However at the level of national and international competition which I did extensively during the 90s and was a ranked for several years in Senior and Executive black belt fighting in the top ten in North America the level of fighting, contact, and competition is much tougher and of a higher caliber. Some of the injuries I have personally seen at that level are things like detached retinas, broken ribs, broken jaws, and concussions. Having fought full contact prior to that I sometimes got as banged up in sport karate fighting as when I fought full contact because of the lighter weight gloves and also because once I won my division then I was fighting other bigger, black-belt division winners for grand champion. Back then there was a lot more prize money and larger payouts at that level of competition and fighting which also was an additional motivator for some fighters to really go at it and not care how much their opponent might get hurt or injured. There have actually been several deaths in this type of fighting over the years which is why in international fighting they now have an age limit of 40 years of age which is what stopped me from going to Russia in 1993 with the US team when they passed that rule for World Games competition. I was scheduled to go to one of the qualifying tournaments for those games that was being held in Kiev, Russia. Today I am a senior citizen but could go to a local tournament and fight and beat 90% of the black-belts at that tournament in fighting. There is that much difference there but what most people see and base what you are saying on is what they have seen at the local level which is not entirely accurate.
Now I know some of those out there will scoff at what I am saying here about national competition and what I would say to them is to check out the NASKA national circuit and go and fight in a triple A rated tournament in one of the adult black belt divisions and you will find out pretty quickly that it is not just all a game of tag. Both Lyoto Machida and Daron Cruickshank are names that should be familiar to you and MMA fighters that at one time also competed in and fought in such tournaments.
There are many different types of karate sparring. For example, there's this:
You are 100% correct!
Just about all videos seen of tournaments show how poorly even the highest belt guys were trained and never learned to properly use there art for real. They just get tossed in and are told to go at it. The result is two advanced guys flailing around inflicting no damage and not properly using any technique they learned. I didn't say 100% but it is close. No power in the strikes and no power or structure in the kicks. Once in a while a guy gets lucky with one or two but that's it. It's quite sad. People want to jump in on day one and go at it and the result is really bad.
Breaking boards is just there to wow the students into breaking soft and semi soft boards as long as they are held in a way that the grain will allow for an easy break. Maybe if they used Australian Buloke, Brazilian tiger mahogany, Brazilian Ebony, Brazilian walnut maybe it would be somewhat impressive. But not really.
Kata and ball room dancing should have competitions at the same time and I think the ball room dancers would win, way more skill and the things they do would probably hurt you more than any kata in the tournament.
Yeah, it does seem that way to those who do not understand it. Kata too is actually very productive to those who know how to practice it correctly and don't just mindlessly repeat motions shown to them without giving it any more thought.
A ring is good for sports fighting but considering that karate was not invented for sports fighting but for self defense and that there are no rings in the street where a real attack is likely to occur a ring all in a sudden doesn't make sense now, does it? Again something only those would know about who understand Karate and it's origins.
There is a dojo next to where I live in Kyoto... went to watch them train and it is impressive. Do not even think about the tournaments - very effective self defence method. They have to remain relatively civil in tournaments because they can actually cause lots of damage. Martial arts DO make people tougher
"Judging from what I've seen".... I don't think you've seen very much.
The guy who hits first gets the point. This is called point sparring. It's a kind of fighting method. It has its applications, you just don't want to land in a dojo that only does point sparring. Endurance is important, but, it should not be relied upon.
Breaking boards... what's wrong with that?
Katas... this is an integral part of Karate training. It is not important to all styles, but it is important to styles that use it. They're only training methods, nothing more. They aren't dance routines, unless you're referring to a specific performance.
Musical katas... I don't like them either, but they do serve a purpose. Again, they're only training methods. It's not the end-all-be-all of a style, just one aspect of training. Not all places do this.
And tournaments are not only point-sparring + board-breaking + kata + musical kata.
Many, if not most, also contain weapons, self-defense routines, and full-contact sparring.
There is some garbage out there - a lot of it, actually. But not all of them are like that.
yes. Real karate and movie karate is so much different.
It depends on the club/style a lot of proper shotokan and kyukoshinkai karate clubs have rounds with continuous sparring, with points added up at the end like a boxing match
The points sparring you described is the modern sports karate, as you say endurance doesnt really come into it, but that doesnt mean theirs no skill its all about speed accuracy and correct technique, incorrect techniques dont normally score. the main reason its so popular is their is no chance of getting hurt, and you dont need to be that good to start competing. Depending on your definition this is not a martial art its a sport.
Breaking boards was used to toughen up your hands and arms in ye olde japan; these days it is used to show off at demos to draw in more students normally with weakened boards etc
Katas are useful for introducing people to the techniques but they can only go so far. They are also supposedly linked to building discipline and mind/body communications. You have to be fully aware of what all of your body is doing at the same time to do it correctly. angles of feet, arms, stance width shoulders square or not etc etc.
As for the musical katas they are pretty flash not much use in a fight but good at drawing in new members which is why clubs that do them seem to thrive. there is also physical benefits namely agility especially if they include tricking and acrobatic moves. you could also argue that martial arts are "arts" so should be attractive to look at. (a weak argument i kno but an argument)
I've seen some videos on them, and it looks so bad.
Judging from what I've seen, Tournaments only contain:
The guy who hits the other one first gets the point. (What sort of fight is that. Endurance isn't relevant)
Breaking Boards
Katas (I do suppose we could just dance instead of actually doing something productive)
Musical Katas (I thought Martial Arts were supposed to make somebody tougher...)
Seriously, if there's a tournament, you'd think that there would be a ring, a tap out, the one who can't fight on, etc,etc.
Is this really what Karate tournaments are about?
