Is Karate a martial art? (please read full post)

[Hyoho]

Nippon Budokan says it is. I don't think they are the slightest bit interested in what foreigners might think it is! Nippon Budokan is linked to Monbusho (Japanese education authority). They indirectly govern sportlike educational pursuits such as Budo. PAGETITLE | SITENAME

Using the word martial art or as some like to refer to as M.A. somewhat waters down the meaning. Any art used to fight or defend one's country (Japan) is called BUDO.

 

[Jenna]

ACP lineage? That's just watered-down Proxima Centauri System lineage, and entirely misses the point of the other arms.

I would have to disagree.. cos like none of the top fighters in IPMA (inter planetary) tourneys ever practised Proxima Centaura System to my knowledge? Hmm? What you say to that eh? It is just not realistic system for every day space fights.. just sayin..

 

[DonnieBravo]

I am sure the origin matters when a name is kept for a certain style. Just like Muay Thai has its origin in Thailand.

It also means Thai don't like to complicate things and come straight to the point.

Being a martial artist, I feel like I am divided as aikido, jiu jitsu, TKO seem like step brothers of Karate. This has been said on a lighter note!

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I would have to disagree.. cos like none of the top fighters in IPMA (inter planetary) tourneys ever practised Proxima Centaura System to my knowledge? Hmm? What you say to that eh? It is just not realistic system for every day space fights.. just sayin..

Space fight rules don't allow the use of the distal limbs for dismemberment. No real PCS practitioner would even consider fighting under those rules - it would be a violation of their oath of realism.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

You can call karate a ham sandwich for all I care. It will hurt exactly as much when you're punched by a competent karateka.

 

[Andrew Green]

Blatantly incorrect. I have never once heard any of my karate friends say you stop your fist at the target. The idea is always to push through or behind the target (true for friends of any martial art actually).

Not to mention one of those stereotypical karate behaviours is the destruction of building materials... which has a requirement of punching through. Or makiwara training, again designed to teach you to punch through a target.

He's talking about a specific style of karate competition vs Muay Thai competition. It's a rather unfair argument as karate is a umbrella term that covers a lot of related practices. I suppose you could compare karate to kickboxing and use Tae Bo (instead of Muay Thai) as your example of kickboxing to even things out if you want?

 

[EMT]

Just decided to read through it anyway, as I have some free time. Going to go point by point.



I would agree with this IF the point was that just kata is not enough. But karate also can do pad work, heavy bag work, and full contact sparring. Just because it does kata does not negate any of those things.


Again, Karate can do full contact sparring. And point sparring has a time and place as long as its not all that's being done.

Blatantly incorrect. I have never once heard any of my karate friends say you stop your fist at the target. The idea is always to push through or behind the target (true for friends of any martial art actually).


True, if the person does not practice full contact. But, it's a habit that gets fixed very quickly when switching to full contact, so it's not a huge deal IMO.

I'm going to refer to Gerry's comment about finding the exception in muay thai but not in karate (ignoring the idea that for some reason karate kicks are less powerful than muay thai without any evidence to back it up).

Because Thai boxers specialize in sweeps? As far as I know, both will have difficulty grappling with an art that focuses on grappling (unless it's a style of karate that spends a lot of time on grappling), so I'm not sure that can really be used against karate in favor of MT.

I'm not even a karateka, but every single point made about why muay thai is better is questionable.

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Obviously, I am bit biased as a Muay Thai practitioner. I will take into account your opinion next time when I edit this webpage.

 

[Buka]

I have all the respect in the world for Muay Thai.Honestly, I mean how can you not? I also just read that blog-thing comparing Karate to Muay Thai. Since it's a Muay Thai based writing, I would expect it to be biased. Allow me to be biased right back.

To the folks who actually wrote it - if what you wrote is actually what you're expecting should we fight - when you regain consciousness, *****, I'll explain things to you. And I'll speak real slow.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Obviously, I am bit biased as a Muay Thai practitioner. I will take into account your opinion next time when I edit this webpage.

It's okay to be biased. Either be clear on your bias in your writing, or make an effort to be even-handed. If I compare my primary art to BJJ (or Judo, or Hapkido, or...), I could use un-equal examples to make either look better. In reality, each has strengths the other does not.

 

[Ironbear24]

Honestly, it depends on who you talk to. Typically speaking, those who are uninformed about such matters use "karate" as a blanket term for all Japanese Martial Arts, just as they use "kung fu" for all Chinese Martial Arts. I'd like to think that people who actually practice those arts know exactly what style they are practicing but even then, I've talked to some karate practitioners and they thought there was only 1 kind of karate....

