kwon Do a bit and have focused on Karate.
Also most of the people that are ranting about how crap Karate is have little or no experience in Martial Arts besides watching the Karate Kid or Sidekicks a couple of million times and think that makes them knowledgeable in Martial Arts. Or people are just jumping on the I hate ____ bandwagon. Also MMA is a very big thing at the moment and so you will also get people saying that MMA is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and tend to forget that MMA comes from Traditional Martial Art or just does not know that it does. Try not to take it personally the people that say these kind of thing just don’t understand that every Martial Art have a use and place.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Jessica
lol you seriously think your karate can defeat even an idiot holding a gun?
February 25th, 2010 at 4:19 am
Melanie
All martial arts have value. The comments are probably due to the fact that many in mma used to take Karate or Taekwondo and now are doing something they like better and feel is more real – it doesn’t happen as often that someone starts out in mma and then goes to Karate. I took Taekwondo for years, I enjoyed the experience, but felt we spent too much time on forms and the sparring was more like tag – but I still believe it had value or I wouldn’t have stuck with it so long. I took Kali and did flow drills but no forms and I felt that I really learned disarms at that point – even though I had a black belt in Taekwondo. In Taekwondo it was presented more as an absolute and in Kali it was presented as: in the Phillipines if there is a knife fight, one person goes to the morgue and the other to the hospital. I felt it was more real and more honest about the limitations of the techniques such as upfront saying if you do a disarm you’ll get cut if the person is resisting. Then we would try to do disarms while someone tried to cut us [bamboo or padded knives] and it made me realize that a lot of what was learned in Taekwondo was based on theories, slow motion disarms and hadn’t been really tested.
Even as I was taking Taekwondo I felt like it was an art taught by adults – who really knew their stuff – to kids.
So, basically if you want to learn to throw: Judo, if you want to learn forms, respect, tradition, breaking and sparring Karate or Taekwondo, if you want to learn realistic knife/stick fighting any Philipino arts, etc., so it is just what you are looking for. I currently am involved in JKD, HKD and BJJ – maybe too many, but I feel like what I’m learning / teaching would really work as theories are tested with increasing resistance in these arts.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Alexa
it’s like the same people that think that ground fighting is best, it’s only good when your on the ground.
each martial art has it’s strengths and weaknesses. At my dojo, we formally practice Karate but our Sensei recognizes that karate doesn’t comprise the best of everything. We do practice brazillian ju jitsu for the ground, Karate for kata’s and punches and blocks, tae kon do for kicks (my fovourite) and we also do hand techniques that I guess could be classified as wen do, but im not sure if that’s where he’s getting it from.
though with any martial art it’s not just the physical moves its the mental/spiritual side too, a black belt is just a belt unless you have the mind frame to back it up.
Also if you want to disarm someone with a gun or a knife your best looking into phillipino martial arts, now that would be somebody who wouldn’t let you get away!
February 28th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
John
Because many of them have not seen true karate. This is no offense to you but I myself do not care to do tournament style kumite. If that is what you are into that is cool, but it is just not for me. I also believe that the wy you train is the way you would fight if forced to.
Many of the people who say MMA, Muya Thai and BJJ, etc. is the only style to train are talking about street fighting, and not self defense, which is what most traditional styles teach. A street fight is a clash of two ego’s that 99.9% of the time can be avoided. Ignorent people have no idea that learning to avoid street fights is part of self defense. Self defense is where you avoid a confrontation, or when there is no other choice but to fight. Self defense is about survival, pure and simple. If I am confronted by somebody that wants to look bad, and I fake a heart attack to get out of the situation, havn’t I avoided a fight and survived? That is self defense.
Too many MMA people confuse the two, but understand that is what the style’s they train teach. Not saying they are not basicly good people, but the style they train teaches fighting, and nothing else.
Would Myau Thai and BJJ work for self defense? I would say definetly if the person actually trained hard and wasn’t a wannabe. Unfortunatly everybody has a tendancy to think there style is the best, and don’t want to admit that it wont do it all. Ever try to convince a BJJ person that attackers that want your property wont play fair? That there have been cases where there have been more than one attacker? That bad guys sometimes attack with knives? It wont happen, or you will hear, I would just use a bat. OK you carry a bat around?
