sport karate - a waste of time or great fun?

[fujicolt]

I have oft been accused of being cautious or even cryptic on forums but this time i am not - what are your opinions to the question posed?

I WILL GIVE MINE later - but didn't want to influence other opinions at this stage.

speak for yourself please..................

[Dod Watt]

I've only ever took part in two competitions which were open to all styles, and personally it wasn't for me.

I found there were to many restrictions, but that is because I think of karate as a martial art and therefore be trained as one, but don't get me wrong, I would never try to put anyone off competing, but it is a totally different way of training.

[Bob Davis]

Firstly let me say (only because of the title of the thread ) that I don't believe that something can't be a waste of time AND great fun, having fun is never really a waste of time in my book.

More seriously though, speaking as someone who's also only ever competed twice in open competitions, I do see value in sport karate competitions. Yes they are rule based but they still face you against a complete stranger with an element of risk albeit limited to superficial damage (relative term ) and, for the totally inexperienced fighter like myself, gives you a taste at least of what confrontation is like. I know for my first ever experience I found everything closed down as soon as hajime was called, complete tunnel vision and no conscious thought (that I can remember) just react and survive.

I've had a lot more challenging confrontations in dojo and on courses but never had that feeling again so if only for that experience I think it was worth the effort.

[Dod Watt]

I totally agree with what you said there Bob

[Bob Davis]

Having just watched the Richard Heselton clip that Dod posted a link to I feel that this does show up what is probably a big hole in my own practice that I may have got out of more tournament training i.e. movement and closing and opening distance. I've been told a few times that I obviously "don't like to go backwards" and the boy and I both suffer from the same tendency to like to get in and just slug it out toe to toe, probably a fault of us training so much together, (and the false sence of security that you get from training with people you know and trust which, as I said before, completely vanishes when faced with a stranger)

Given that I have no competitive ambitions and, as a non sport orientated group, our dojo's don't really do much of this sort of training (we pay it lip service occasionally but it never really gets practiced for enough time to make any difference), my style in dojo kumite is to tend to stand my ground (hold the centre of the area) and wait for my opponent to come to me on the basis that I'll catch them on the way in.

I don't have a problem with this as it works well enough for me in a dojo situation but my limitations show up as soon as we do anything that requires speed across the ground in any direction other than forward (as evidenced at a recent course under Paul Mead, who is very much a kumite man).

Once again this shows the limitations of just training within you comfort zone which I have been doing for a long time now (still doesn't mean I'll compete though )

[kensei]

I used to compete when I was younger, and up to about 8 years ago I would go out and do a tourney or two. But I think Sport Karate and Dojo Karate are a bit like asking if you like going to the shooting range or like going to war sometimes.

Sport Karate for me was always me playing at Karate. the scoring of a piont meant the "fight" was over, but in the Dojo, getting a shot in usually meant I was about to get clobbered by a senior. I very early on realized that the fun I had in a tournament was me "Playing" Karate, while Dojo Kumite was the real deal.


HOpe that answered the question!

[jimlukelkc]

I kind of fall between two stools here in as much as we probably do not train in tournament karate as much as we should and I am probably to blame for this as it is not my main focus/interest. However I do not look upon jyu kumite as a a game of tag or as being unimportant. Shobu ippon contests still have validity, for many reasons, the most important one being , I feel, the same as Judo contests. In Judo it is considered the height of the art to successfully apply a choke to your opponent. This is seen as a symbolic death as, in my opinion should an ippon scoring technique in kumite. I know this ideal is rarely observed in modern competition but should be striven for.
If I have any issue at all with kumite it is the poor refereeing and health and safety culture so often observed.
That aside kumite in a competition environment teaches key skills like distancing, tai-sabaki etc etc, and courage! a valuable skill, the ability to deal with combat stress and still function.
But cmon Steve, considering your past, you have to be an advocate!

[genkaimade]

I remember the first time I watched The Karate Kid (yes, the original [shudder, I can't believe I'm even accepting the existence of Will Smith's crappy remake >.<]) from a karate point of view, and I remember thinking, "damn, that kumite is technical, it's brutal, and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun - I want in on this!". Imagine my disappointment when I found out what the vast majority of tournament kumite is like...

[fujicolt]

i suggest you contact ged moran and get a rake of legend vids Alex - you'll love em

[genkaimade]

Dec 31, 2010 22:25:11 GMT @fujicolt said:

i suggest you contact ged moran and get a rake of legend vids Alex - you'll love em

Just found his website - any specific recommendations?

[fujicolt]

yes buy anything he as - art of war is a good one to start with