Normally from what I have encountered most people think anything that uses kicks and punches is called karate. Even if the person is doing muay thai or take Kwon do, the average person with little to no martial arts knowledge will call it karate.

When they see the gi and belt, they also right away will tend to call it karate; even though they could be doing Judo or Jujitsu. Kung Fu also seems to be an interchangeable term as well even though Kung Fu doesn't wear Japanese gi's.

 

[Ironbear24]

Karate is a martial art, however, compared to Muay Thai which was developed for the battlefield it may seem rather soft

Karate versus Muay Thai

Literally everything about this is utter crap. I didn't knock my punching bag down by "Stopping the strike at the surface." No, I punch through the damn thing, I kick through it, I elbow through it, I knee through it. Every one of those forms of karate has heavy sparring, sparring and any method training is never defined by the art but is defined by the dojo.

 

[Headhunter]

Karate is a martial art, however, compared to Muay Thai which was developed for the battlefield it may seem rather soft

Karate versus Muay Thai

That is such nonsense. Firstly maybe Muay Thai was developed for battle but now it's a ring sport with rules whereas karate while it is used for competition is mainly a self defence art.

And frankly I train both and there's very few differences in the way they punch and kick. I'm curious have you ever trained karate....if not how can you say what karate does or doesn't do.

You say in another way you do Muay Thai so your biased...why do you have to be biased. A true martial art should respect every style and realise it all has it's benefits. Wh did you even bring up Muay Thai. This was a question about karate there's no need to go on and say oh Muay Thai is actually better.

 

[Headhunter]

Just decided to read through it anyway, as I have some free time. Going to go point by point.



I would agree with this IF the point was that just kata is not enough. But karate also can do pad work, heavy bag work, and full contact sparring. Just because it does kata does not negate any of those things.


Again, Karate can do full contact sparring. And point sparring has a time and place as long as its not all that's being done.

Blatantly incorrect. I have never once heard any of my karate friends say you stop your fist at the target. The idea is always to push through or behind the target (true for friends of any martial art actually).


True, if the person does not practice full contact. But, it's a habit that gets fixed very quickly when switching to full contact, so it's not a huge deal IMO.

I'm going to refer to Gerry's comment about finding the exception in muay thai but not in karate (ignoring the idea that for some reason karate kicks are less powerful than muay thai without any evidence to back it up).

Because Thai boxers specialize in sweeps? As far as I know, both will have difficulty grappling with an art that focuses on grappling (unless it's a style of karate that spends a lot of time on grappling), so I'm not sure that can really be used against karate in favor of MT.

I'm not even a karateka, but every single point made about why muay thai is better is questionable.

Also he says about sweeps but Muay Thai stance is very high they don't even bend there knees much so surely that'd make more likely to get swept

 

[Headhunter]

Karate is a martial art, however, compared to Muay Thai which was developed for the battlefield it may seem rather soft

Karate versus Muay Thai

Also you say a Muay Thai always wins against karate guy will that's just so incorrect look at lyoto machida and Steven Thompson. 2 karate guys who've beaten numerous Thai boxers. One example Steven Thompson vs matt brown. Yeah okay brown won that fight but that was due to wrestling on the feet Thompson dominated and nearly finished him a number of times. In a kickboxing match Thompson would win.

No karate guy would beat every Thai boxer and no thai boxer would beat every karate guy it just doesn't work that way.

 

[Headhunter]

You can call karate a ham sandwich for all I care. It will hurt exactly as much when you're punched by a competent karateka.

Yeah but then the other guys got to say he got his *** kicked by a ham sandwich lol

 

[JP3]

Karate is a martial art, however, compared to Muay Thai which was developed for the battlefield it may seem rather soft

Karate versus Muay Thai

It seems you are in the minority on this one.

Having done both, I ...

 

[JP3]

Now that we've argued the definition of martial, is karate an art?

Personally, I really like a really well-performed kata. I think it's pretty, in a sort of machismo way.

Perhaps I am questioning?

 

[JP3]

that one of the most biased articles I have ever read.

where has this karate punch stops at contact nonsense come from

I've no idea. I've never been in a martial art that taught that the strike ended at contact... that is asinine.

 

[JP3]

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Obviously, I am bit biased as a Muay Thai practitioner. I will take into account your opinion next time when I edit this webpage.

That's it?

That's all we get?

I practiced MT for a significant fraction of my life and I was wondering where you got your data, man...

 

[drop bear]

More resources directed towards Thai than karate.

So it is harder for karate guys who want to fight to find opportunities to do so.

Makes it hard to develop great karate fighters.