Olympic Combat Sports

[Buka23]

Once upon a time, you hit or kicked the guy a good shot, most anywhere, and didn't break anything or make the other guy bleed too much, you got a point. All the fun and excitement is disappearing. Ahh, life (and kumite) was once so simple.

Truth, bro.

I long for the Once Upon a Time days. Alas. Perhaps they'll come back into fashion long after we're gone. I hope so for the sake of the practitioners.

 

[Xue Sheng102]

Once upon a time, you hit or kicked the guy a good shot, most anywhere, and didn't break anything or make the other guy bleed too much, you got a point. All the fun and excitement is disappearing. Ahh, life (and kumite) was once so simple.

Truth, bro.

I long for the Once Upon a Time days. Alas. Perhaps they'll come back into fashion long after we're gone. I hope so for the sake of the practitioners.

Yup, but I started with Japanese Jujutsu....in a fencing school (3 walls were covered with fencing foils and masks).....with a carpeted floor, no mat...or pads.. then later pre-olympic TKD...linoleum floor.....good times

 

[Xue Sheng102]

OK, I watched the olympic coverage because it said karate. I started at 2:45pm, watched over 30 minutes of commercials and olympic promos, a whole lot of boxing...and then, at 4:30.....a bronze metal kata match that only showed the second competitors kata and then...more commercials and promos...and finally one gold medal women's kumite (which was a good match)....then at 4:50 commercials, olympic promos and.....marathon coming up next.....sheesh..... hours of tkd last week.....minutes of karate this week

 

[Tony Dismukes106]

What are the sources for the kata used in the Olympic karate competition? I don’t recognize any of the kata names from the discussions in the Karate sub forums here.

To answer my own question, I did some googling and apparently the allowable kata for the Olympics come from Goju Ryu, Shito Ryu, Shotokan, and Wado Ryu. There are 102 kata on the approved list, so I guess the ones that I’ve seen competitors select so far just haven’t been the more common ones that I’ve seen mentioned around here in the past.

 

[_Simon_107]

Very curious about this myself. Also curious about the yelling. Is that good yelling? I got the impression from comments about XMA that yelling and crazy intensity was NOT a good thing. But these guys seemed quite intense and also quite loud.

Yeeeeah haha... myself and many other karateka I know are not a fan of the really prolonged, excessive kiai.... and to me defeats the purpose of why we do it. The kiai is important but prolonging it seems to be just for theatrical, dramatic effect. Maybe even to show the intensity and spirit of it, but too much is too much haha!

There have been some good ones though!

Oh I am tempted to again post 'the' video I OFT post, oh don't tempt me...

 

[_Simon_107]

My play by play of Olympic Kata:

Scowl...
Bow...
Scowl.
pause
punchpunch... pause....
punchkickpunch... turn...
kickturnpunchpunch... turn...
punchelbowpunch...lookleft...
PUNCHLEFT!!
BAAAHaaaaiiiiaaaaai...iiaiii...yahhhhh...
pause
pause
pause
Slowly... look... right... then... turn... right...
pause...
punchpunch... pause....
punchkickpunch... turn...
kickturnpunchpunch... turn...
punchelbowpunch...lookright...
PUNCHRIGHT!!
BAAAHaaaaiiiiaaaaai...iiaiii...yahhhhh...

Oh man.... I'm sure people could be offended by this.. but IT'S JUST TOO GOOD HAHAHAHA

Bravo, bravo...

 

[Xue Sheng102]

My play by play of Olympic Kata:

Scowl...
Bow...
Scowl.
pause
punchpunch... pause....
punchkickpunch... turn...
kickturnpunchpunch... turn...
punchelbowpunch...lookleft...
PUNCHLEFT!!
BAAAHaaaaiiiiaaaaai...iiaiii...yahhhhh...
pause
pause
pause
Slowly... look... right... then... turn... right...
pause...
punchpunch... pause....
punchkickpunch... turn...
kickturnpunchpunch... turn...
punchelbowpunch...lookright...
PUNCHRIGHT!!
BAAAHaaaaiiiiaaaaai...iiaiii...yahhhhh...

sorry, did not hold the 4th pause long enough and there is nowhere near enough KIIIIAAA

 

[Xue Sheng102]

10 to 15 minutes of karate sometime between 3:45pm and 6:00pm today EST

 

[CB Jones]

Truth, bro.

