Why be sad about Karate being in the Olympics?

The push for “Karate” to be in the Olympics started in the 1970’s with Jacques Delcourt working on building a format and political structure to house this ambition. It is often pointed at as the first attempts to get Karate int o the Olympics, however I argue that “Karate” has been in the Olympics already, and for a much longer time. And I have proof.

First off I have to discuss the Karate that is going into the Olympics is not “traditional” or “Style based” Karate, it’s an amalgamation of several styles. The Kumite is a stylised system that is very different than the Shobu Ippon system that most Karate systems use. The Katas are all merged too, and until recently the system was limited to several Kata, now the door is wide open. This is the WKF or World Karate Federations system of Karate. Nothing wrong with it, its just not traditional Karate, it’s a game. Both can exist equally and I am not blasting WKF or “modern” Karate, I just am not a proponent of it. Now back to the Olympics.

A year or so far back the WKF and the Olympic committee announced that the Olympics would be using the WKF style at the 2020 Olympics and the world of Modern Karate blew up with excitement. However shortly after the world found out it was a one and done. I have spoken with a lot of friends who do WKF style Karate and they are very upset about this turn, some were so upset that they said it was a slap in the face, but they are missing two main points….first off the WOC (World Olympic committee) never ever said it was going to be a permanent position, they said from the start that it would a trial or demonstration event! Secondly, we have sort of had “Karate” in the Olympics for YEARS and its not coming out….keep up with me here please.

Around 1945 several schools or “Kwans” opened up in Seoul. These schools were established by Martial artists who trained in a specific Japanese Martial art. That Martial Art….Shotokan Karate. The founders were men like General Choi Hong Hi and others who he trained with in Japan. The idea was to create a more “Korean” version of Karate that could be presented as a national martial art. Out of these Kwans came different styles of the original system. They added more head level kicking, jumping and spinning kicks and sped up a great deal of the techniques by removing focus from the training.

The original system was established and a organization called the Korean Taekwondo Association or KTA was formed by 1959. These merged and changed into different organizations. The ITF or International TKD Federation, led by Choi Hong Hi and the World TKD Federation. The systems were set up to create a sport over martial art, it was a focused system that build its business plan around creating a strong sport-oriented system for the students. The traditional aspects were bleached out and replaced with more flash, the sporting rules were introduced and safety gear created to make sparring safer and more exciting. Hand movements, blocking and most art strikes were removed from the system completely. This created a much more dynamic and exciting game of tag that used the legs 80% of the time. Again, not knocking it! If you watch a good Tae Kwon Do match it will get your heart pounding and you will enjoy the explosiveness in training.

In 2000 after a short period of pushing the Olympic Tae Kwon Do committee formed and the sport was introduced to the Olympics. So, why did they get in so fast, and how did they manage to stay in……they organized and they are ONE system! In 1945 the Korean government got involved in the organization of TKD, they ensured that even with sub systems, off shoot organizations…they are all one style essentially. They created a back story about how “Traditional Korean” arts merged with Shotokan……but the truth is its 90% Karate and 10% innovation. In 1952 President Syngman Rhee watched Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae Hi do a demonstration, both were with the military. He was told that the system being presented was Taekyon, a traditional system of Korean Karate. The president then pushed for the art to be introduced to the Korean military as a defence system. In 1955 the leaders of the schools began to create a unified Korean martial art. The name Tae Kwon Do was used to describe the unified system. When the military picked up the system the public became more interested and the key here is that it was a UNIFIED system.

Tae Kwon do, essentially a altered system of Karate was created to be a national system of fighting for the military forces and when they realized that the system could be made bigger and create a national system the Korean government and Korean public jumped onboard. The competition and system changes made this Korean off shoot of Karate was made to be much more sport oriented over the traditional roots in Karate. The changed to be more about scoring points than one kill shot like Traditional Karate. The points included; one point for a kick to the Hogo, two for a turning kick, three for a back kick and four for a spinning kick to the head.  Punching to the body earns you a single point and kicking often two or more. Olympic TKD will give you 5 full points for a clean kick to the head. Complex rules for sure, but very focused on kicking to garner points. They split the divisions into weight and gender as well.

It was not always unified however. In the early formation of the Kwans the systems that were taught at each of the clubs were slightly different from each other. Some had a Judo influence; others had a stricter Karate influence. Systems like Moo Duk Kwan and Tang Soo Do were formed and formulated their own systems. Some of the clubs were also influenced by the Chinese martial arts as well. However, the government pressured the main clubs to “merge” and this unification is what made Korean Karate a solid and promotable art. In 1988 the Olympics were held in Seoul south Korea. The government pushed hard for Tae Kwon Do to be in the Summer Olympics. The Olympics saw a unified system of Martial arts and not the same issues that Karate had. In 1992 Tae Kwon Do became a demonstration art in the summer Olympics in Barcelona Spain. The unified rules and system meant that the Olympics could draw from almost all countries to bring in Athletes. The success drove TKD into becoming a permanent event at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney Australia.

                So, if the Olympics can accept TKD why cant they accept Karate? Well two major reasons. First off…and most importantly …….that’s all on Karate, not the Olympics!  In the drive for acceptance Karate actually created a system so similar to TKD that the arts are basically presented as the same by anyone that does not know the systems. Basically, Karate is being presented as a Kumite based art……like TKD……...with Kata…. Kata is not as exciting to non-martial arts enthusiasts. So, the system, by being more modern and a game of Tag, like TKD, is exactly the issue. The system and style of Kumite takes so much from TKD that it’s the same thing.

                The other issue comes from the Styles as well. TKD has essentially one style with several organizations that all train and participate with the same rules. Karate however has many different systems or styles, that have different rules and different forms. The problem with creating a generic system to “bring the systems together” is you end up removing what makes the systems unique from Tae Kwon Do. The very thing that makes Karate unique are now bleached out of the training. Now we have a model for training that mimics TKD. Why in the world would the IOC want to have two TKD’s?

                So to recap, the international push to put Karate into the Olympics was met with a effort to create a generic system of Karate so Goju, Wado, Shotokan, Shotkai, Isshin ryu and all the others could participate on equal footing. They changed the traditional Shobu Ippon system to a more sport-oriented system and pushed the “ideals” of one punch one kill out of the participation component and mimicked TKD to the point…that its essentially the same thing for Kumite. Tae Kwon Do also realized that their forms were not of interest to the general public so they did not include them, we however insisted upon it.

                So, again why would we expect the IOC to want both Karate and TKD in the Olympics other than our own Ego and thinking we are so different that we would be kept despite being basically the same thing. As proof of this I offer that some of the international level competitors on national WKF teams are actually TKD black belts and not Karate black belts.

                So, what is the Answer?  Well for me the answer is to let it go, we need to move beyond this and figure out why sport Karate is so much more important to some than traditional Karate. And the Traditional Karate people should focus on marketing traditional Karate. We need to get away from Olympic Karate. We need to push our focus away from the TKD mimicking Karate system and build upon our traditional factors. Our focus needs to be on the benefits of Traditional practice and we also need to push our own system of Shobu Ippon Karate over sport minded WKF Karate to draw a line and be more distinct.  We need to get back to our traditional systems, styles and focus on what makes us all different, not try and build up a generic system that makes us all the same.

                We don’t have to worry about getting or keeping Karate in the Olympics because in essence we already have a style of Karate in the Olympics, its Korean Karate and it’s a system created from us, Tae Kwon Do is a form of Karate, even if it doesn’t want to acknowledge it and we basically don’t as well. So, don’t be sad, while “Karate” Is leaving the Olympics’ we still have our step child as a sport in the summer games each year.