Full contact point sparring in shotokan karate

[explosive_power]

if the majority of the shotokan karate community would change the light contact to full contact.

would shotokan gain more respect?

because most people put shotokan off because of the light contact aspect.

and they say it is not realistic.

if it would be changed to full contact point sparring.

would it silence the one's who put off shotokan karate style of sparring?

[Soheir]

In sparring case, I beilieve it would.

Of course, it's a different style from other Karate styles, so why should it be different? But I gess, one side could be, that those people who doesn't know anything about karate, sees Shotokan karate competitions, and assume, that's it. It's karate, the only and the same Karate for them.

[joesteph]

 

if the majority of the shotokan karate community would change the light contact to full contact.

 

would shotokan gain more respect?

 

because most people put shotokan off because of the light contact aspect.

 

What makes you feel that Shotokan is put off at all? Or that most people want full contact? There's non-contact, light, light-to-moderate, and then full contact, appealling to all different persons/personalities.

Do you feel this way, that it's put off, because it isn't as widespread as other martial arts? I don't know what style of karate you're studying, EP. Is it Shotokan? I do know that you enjoyed boxing in the past. Could it be that you're put off personally because you enjoyed "mixing it up" when you boxed?

Is it that you're taking Shotokan and would prefer full contact instead of light contact sparring, including point sparring?

Edited April 25, 2010 by joesteph

[explosive_power]

 

if the majority of the shotokan karate community would change the light contact to full contact.

 

would shotokan gain more respect?

 

because most people put shotokan off because of the light contact aspect.

 

What makes you feel that Shotokan is put off at allt? Do you feel that it isn't as widespread as other martial arts? I don't know what style of karate you're studying, EP. Is it Shotokan? I do know that you enjoyed boxing in the past; could it be that you're put off personally because you enjoyed "mixing it up" when you boxed?

Not at all

I started shotokan karate recently.. done some research, and found out that some people really put it off because of the light contact aspect.. at least the sparring aspect.

I was just thinking why not just change it to full contact..

to silence those who critique it because of the light contact aspect.

but oh well,

I enjoy shotokan karate anyways

[joesteph]

That's odd. I was editing while Explosive Power was responding with a quote, and his post went up before my edit. I thought the program would block my edit.

Well, I'm glad you enjoy Shotokan, EP.

[explosive_power]

That's odd. I was editing while Explosive Power was responding with a quote, and his post went up before my edit. I thought the program would block my edit.

Well, I'm glad you enjoy Shotokan, EP.

yeah, just giving my two cents here..

thanks for the reply

[sensei8]

if the majority of the shotokan karate community would change the light contact to full contact.

would shotokan gain more respect?

Yes AND no, because no matter what's done, some will respect Shotokan and some won't respect Shotokan....again....no matter what's done!

if it would be changed to full contact point sparring.

would it silence the one's who put off shotokan karate style of sparring?

Yes AND no, because no matter what...some will respect Shotokan and some won't respect Shotokan....again....no matter what's done!

It's the old saying that says...""You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time."

[explosive_power]

if the majority of the shotokan karate community would change the light contact to full contact.

would shotokan gain more respect?

Yes AND no, because no matter what's done, some will respect Shotokan and some won't respect Shotokan....again....no matter what's done!

if it would be changed to full contact point sparring.

would it silence the one's who put off shotokan karate style of sparring?

Yes AND no, because no matter what...some will respect Shotokan and some won't respect Shotokan....again....no matter what's done!

It's the old saying that says...""You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time."

Great response, makes sense to me.. thank you

[Chitsu]

if the majority of the shotokan karate community would change the light contact to full contact.

would shotokan needs to gain more respect?

because most people put shotokan off because of the light contact aspect.

and they say it is not realistic.

if it would be changed to full contact point sparring.

would it silence the one's who put off shotokan karate style of sparring?

Who says Shotokan needs to gain more respect?

TBH - I read the same thing on many forums - and it seems to propagated by people with little or no training in Karate, who seek to compare it to a ring sport.

Of course there are good Shoto schools and bad ones - exactly the same as any other ma, but the important thing to remember is that the end result is not necessarily to produce a ring athlete - it's a martial art first and foremost - not a sport.

Also; sparring in any art is down to how it is taught and the rule set, so you can't necessarily compare and therefore dismiss one over another.

The acquisition of Kumite skills (and therefore doing well in competitions) is a by-product of good karate training imo - and should not be viewed as the "aspirational" end result.

Central to Japanese martial arts like Shotokan is the concept of "budo" - and to me this is a far more telling, in terms of how well a martial art is being taught.

Chitsu

[todome]

If they did that and stuck to their pursuit of one-strike power it would become a very small community.