Three Types of Fighting in Karate: Know the Difference
A couple of weeks ago, I competed at a provincial level karate competition. Watching some of the matches, I noticed that most of the competitors (even at the brown and black belt levels) really didn’t know how to fight in a tournament. They may or may not be effective in real self defense, but it doesn’t seem like they were taught the correct way to fight according to different contexts.
At first glance, you might ask: “What do you mean by fighting according to different contexts? A fight is a fight, right?”. Yes and no. As I’ll try to explain below, in most traditional martial arts, there are three general types of “fighting”: self defense fighting; sport fighting; and sparring. I’ll use traditional karate as an example to illustrate my point.
Budo Karate / Self-Defense Karate
The idea behind budo or self defense karate is that you are literally fighting to save your life. The mind set is that you want to hit, incapacitate the attacker to give you enough time to escape and call the police. The adrenaline is pumping. Emotions are running high. Consequences are dire. If you make a mistake, or if you hesitate, you’re going to be beaten, maimed, raped, kidnapped and/or murdered.
In terms of technique, you want to use the most devastating techniques as quickly as possible. You stand in a natural stance. You don’t have time to dance around your attacker in an 8-meter-squared ring. In fact you’re probably going to be in a small space like an alley, an elevator or in between cars. Kicks are going to be rare, but if you do throw them, they are generally going to be hitting low targets like the knees, the groin, the inner and outer thighs. You will be jabbing fingers to the eyes and using knife hands to the throat. Elbows and knees are going to be used a lot more because of the close distance. Biting, spitting, grabbing, clawing, gouging will most likely occur. Techniques will be flying at full speed. It won’t be pretty and it will be messy.
Sport Karate
When I say “sport karate”, I’m talking about the “for points” fighting that you will find in JKA or WKF tournaments, not full contact karate. The goal of point fighting is not to knock anyone unconscious. It’s meant to display clean, controlled, well-timed techniques at precise targets. Competitors are trying to quickly close the distance, hit the opponent first, get out and not get hit.
While some aspects of this type of “fighting” can be useful in a real fight, Jack Slack ( @JackSlackMMA ) actually best summarizes why sport karate is problematic and unrealistic with his description of how most exchanges happen (and yes, I’ve been guilty of doing this on more than one occasion):
A fighter will dive in with a straight punch to the midsection, then pull his hand back to his hip, and turn his back while shouting, to convince the judges that he totally did just score. Often both fighters will pirouette around the mat, mouths open, “selling the point”.
As far as techniques are concerned, the most effective self-defense, budo techniques won’t score points. In fact, these injury-causing techniques will get you disqualified. Speed and intensity are still needed, but finesse is more important. In this context, the techniques used are unrealistic and maybe even impractical in self-defense fighting. In some tournaments, fighters are rewarded with style points for using fancy and flashy techniques that are ineffective in a real fight. In reality, using tournament fighting techniques in a real situation can even put you in more danger than you’re already in.
Dojo Sparring
When sparring in the dojo, the mind set is that of learning and experimentation. The idea is that you want to test out different techniques that you may like to use in different contexts, be it in sport karate or self defense. It’s a controlled sparring set where participants can agree on the speed, intensity and even the level of contact permitted. The goal is not injure, but to practice control, timing, distance, speed, footwork,
As far as techniques are concerned, most “safe techniques” are allowed. Techniques like eye-gouging, groin kicking, joint-locking, grabbing and biting are frowned upon. Generally, these techniques are difficult to control and could cause potential injuries. Other than that, you can use all sorts of kicks, punches, strikes, and footwork. Again, it’s a set that allows you to experiment and practice for both budo and sport karate.
Final Thoughts
These three fighting methods in modern karate can overlap. You can use the timing and the speed required in sport karate when you’re in a self defense situation. By the same token, the mind set in budo karate that forces a fighter to not hesitate and simply “go for broke” applies very well to sport karate. In competition situations, a competitor is put under stress and the fight, flight or freeze instincts kick in. Having the budo mind set will prevent the competitor from freezing and use that adrenaline to win their matches.
Of course, when in a controlled sparring session in a dojo, this is the best time to mix and match the above approaches and learn the difference between them.
