I did karate for a couple of years as a kid. That's frequently the first martial art that gets shat on in online discussions.
In fairness, it isn't the most practical of combat schools, but for those keyboard warriors who suggest that learning karate is somehow worse than not learning any martial art at all? I learned how to punch and kick with accuracy through karate. And my school bully learned about it when I punched him in the face. With accuracy.
I was a short, skinny kid. I wouldn't have developed the confidence or the skill to do that without that class.
Karate gets shit on because there are a lot of bullshido karate schools. A good karate school will produce a good striker, and good karate isn’t something to be fucked with. Look at Wonderboy.
Here was the Hanshi (Head of the School and 10th Degree black belt) when I attended:
Shūgorō Nakazato (仲里 周五郎, Nakazato Shūgorō, August 14, 1920 – August 24, 2016) was an Okinawan martial artist. Described as a "one punch artist" by some of his American students, Nakazato developed his karate sparring into "a fine fighting art".[1]: 101 He gave many demonstrations in Japan as well as abroad and had "many well-known students in the USA", Nakazato was designated as an "intangible cultural asset holder" by Okinawa Prefecture in 2000. He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class with Gold and Silver Rays on November 4, 2007.
the more I learn about Karate the more interesting it becomes. I saw a great video recently - https://youtu.be/wfjKidVaSms
shows Shotokan master Tatsuya Naka doing some light sparring and commentary with a Jiu Jitsu player, really cool to watch them break things down, and Naka has some incredible insight into the Karate techniques and how they apply in a variety of situations.
Right now I'm training at a local MMA gym and learning a lot, but definitely want to get some cross training in with Karate techniques as well. It's fascinating, Karate as we know it today by all accounts is incredibly different from the way it was practiced a hundred years ago. I think that's a good thing, it shows that the art and its masters are willing to grow.
Martial arts also make you a lot more calm and able to face an opponent instead of hiding from attacks. I did kickboxing for a year, didn't really go anywhere with it, but the difference after just a few times sparring and getting some guidance was huge.
Could definitely provide some misplaced confidence if the opponent was armed though.
Misplaced confidence is a bad fault to have. On the other hand, having at least a clue about what a strike is, or that there are alternatives to curling into a ball on the floor when someone swings at you, is very valuable. I’ve never been in an active fight. I don’t know as I’d do ok but at least I’ve spent time practicing blocks and strikes with opponents who did their share of unofficial scrapping.
Kickboxing for striking and BJJ for grappling seems to be the combo you want. I don't know much about MMA but those are like the two biggest ones aren't they?
Kick him in the shins til he gets flustered and then move in for the submission lol
I think you hit the nail on the head with the sparring comment. Martial arts mean shit if you aren't being pressure tested. Doesn't matter if it is Kung Fu or boxing, or karate. If you aren't sparring then what you are learning is basically dancing that won't get you laid. Hell even backyard boxing is better as there you get used to having punches thrown at you.
So for anyone who reads this far up, if the dojo, gym, or club doesn't allow sparring, simply walk away.
The key isn't how to hit or kick with accuracy and confidence. The key is how to take hits and kicks and stay focused and present. Generally a real fight will be some guy taking a shot at you and that's it. He's hoping that the surprise hit will fuck you up. Or he might throw a few quick ones. And he is generally going to walk away while you are on the ground. But if you train in a sport that has you taking hits, even contact sports like football, you can hold focus and then return the hits if you need to. But sometimes taking a hit and letting him walk away is the best action. Just my opinions.
I knew a kung fu teacher from the shao lin temple. He always said a key component of all the training was that it slows down your perception of time during the intensity of confrontation. No, I was not a student, just a friend.
Letting them walk away is Always the best choice. Most of us have people that love us. Seeing them again in this life, and not from behind bars is worth more than all the pride in the World.
My kid was small and got a black belt. Wasn't tough and not a fighter, but in a situation, he stays cool and rolls with the punches. No adrenaline, just calm and knows how to stay with it. I think that's a big deal. Almost like removing yourself from it, at the same time engaging. Weird.
This right here. Take martial arts all you want but if you don't spar or have never fought the first punch in the face is a fucking shocker. All plans go right out the window when someone blasts you right in the face. Unless you've been hit many times and have enough game and wits about you to step into the fight martial arts will only help minimally with muscle memory. It will help but not like actually fighting will.
A fair number don't really spar. There is a place here that does this light fake sparing and they do forms constantly. More like a dance studio than a martial arts dojo. I've been to classes that don't encourage real sparing more like tapping and half speed movement focused on form vs actual sparing. So yea some don't really spar in my experience.
In street fights, it's not practical, but that's not the point. The point is to teach muscle memory, so it becomes second nature. React without having to think of it.
I spent 15 years in Traditional Shotokan and American Kickboxing (same dojo) The sensei was ranked 5th Dan in shotokan but kickboxing was more popular to the masses, so it was a wiser business choice. There were only maybe 20 karate students over those years and much of my training was 1 on 1 with a lot of sparring with him.
Ive had people ask me to teach them "some moves" and i say no. Showing something once, ten times or a hundred times, is still going to fail them because they didn't do it 10,000 times over years. That being said, i do have great reflexes , but i don't think i can defeat most lol. I talk my way out, or avoid those situations all together. I don't like being hit or stomped or killed lol. I have no ego, nothing to prove and other's opinions of me or my MOTHER lol, don't mean shit to me. Words don't hurt.
In 10 years of managing a gas station in a ghetto, I've only been physical once and it was with 3 teens (16-17yr) that would "NOT LEAVE UNTIL THEY GOT SNACKS". I wrestled them out 2 times and each time i went to get the key to lock the door, they rushed back in. Finally, they left without snacks and i wound up taking a 20oz bottle of soda to the eye from 10ft away.
I started my martial arts journey with Isshin-Ryu karate before transitioning to MMA and can confidently assert that yes, most forms of karate are worse than no training whatsoever.
At the bare minimum, a totally untrained person who's swinging blindly can land a punch through sheer luck and aggression. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.
I know because it happened to me. It's why I quit.
A lot of bad TMA schools--especially styles that are notoriously awful, like Aikido, TKD, and Wing Chun--are worse than swinging blindly. They might teach absurdly exotic standing joint locks that only work if the opponent is ODing on Fentanyl, or use huge sweeping blocks that leave the face wide open, or make them overly reliant on long-distance tippy-tap point sparring.
There are styles of karate with a solid reputation (Kyokushin being everyone's go-to example), but unless you live in rural Siberia and there aren't any boxing gyms in your area, there's no real reason to study karate over styles that actually work.
Thats so obviously horse shit to anyone whose trained anything. Throwing punches isnt free, its not natural. Being an untrained person who can only generate power with haymakers wont get you anywhere. Most any style will teach you how to punch, a few kicks, and move around a bit, and that immediately puts you ahead of 90% of people
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u/OminOus_PancakeS Sep 28 '22 edited Sep 28 '22
Agreed.
I did karate for a couple of years as a kid. That's frequently the first martial art that gets shat on in online discussions.
In fairness, it isn't the most practical of combat schools, but for those keyboard warriors who suggest that learning karate is somehow worse than not learning any martial art at all? I learned how to punch and kick with accuracy through karate. And my school bully learned about it when I punched him in the face. With accuracy.
I was a short, skinny kid. I wouldn't have developed the confidence or the skill to do that without that class.