Practicality of karate.

[SubGrappler]

Philosophy and the art of fighting without fighting are mental and verbal skills that can be trained otherwise.

A martial arts school should be teaching you how to fight- bottom line. You walk away from a conflict without fighting- fine, but you need to address what to do when you cant do this.

[Meguro]

What fights are we all training for? Training to fight a fair fight in a ring or a mat may give you some transferable skills that you can use if you're fighting a school yard bully or a drunk slob. However, should we be fighting in the school yard or bars in the first place?

Another scenario might be when you are facing a mugger or robber. If I were to bet money on the outcome of an encounter between an unarmed martial artist and an armed criminal, my money goes on the armed bad guy.

There are people who train for encounters with armed criminals: cops. If unavoidable, cops will respond with greater and deadlier force (ie. mace, baton, guns and more cops with guns) not karate or some other martial art.

So, if you're not a cop or don't normally carry a gun, a good pair of running shoes is a better investment than karate or grappling classes. If self-defense is your main objective I would consider studying something that gives you proficiency in weapons (improvised or not).

This is not to say that karate and other martial arts are useless. I just don't do martial arts for any of the perceived the self-defense benefits.

[shotochem]

Actual real life fighting to a civilized human being should be a last resort.

We are not in feudal Japan or the dark ages. It is not acceptable in modern times to duke it out and settle your differences.

I could safely state that most of us who train in MA will thankfully never have to actually fight someone for real in a life and death situation. In unarmed encounters it is better to have some MA training than to have none at all.

All that being said, not all of us take MA for the sole reason of self defense. To many like myself it is a hobby that I truly enjoy for many reasons. To others its the sport and compettition or some zen like feeling.

To each his own may we all enjoy ourselves in the process.

Marc-

[Haddock]

That's excellent advice, Meguro, and I try to do that already. I also agree with Marc completely, I avoid fighting by any means possible and never pick fights. Even then, there are some situations when fighting is unavoidable, and that's what I want to be prepared for.

[shogeri]

I do it just because it has always interested me.

There is always something to learn.

It is who I am, which makes it more than a hobby.

And I agree that we are all training not just our bodies, but our minds to react defensively, and in a manner befitting, a situation that may never come to be. With or without weapons.

With weapon control the way it is, just as there was weapon control in japan, beijin, and now in even canada. It doesn't hurt to know a little something. This includes how to use, and safely handle firearms, bladed weapons, staffs, sticks, swords, long daggers, pencils, handbags, etc...One never know when America might be following this trend as well.

Might as well learn it from those who also dealt with similar government or aristocratic, military, or czar control.

History has a way of repeating itself ever so slightly.

Martial Art, while emphasizing self-preservation through combative means, is a lifelong process in which we strive for self-mastery.

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just some more thoughts...

Edited October 20, 2005 by shogeri

[Sauzin]

I have a slightly different view then Meguro does. Karate is more then just self defense, it's a specific means of self mastery for the purpose of self defense and there is a difference. But the purpose of it's design is self defense, though the means often yields other benefits.

There are many different styles and there are many different teachers of karate with many different philosophies. But I'll tell you this. Karate was birthed in Okinawa and I've been there and seen the dojo's and the mindsets and training mannerisms that are found there. They are single minded in their devotion to the perfection of fighting skill. Not play fighting, or any manner of controlled confrontation. They conditioned their bodies, their minds, and their souls for life and death fighting. They honed and perfected their responses. Everything they did, every moment they spent in their dojo, directly related to fighting. Nothing was wasted. They were purists and trained for the sole purpose of being the most capable fighters in the world. This permanently affected how I view what they called "kara te do" and in my mind I see no reason nor fear to say anything other then karate is the art of self defense through self mastery. If you stick with it and give it the devotion that it deserves and you have a capable and legit instructor you will not only be able to defend yourself in almost any circumstance from almost any opponent but you will intimately know for yourself what a human can and cannot do in a fight. That is something that all the research and forum reading in the world will never get you. You have to go out and experience it for yourself to get it.

[Fish]

Our instructor teaches us self-defence applications most weeks.

I think learning a martial art gives you a degree of self confidence and awareness that probably make you less likely to be involved in a street fight: first because the awareness makes you less likely to go where there is trouble, and second because the confidence affects the way you see yourself and your body language - you don't look like a victim, so you're less likely to be attacked.

[24fightingchickens]

I've been told by a few people that karate isn't practical for defense in real life situations (ie getting attacked on the streets). Is this true? Have you ever had experience with using karate to defend yourself in a real life situation, if so, how did it go?

Thanks.

There is an article on my website that addresses this issue called Redmond's Axiom of Platform Dependency. The article is quite long, and I cannot go into all of the detail here, but the short version is this: The man makes the martial art, the martial art doesn't make the man.

[Meguro]

Sauzin, I agree with you completely that karate is about self-mastery and that it is more than self-defense. Where you and I differ is that I don't believe the main objective of karate is proficiency in self-defense. Any proficiency in this area is a by-product of hard training. For me, the objective in karate is the journey, the exercise, rituals, and fighting involved in every-day training, and not some unattainable goal of un-armed invincibility or numerous dan grades.

Lets face it any twelve year old girl armed with a taser can turn a bone-crushing black belt into a twitching spastic mass on the floor. This is reality, and has been so since early man discovered that it was easier to pummel one's opponent with the jaw-bone of an * than with bare-hands.

So is karate a waste of time if the main objective is not self-defense? No, it doesn't hurt to know a little something, to be physically fit and to know how to react in a stressful situation.

As for training in Okinawa, never been there. But I live and train in Tokyo, Japan. My style is knock-down karate, not street fighting.