Why does Karate look so inept?

Question

I go to a judo class in newark every week and the sports hall is devided into 2. In one half is our Judo clas and the other half is taken by a Karate class. When I watch the Karate class I get so annoyed. When they practice they do lots of spinny kicks and weak punches that would be next to useless in a self defence situation yet they do all this shouting 'hiii-yaaaaa!' and walk around with their sleaves rolled up thinking they are the bees knees. They also never break a sweat while we at the judo club work hard and sweat blood & tears. The other thing is that they have all these little kids (from about the age of 10) running around wearing black belts! I mean come on be serious! Does anyone out there do karate and actually think that it is worth while doing and if so why?

Answer 1

Man this reminds me of sooo many things.

First off, yes Judo is highly effective, mainly because you are able to practice it at full speed, in karate/kung fu/Tae Kwon Do, you are not hitting someone as hard as you can in the face, or ripping out veins or gouging out eyes. You don't really know how effective your art is in an adrenaline situation.

People have an incredibly inaccurate and wrong mystique about "street fighting" or "street fighters". Like there are these roaming bad asses that go from bar to bar place to place, and fight all the time so therefore are great at fighting.

First off most actual fights occur in bars or around drinking usually between one or more drunks. I don't care who you are, you are not an effective figher drunk.

"How many people have you taken down in a streetfight?" Are you F'ing kidding? How many streetfights do you see two dudes sitting back boxing with each other? None, they all end up on the ground. Sure when I bounce I don't go to the ground most of the time, wanna know why? Because I choke the guy out standing and let him drop, in a street fight situation, (especially if you are thinking multiple guys) standing back and trading with anyone is a huge *** mistake. You close, you control, and you deal with it, you use that guy as your shield, and move on.

When I work in the bar I have more than one guy watching my back, so more often than not I am dropping a guy with a throw. I try to never ever do these things inside, because once violence occurs in an enclosed area it, the mood of the room changes. The most I do is put a guy out nice and quiet and carry him out if I can't get him to the door otherwise. Outside it is a whole different ball game, and I most assuredly will take the guy down and control him. Wonder how effective that is? Ask every single law enforcement officer out there and they will tell you. Cops don't struggle with a guy standing up, and trade with him. They take him down and control him, where they can protect themselves from injury.

There is a reason wrestlers and grapplers do so well in Mixed Martial Arts fights, because that style is incredibly effective, you are able to train and know what the human body's reaction to your technique is going to be.

But in response to your question, that is one class that is obviously a recreational class. There is nothing wrong with doing recreational martial arts, some people aren't in it for the same things. If those people get enjoyment from learning something than so be it, eventually that school will have a repuation as a fun place, albeit not competetive. By giving out belts all you do is ruin your school's rep for fighters, ok so this guy got a black belt from this school and gets beat up, or loses badly in a comp. Big deal, if that school doesn't care about those things, and just cares about learning then that is on them.

Plenty of people study a Martial Art not for it's combat effectiveness, but for it's enjoyment. That doesn't make it any better or worst, it just suits a certain niche of people. Obviously to those people it is very worthwhile, it doesn't mean they are the best fighters in the world, but in reality how many grown *** men actually get into fights? Unless you are out looking for one, or just are completely immature, chances are as an adult you will never get into a physical confrontation.

Some people want the combat effectiveness, the hard training, the blood, sweat, and tears. Some people just want to learn something different, move their body around a little and have a good time, without killing themselves. Can't fault them for that.


edit for below:

Every person as a fighter should know more than just striking, and grappling, they should know both to be complete.

But because you do some minimal grappling you would get housed in a Judo match. That's like someone who plays poker with some friends thinking they can take on the World Series of Poker. You would be going against people who do Judo and train at it, that is their forte'. The same as even though I do Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA, I wouldn't expect me to go in against an actual Muay Thai kickboxer and do that well against him. That is what he does, and all he does, I only use some skill sets from there, I would get housed under Muay Thai rules.

If I go into an MMA match with a former Muay Thai champion, I am not going to sit there and try to stand up with the dude, I am going to take him to the ground quick. Similarly, he as a Muay Thai guy even if he knows some matwork, he isn't going to try to take me down when his advantage is standing.

Just something to think about, knowing a few takedowns and an armbar or two doesn't mean you can hold your own against someone who knows 20 or 30 takedowns, different angles and ways to use them, and a ton of moves on the mat, the same as I might now plenty of Karate techniques, but I would get my **** handed to me in a point sparring match, the rules of the game and competition are different.

Answer 2

It probably isnt an official schol of karate. If you knew anything about karate, you would know that there is much more to it than punches and kicks. If they have little kids wearing black belts, then it definately isnt official. The standard age limit for black belt is 15-16. Karate really is not like that. The main schools of Karate are: Shotokan, Goju-ryu, Shorin-ryu, and Shito-ryu. Although the best schools are the ones that combine the four. These are Seido and Kyokushin.

You say you live in Newark? theres a Seido dojo in Newark. Check it out, you WILL break a heavy sweat.

Answer 3

You're too concerned with what other people are doing. Why does watching someone else's martial arts class bother you? I would worry more about your own apparent inability to focus.

