The
other day I was approached by a parent who said they “Don’t want their kid
doing no sport KR-atty, just the Traditional stuff”. I was first floored that
the parent knew that there was a difference, then I noted that it’s Not KRATTY,
but Kara-te! I mean Sheesh! But seriously, Every few months the subject
of “Traditional” vs” Sport” Comes up and I end up having to revisit the subject
for people.
I
have covered this subject in the blog previously several times and honestly its
getting old, and I had hoped that the idea of “Sport Karate” would die
eventually but it seems, much like a cancer, to be growing and sticking around.
The scary part is how many “traditional” students and instructors slip over to
the other side and then drink the cool aide or whatever causes this “Haze” and
they forget their roots. One of my
friends points out that it’s the marketability of it, but I would counter that
being traditional is even more marketable…especially to the parents of kids.
Before
we move forwards with the differences I wanted to point out that some cross
over does exist, you cannot deny that we all have four limbs and move
relatively the same, it’s the mentality, focus and purpose of the two different
systems that make them unique and separate. Also, some will bill it as an
evolution in Karate…Poppycock! It’s simply not!
Original,
Traditional, Budo, Goshin….whatever you call your “old school” Karate training
its purpose is to create better people….either physically or mentally….or
spiritually. The focus of Kumite is “Ikken Hissatsu” or one punch, one kill.
This is the fundamental ideal for the practice of “old School” Karate, Training
with the purpose of developing the perfect technique. The reality is the pursuit is endless because
perfection is not actually attainable, but the ideal of training to polish and
“perfect” is the ideal behind “Old School” Karate.
It
is true that the original goals of Karate all boiled down to being able to
defend yourself against aggressors, the goals changed when the need to defend
yourself lessened. Training is now almost a physically spiritual venture in
which we try and “Beat our Souls up and make them better” as one of my students
once aptly explained. The ideal is not to gain points or to train to get a
dangly medal around our neck. So, then
whey do we do tournaments? TANREN! Its
about forging ourselves, testing our metal and pushing ourselves to the brink
so we can improve. A Traditional tournament is a time for students to step up
and show not only how hard they have worked for the tournament, but how hard
they are working in the club on a daily basis.
Traditional
Karate does not use fancy cycles and the students don’t take summers off to
relax and go to the beach, well they may go to the beach to relax…but generally
they just came from class…or they are doing Kata on the beach. The point is
that traditional Karate does not take a break, it does not “Ramp up” or “Cycle”
training, it’s a continuous effort to improve. The goal of “Old School “Karate
is to be better….period.
Sport
Karate is a short term endeavor. Unlike “old school” or Traditional Karate you
only have a short time training and competing before you “Age out” or stop
training to compete. This is when your normally training kicks in, or you leave
Karate. The training is designed strategically to get you in great shape and
teach you to score points, or as one of my instructors once said….”Play
tag”. You are not looking for the
perfect technique, just one that will give you one of several points you need
to win a Kumite match. No emphasis is put on performing a technique perfectly,
other than making it flashy as it can be. The value of Sport Karate is in the
training, the short term pre-tournament training that pushes you to your limits
to be in great shape. Other than this and the entertainment value it holds
little to no actual value to a student.
Historically
the Sport Karate grew out of the Japanese trying to mix styles. See its very
difficult to judge a solid Shotokan Kata or Shito Ryu or Goju ryu…heck any Kata
next to another styles. Even the Kumite techniques are a bit different. But the
systems to allow for different style practitioners to train and compete against
each other was created to allow for this very thing to happen. At this point
the ideals of self-defense, Ikken Hissatsu and any other key and fundamental
ideal of value were left on the curb to allow for sport. I am not ragging on other styles, I love
watching the elegance of Goju ryu and even other styles as they do their Katas.
They are not my personal preference but I love watching them.
The
objective behind traditional Karate is self-defense and survival. This is based
on the concept of the finishing blow, meaning training so that one strike is
sufficient to render the attacker unable to continue attacking. In traditional
Karate tournaments the point is only awarded to the person that gets the “finishing”
blow, or a half point for the person that comes close to this. The purpose of the
encounter is to develop the mental and physical ability to deliver the well
balanced, technically sound strike with the right mental attitude to emulate
this “finishing blow” mentality. Sport Karate however is more about playing tag
and scoring multiple points. Points are awarded to the fastest strike
regardless of the viability of the technique. There is no need for a finishing
blow in this case as they are more concerned with accumulation of points. Traditional
fighting is about cultivating the fighting spirit and win the battle, the
sports focus is on scoring points…and winning medals.
From
a technical stand point the sport Karate is fluid, lacks Kime and is geared
more towards athletic builds. The training is designed to work techniques that
will score points for those that can build up speed and often lacks control in
delivery. The athlete is reactive and will train in a variety of skill winning
techniques. The training focuses on explosive movement but little attention is
paid to control or focus. The Kiai is used more as a way to alert the judge/referee
that the competitor feels they scored a point. Traditional training may focus
on as little as 5 techniques to perfection, with perfect timing, Kime and
control. The student will review, repeat and develop these techniques until
they are reflective and automatic. Timing and distance are all taken into
training and often the student will be focused on these techniques exclusively
and will be able to deliver them at multiple angles and use them in real defense
situations. The focused training makes
these waza (techniques) deadly in defense situations and very effective at
tournaments.
Both
tournament and traditional training have their value to the students but
different greatly in their approach and objectives, set up and techniques. To
put it simply “Traditional Karate is an art, whereas sport karate is a sport”. One
aspect that traditional Karate often lacks, especially today in modern Dojos,
is the lack of “Fight” or need to survive. When I started Karate the training
in the club was so harsh that many dropped out because of it. Modern Dojos will
turn to sport to introduce the feeling of danger to the training. However sport
minded clubs turn out athletes in great shape, but they are performing a routine
and often have a hard time transitioning to a more “goshin” style mentality
when needed or perform as if they are doing sport karate and fail to defend
themselves. Much like a boxer striking without hand pads and gloves the first
time a Karate player throws a technique to defend themselves they are left
realizing they have holes in their training.
One
of my biggest beefs with Sport Karate (WKF style or multi style events) is the
Genericafication of the systems that they are practicing. It is impossible to
participate in a Multi style event and maintain your traditional presentation.
I have seen Shotokan people doing Goju Kata to score extra points when they
feel that the judges are all Naha based practitioners at heart. This feeling of
structural fluidity takes away from the strict style system that has been a
traditional pride point. Also the over exaggerated Kata performance that the
multi style events encourage takes away from the structure of the traditional
Katas.
This
is not even mentioning that the traditional tournaments are much safer as the
students are focused on controlled use of waza while the sport participant is
taught to score points with dynamic and dangerous waza.
While
I am obviously in favor of the traditional tournament, I believe that some
value exists in the training for events. I myself do conditioning and encourage
my students ( I do it in class) to do conditioning such as TABATA drills and
such. However I believe that the dangerous practice of “Tip tap” Tournament techniques
and lack of control is a major detriment to the student and any dojo that uses
this training as a focus. While it is exciting to watch often, and ignoring my
obvious traditional slant, I think that the athletes are very competent, any
Dojo that takes on the more dangerous training is asking for trouble. Injuries
will begin to mount and one major accident could cause you to lose your club!
In
place of the more dangerous Multi Style sport Karate a Dojo should instead
adopt conditioning that intelligently builds up fitness and ability in a
student while spending 75% of the time on control and technical proficiency
over explosive and dangerous sport training. One must find the balance between intelligent
training and conditioning in the Dojo.