Real Karate, Real Freestyle, Putting Aside Fighting

Back in the sixties real karate instructors differed in their opinions towards freestyle. Yes, it was necessary to keep students in the door, but there was freestyle, and there was fighting. Check out the video, my student is really trying to stab me, and I use control instead of fighting to manage him. I’ll tell you about one of the wildest tournaments ever right below that.

My school went to a big tournament in San Francisco.

During one of the matches one of the brown belts jammed his finger, and the second bone on one of his fingers actually came out of the socket and slid over the third bone. The refs looked at it, said he had to go to a hospital and have somebody straighten it out. He wanted to fight, however, so he pulled it out himself and kept fighting.

Interestingly, in spite of this type of die hard enthusiasm, my instructor pulled the entire school out and went home. Well, he didn’t pull them out. He just gathered everybody together and said fighting had little to do with learning how to control an opponent through kumite. He said we were free to remain, and then he left. Everybody followed him.

He was right. Fighting is for people who don’t know the martial arts. A person who knows the martial arts controls his opponent. He predicts him, manipulates him, and does what he will with him.

That’s the difference, of course, between real karate and somebody who likes to fight, and that’s the difference between sport and a real martial art. Check out the variety of different Karate programs at Monster Martial Arts.

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