Captilizing on the Olympics

[JR 137]

I have a traditional school, as much as it can be, and I too was skeptical about Olympic Karate. Still, as a dojo owner I thought I should at least educate myself on it. I didn't want Karate to become the new TKD. This isn't a slight to TKD in general, but Olympic TKD is abhorrent. I checked out the WKF and Team Japan doing team kata won me over. It was wonderful to see traditional kata and I was excited to learn that only traditional kata would be allowed.

The sparring was better than the TKD sparring I've seen in the olympics, but it can still devolve into that twitchy jump around nonsense. I don't know they don't just have kickboxing for the Olympics and leave Karate & TKD to kata. The MA competitors could do kickboxing too, but they could keep it separate. Frankly we all know sparring isn't real fighting no matter what your rules are, but the WKF kata made me very happy!

Solid Post. WKF Kata does always seem to look a lot more solid than other tournament kata that I have seen on the internet. Because the only kata that are permitted are kata that are from one of the recognized Ryu-Ha. From my knowledge they only recognize Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Shotokan and Wado-Ryu Kata, and there is a Kata list that competitors are allowed to select from and perform that kata according to the schools kihon.

But from there it does become difficult because there are some styles of karate-do that are distinctly different to one of those four 'major' styles. Look at Kyokushin Karate; they have several distinct versions of Kata that is not similar to one of the major 4, so would they be permitted to perform their styles kata? honest answer I don't know.

As far as I'm aware the only thing the WKF have changed over the last 10 or so years that was directly influenced by the IOC was how points were designated. Originally it was Ippon, Nippon & Sanbon (1, 2 & 3 Points), then it got converted to the Judo Terminology for Scoring of Yuko, Waza-Ari and Ippon.

But from there they kept the same hand positioning for the referees to denote what the person scored. Also it kept things easy for the judges to indicate with their flags.

I'm sure if competitors in kumite tried to do those overtly flashy techniques that other martial arts do in the Olympics, there would be more bouts that would have a 0-0 scoreline over what they have currently.

But it is true we all know Tournament Sparring is not really what Kumite is really all about. I know Wastelander's dojo keeps Tournament Sparring to a separate class for those interested. At my dojo we incorporate Tournament Sparring (WKF Rules) for variety, but if we are to do it we have to do other forms of sparring also.

WKF has added a distinct Kyokushin kata to the approved list - Garyu. It was developed by Mas Oyama and is his "pen name" (reclining dragon). If they're accepting Garyu, I'd imagine they're accepting Kyokushin's versions of accepted kata as well. Kyokushin's Kanku is changed a decent amount from most others.

Some Uechi Ryu kata are now accepted too. Off the top of my head without cross referencing are Kanshin and Kanshu. I'd imagine Uechi's version of Sanchin would have to be accepted by default if other Uechi kata are allowed.

I think the WKF had to allow Kyokushin and Uechi kata to get more cooperation. Matsui (the current head of Kyokushin IKO1) reportedly worked alongside the WKF to get karate in the Olympics. And much to the displeasure of every other Kyokushin organization; the others wanted knockdown rules.

WKF rules and kata list...

http://www.wkf.net/pdf/wkf-competition-rules-version9-2015-en.pdf