I long for the Once Upon a Time days. Alas. Perhaps they'll come back into fashion long after we're gone. I hope so for the sake of the practitioners.

Jacob competed in a few WKF tournaments. They were interesting but he preferred the scoring format the USKA and PKC uses.

I hope Karate Combat can keep growing. I think it could be good for karate.

 

[Buka23]

To answer my own question, I did some googling and apparently the allowable kata for the Olympics come from Goju Ryu, Shito Ryu, Shotokan, and Wado Ryu. There are 102 kata on the approved list, so I guess the ones that I’ve seen competitors select so far just haven’t been the more common ones that I’ve seen mentioned around here in the past.

You're saying they have to choose a Kata from an approved list?

And face blocking a kick into your own unconsciousness gets you a gold medal in Kumite?

God help the world of Karate.

 

[Xue Sheng102]

You're saying they have to choose a Kata from an approved list?

And face blocking a kick into your own unconsciousness gets you a gold medal in Kumite?

God help the world of Karate.

Saw that, get knocked unconscious....get carried off the mat......and get a gold medal.... yeah....I have no words

Interesting bit is I got the impression that kicking someone in the neck/head, and knocking them unconscious...would NOT get you disqualified in Olympic TKD.... none of this makes sense

 

[Buka23]

Saw that, get knocked unconscious....get carried off the mat......and get a gold medal.... yeah....I have no words

Interesting bit is I got the impression that kicking someone in the neck/head, and knocking them unconscious...would NOT get you disqualified in Olympic TKD.... none of this makes sense

I agree, and I think I understand the rules, and I certainly understand their desire for the safety of the competitors, but it is Kumite, and when you bend into the kick yourself - you should learn a valuable lesson, not win an Olympic Gold medal.

 

[Dirty Dog6]

I agree, and I think I understand the rules, and I certainly understand their desire for the safety of the competitors, but it is Kumite, and when you bend into the kick yourself - you should learn a valuable lesson, not win an Olympic Gold medal.

Would you win in boxing if you got knocked out?
How about wrestling or judo?
Why in the world would they implement such a stupid rule?

 

[Xue Sheng102]

I agree, and I think I understand the rules, and I certainly understand their desire for the safety of the competitors, but it is Kumite, and when you bend into the kick yourself - you should learn a valuable lesson, not win an Olympic Gold medal.

I'm all for safety too, but that was ridiculous. Winning a gold for a knockout.....being the one that was knocked out

 

[Xue Sheng102]

Would you win in boxing if you got knocked out?
How about wrestling or judo?
Why in the world would they implement such a stupid rule?

Heck, I think you would win in TKD if you knocked your opponent out.

 

[Dirty Dog6]

Heck, I think you would win in TKD if you knocked your opponent out.

You absolutely do. I'm not a particular fan of the Olympic TKD sparring rules, but at least you don't win gold by getting knocked out.

 

[Gyakuto108]

Inside his brain, are you?

Given my profession, I could be, in 4 minutes.

 

[Tony Dismukes106]

I agree, and I think I understand the rules, and I certainly understand their desire for the safety of the competitors, but it is Kumite, and when you bend into the kick yourself - you should learn a valuable lesson, not win an Olympic Gold medal.

I finally got a chance to watch the match. That wasn’t even a particularly hard kick, compared to any others that were thrown in this match or other matches that I saw. It was just a quick, flicky lead leg kick with no real hip turnover or carry through. It might not even have connected if the other guy hadn’t leaned into it. His opponent should have gotten a penalty for head butting his foot that way.