It is sad to see so many 'Karate Clubs' today are drifting away from Traditional Karate and starting to teach 'Freestyle' I personally don't understand what 'Freestyle' is today. When Freestyle first appeared it meant a mixing of 'Styles' that is a Club or an association mixing Styles and the Instructor or Instructors had an 'Knowledge' of what he was teaching.

Now, 'Freestyle' seems to have no style, how can you teach 'no Style' where do the fundamentals come from ? is it like Football with no rules ?. O.K. maybe it could be called 'Sport Karate' ? but, why do so many 'Freestyle' advertise that this 'Freestyle' is Self-defence ? and why do so many call themselves 'Styles' as in Shotokan, Wado Ryu etc. when they are in fact 'Freestyle' ? Is it easier to teach ? because 'Free' is anything ? where as Shotokan, Wado Ryu, Shukokai, Gojo Ryu and Kyokoshinkai have rules and fundamentals to teach and practice I have practiced Wado Ryu Karate for a short time (Two years) Shukokai / Shuto Ryu for (Fourteen Years) and Shotokan for (Twenty three years up to 2007) I did a little of Kick Boxing, when it first started. I also have been to a Taekwondo course and a Kung Fu course and a Jujitsu course, but I have never seen anything like I have seen during these last few year 'freestyle' I have to say this does not look like a Martial Art to me. One 'Karateka' told me he was 5th Dan Black Belt in England in 'Freestyle Karate' he also said he never even seen any Traditional Karate ? This Club, by the way, the Instructors Gi consisted of Jeans and a Sweatshirt (he did have his Trainers off) The other Club I seen, the Instructors Gi consisted of Tracksuit bottoms a Sweatshirt and a Black Belt, and you wonder why I feel sad ?? This also applies to Ju-Jitsu and Kung-Fu and even Judo.

Anyway, these are only my personal opinions, so any 'Freestylists' out there, don't take offence, like I said, these are only my views. But for the Traditionalists out there!

I agree with you Sylvester.

It seems there are many clubs out there today that practice freestyle karate. In my opinion they should take the word 'karate' out of it because it doesn't resemble real karate. Some instructors seem more interested in making a quick buck. This freestyle Karate in no good for self defense. If you want to hit something you should join a Boxing club not a sport karate club

Whilst i recuperate from surgery, i have been watching a series of DVD's about different Martial Arts from around the world. What becomes apparent, is that all of them have one thing in common, no matter how geograghically and stylistically diverse they seem. All have some form of religeous, spiritual, or ritualistic aspect to them, which elevates them beyond the mere physical. It would appear to us that Sport Karate lacks this, and it is this percieved lack of "depth" which we, as followers of "the Way", find difficult to understand. After all, we all applaud the dedication and effort demonstrated by many other sportsmen and women,and rightly so. Sport is among man's greatest achievements, and can be a tremendous force for unity in the world. It is the fact that an undesirable aspect of our art (the defeat, or besting of others) seems to be the cornerstone of theirs, which seems unpalletable to us. It is a perversion of Karate. It is not Karate-Do.

Surprised to see no comment from the none Traditional Karate people! Would be interesting to hear something!!!!!
Anyway, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all.

Upon reflection, training for competition would have some effects which would benefit any Karateka. Improved speed, reflexes, fitness and agility would be something which we would all gladly accept. Is the concept of sportsmanship so different from the Dojo Kun? Is training to be a champion not training to be the best that you can be? Maybe we should not criticise sport Karate, but bad and ineffective Karate, whether Sport Karate or Traditional Karate. We've all seen some excellent competition footage, with clear, recognisable techniques, and we've also seen poor footage, where the protagonists just stand there trading ineffective punches. Both sets of fighters trained with the same goals - to improve and to succeed.

I think every thing in life is simple, it is us that make it complicated. There is only one kind of Karate and that is Traditional not Sport.

How do people feel about Kata competition? Is Kata that is done with the sole purpose of impressing judges and therefore winning competitions not sport? Is it true Kata? Is the mindset the same when performing? Even if it is the same on the day of the contest, then surely the hours and hours of pre-tournament training are geared towards figuring out what will impress the judges. Doesn't seem compatible with the 'spiritual' aspect of Kata that we are encouraged to embrace as we train. This is especially apparent nowadays, with the focus on 'Dramatic' performance, (extra long pauses, impossibly slow, slow moves, massively quick fast moves) as oppossed to the older style of performance, which seemed to be more Bunkai/fight oriented and wasn't as exagerated.

It is mistakenly thought that we start with Kihon, then Kata and finally Kumite, this is not strictly true, it is Kata that is the final solution. Gichin Funakoshi, founder of the Shotokan Karate-Do stated “Once a form (Kata) has been learned, it must be practised repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a form (Kata) in Karate-Do is useless” Hence it is sometimes said it can take 10 years to learn a Kata! If you think about it, all Kumite attacks are done from the forward stance (Zenkutsu- Dachi) or (Jiyú-Dachi) all of these are long Karate stances. Just when do you get attacked by a Karateka? In real situations people do not assume a stance and attack from a distance, they usually attack from close up, and not with a Karate technique. Kata was never designed for Karateka V Karateka. So then we have the Bunkai and more….. I absolutely agree with Ian Abernethy (Read his book ‘An Introduction to Applied Karate’ by Iain Abernethy) The four Stages of Kata.

Sport Karate is for Sport/Competition - Traditiional Karate-Do is for Self-defence!