BJJ is definetly great for fighting, no doubt, but for self defense it does have some flaws, as do all styles, even the one I have trained for 18 years.
Just continue your training and don’t listen to them, because they are not going to change their opinion, and they are really not worth worrying about.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Gavin
jei, anybody who practices martial arts can take out an idiot holding a gun if they’re close enough to them. If it’s from far away, why don’t you ask that to any kinds of martial artist?
People might not know but the real Karate back in war time was much more brutal. It had a lot of dirty techniques and the training was very intense. Especially in Okinawa, back in the days they used to train their finger tips to be able to break armors with them. Even if their fingers breaks or bleeds, they just keep going. They did something not much people would really want to do. Some trained their fists so much that they couldn’t open their hands anymore but in turn, was able to break natural stones and other hard materials. Also, back in the days, they did full contact sparring with full force with strikes to the face using their hands too. They started taking easier though because of serious injuries and sometimes people die from it. They trained to get bodies of steel, and trained to get power to kill people with less strikes possible.
PS: Now a days, it has really softened down. But I don’t think such training method should be included now a days. I sure wouldn’t want to go through it either. But all I see in most gyms is just practicing Katas and doing some light sparring. I think that’s just too soft.
March 4th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Angel
Another factor is that the Founding Fathers of modern karate taught a watered down version of it to foreigners.
This is why karatejutsu became karatedo.
The do arts emphasize philosophy and spirited competitiveness.
When they were practiced as Jutsu is when you were taught what each movement meant. All the grappling, throws, ki projection, pressure point locations.
This is one of the reasons why they developed kata. They can teach the art to all the students and chose later on whether or not a student was worthy of learning the hidden meanings.
So it’s all about the understanding, or rather, the lack thereof.
Karatejutsu is about Life Protection. Anything else is karatedo.
March 6th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Jose
Without negative there is no positive, right – ying and yang ?
So be Thank yup Thankful that we have Trolls willing to take their time to appease this need we have as being the positive.
We need each time a troll note is written see it as the little ugly in us all coming out, and in a manner that is acceptable. Against a skilled person whom can take abuse of this nature, as we as Martial Artists laugh at stupidity and should teach this kind of restraint.
So when the little troll comes a writing, do not ignore. Thank. So when we all no matter which art or person have a valued point to make, it shines so much more due to the trolls ignorance. Thanks for the answers folks
March 7th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Madison
May be they not know it well. I study karate and ballet since 4 years old, very good now. My lovers sister Kuso Ama talk bad me, he lift her one hand shake her. I fear he kill her, I say I fight her. She think she beat me easily. She is 5′9 tall, weigh 220 pound, I am 5′0.5 tall, weigh 97 pound. She not know fighting, slow, clumsy, not strong for size. I jump high, kick her face and abdomen. She vomit, face bleed, she cry, beg me not kick her more. I beat 250 pound man, so easy beat 220 pound woman. My lover know Japan karate, China wu shu, Korea tae kwan do, Tibet pak hak pai, I not beat him.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Samantha
People who think you can go to the ground in a real life and death street fight are crazy. That is the last place I want to be. How do you go to the ground if you are rushed by more than one attacker? I guess it all comes down to the will to survive in a real life situation, because what you think you learned in your art probably reduces to about 40% in real life craziness.
People hate because they are insecure about themselves, simple as that. They want to be the bad ass, to me that is very time comsuming. Just let it go and practice for health and enlightenment. And hopefully IF you ever Have to use your skills, lets hope it enables you to talk or walk your way out of the situation or it is over quickly.
March 11th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Alex
Competative Karate is just a sport like any other sport. You will always get people that dont like it. I know lots of people that hate tennis and think it is a girly sport but at the same time i know people that love it.
March 14th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Mia
people who bash karate are usually MMA wannabes or people who took a few classes and left because they weren’t learning to street fight immediately. i don’t formally train in karate but i do incorporate a few techniques from it into my outside training (I’m a TKD practitioner) and i really get annoyed if someone says karate is for kids or it is basically useless, its like who are you to judge?. And i do agree with you on kata its not like because people do kata there gonna fight someone using it, but i guess that’s ignorance for you