New ideas for sport Karate

[bushido_man96]

This is likely a stupid idea! But would it be possible to wear chestguards with a sensor in them and maybe small sensors in gloves/footpads that register when a hit is landed with sufficient force?

I'm envisaging something like the fencing system. Not quite sure how best to work it for the face though (other than a helmet).

That would then allow the (i think excellent) judo style scoring system that Wastelander mentioned above to be implemented. The system could judge is it is an 'ippon worthy' strike, 'waza-ari' etc and go from there.

Would remove a lot of the tag aspect while still preserving the single strike ending the contest aspect

Like Wastelander mentioned, Olympic TKD implemented this kind of technology. What it doesn't account for is if your arm is against your body, and a kick hits your arm with sufficient force to cause the technology to "score" it as a hit, it does, even though with the arm there, it didn't reach the target.

As for your idea about sensors in the gloves to score head contact....at that point, your leaning more into full contact, where you could judge the ippon as to whether or not the opponent fell down or not, thus rendering the sensors in the gloves rather meaningless.

[kenpo4life]

There is an old theory that would work well. In the good old bare knuckle days, there was the trembling shock rule. If you did not see AND hear the strike land cleanly, it was not a point. You HAD to hit or kick the person hard for it to count. That is how it needs to go back to for single point sparring

[Zaine]

The issue with that is that Modern Sport Karate is, and should be, concerned with safety. A great way to lower participation for your tournaments is to have a reputation of people getting hurt unnecessarily because people keep throwing full powered punches. Tournaments cost a good amount of money and the organizers need to recoup that money and make a profit for it to be a worth while venture for them.

[Nevinyrral]

I don't think that Karate as a whole will ever get away from the point fighting system. If the idea of Karate as self-defense is to throw a technique or two and then walk away from an opponent who is incapacitated, then the idea of points fighting is a pretty good one.

But as seen in full contact styles one or two techniques might not be enough to stop an opponent.

For me Koshiki and Kudo have best kumite styles.

[bushido_man96]

Kind of on topic here, I've been seeing that the PKA (Professional Kickboxing Association) is firing up. Not exactly sure if there will be some TV rights or what, but perhaps something worth watching? The association has signed a TKD champion, Julio Cesar Carlos, as their first fighter.