But just so you know for the future: go to YouTube, search under "kyokushin", watch some of the videos that come up then decide whether karate is inept. I am not a Kyokushin stylist myself, but can say with confidence that I too have sweat blood and tears through karate.

Having said that, people train for various reasons. For some, martial arts is something fun and relaxing to do once or twice a week. Parents make it something they can do with their young children, and there is nothing wrong with that. Who are we to judge?

Good luck in your training. I've put considerable time on the judo mat also, and sounds like you have a good club there. Don't be distracted.

Answer 4

I think so. I think Judo is the best. I am Korean and I cannot believe I just said that since Judo is Japanese. I think it is horrible that little 10 year olds can get black belts. I have seen it too. I think its for the money and many Asians have sold out. It actually takes 10 years to get a real black belt. Most of the time in real martial arts there is two belts. white and black or white or red. The different belts were made so the person would feel like they are advancing. that is why they started to make stripes to get more money. I do Tae Kwon Do and I finally got my blackbelt last June. I am 22 and I have done martial arts since I was 7. my blackbelt test I had to demastrate I can use two weapons at random. I am lucky I got off easy. I had the bow and sword.

Answer 5

It depends on the style of karate. Their are some schools that have easy belts and that teach flashy moves that are useless. But their are some schools that are darn good. Actually the school I'm in incorporates some grappling in it so I can most likely hold my own in a judo match. Judo people need to know more than just throws and ground fighting.

Answer 6

I believe the karate class you are witnessing is not representative of the style as a whole. What you seem to be witnessing is a poorly run class by a poor instructor.
Karate in it's true form is all self defense. No sport. it was developed by an oppressed people that were not allowed to carry weapons. It is a hybrid of Kung-Fu ( Chuan Fa from Kong Shu Kung) and Te (an indigenous Okinawa fighting style) that has evolved over the centuries into what we now know as Kara-te (Chinese hand). When the Okinawans traveled to main land Japan to demonstrate it they changed the character Kara from Chinese to Void as the Japanese hated the Chinese, incidentally they went to a Judo dojo for the demonstration. From my understanding in this history lesson, Judo is a sport form of an older Samurai self-defense system.

Trust me my friend, we sweat, we bleed, we get things broken and we true karate-ka are most assuredly all about true self defense.

Answer 7

Be careful of the social calendar; it's easy to over-do it! You can seriously spend all day every day doing social events if you're not careful! :) Also know that you'll need some time to experiment. Don't assume anything is written in stone, be willing to be flexible. Know that some (in my experience, about 20 percent) family, friends, neighbors and strangers will give you grief over it. Expect people to give your kids pop quizzes completely out of the blue. "You're homeschooled for Kindergarten? Oh, wow. What's 7x5? What's the square root of 16? Can you spell 'butterfly?' What's the capitol of Iowa? When are parliamentary elections held in the United Kingdom?" And then they turn to YOU, and ask, "Do you have a degree in Chemistry? How are you going to teach AP Calculus? Did you ever think about THAT?!?" Have some responses for those kinds of things. You will also always think that you're terribly behind "everyone else." Then all of a sudden you're working on a concept the neighbor's kids already covered and they're covering one that you did last year, and finally you learn that they're covering bits and pieces of those concepts, instead of going in-depth. So just because the neighbor says Little Johnny is "learning multiplication," what they don't say is that they're only doing the 1's and 0's this year. YOU'RE thinking they're doing all the tables up through 12x12 and thinking "Oh NO! They're supposed to be in the same grade, and we're still stuck on borrowing and carrying!" The whole story isn't necessarily given, so don't immediately freak out. EDIT: Also know that some of the online things are really strict, like "You will be online from X a.m. to X p.m.," that kind of thing. I also recommend the book The Teenage Liberation Handbook. It's too old for your kids, but it says some great things about education in general, and challenges you to think about what learning is, what it could look like, and what you personally think it should look like.

Answer 8

I've learned karate 'bout 5 years already n i think it was the best martial arts ever. There was gud n bad class depend on the teacher, maybe u in the wrong class apparently or the class that u saw was control by a teacher who don't know enough or not yet have a license 4 teachin'. Well i think u can find the better n really gud karate class in other place!peace-out!!

Answer 9

Each style has its purpose. Some are better than others in some aspect but are weak in other areas. For instance judo is great in the ring, but try judo moves in a bar or closed in area and its not so good. You cant account for people who might decide to join the fight and stomp your head in, or what you might land on. Its best to stay on your feet if possible and punch to end the fight quickly.

"Boxing-kicking" styles are great for this but if they do end up on the floor they usually have no idea what to do.

My point is one should learn from all styles even if you don't specialize in any one of them.

Lastly, a black-belt is not used to measure one fighter to another. Its how one measures his personal skill development. I know many black-belts who suck at fighting but are better than they were and many lower-belts how are awesome but have not developed themselves fully.

All of these disciplines serve a purpose.

Answer 10

..did you ever " take down" someone in a "real" situatiuon? other than in class? most of that stuff is just good exercise.. a real street fighter will beat the hell out of a sportsman most of the time ... it's more attitude than anything else.. that said "you'll never lay a hand on a good karate man .... and he will "tighten" you up with 1 punch! wheras even a good judo guy has to grab you to be effective ...karate when taught properly / honestly.. is a deffensive skill[ unfortunatly it's not often taught that way...]