ClydebankBlitz

I finished my first karate tournament a few hours ago. I started about 6 months ago. So I get in, he punches me in the stomach. 1-0. I punch him in the face...warning. Stomach...2-0...face...warning. I'm a 20 year old fighting another 20 year old, and I'm getting warnings for "hitting his face too hard"? What's the deal with that? With the exception of fitness and muscle memory, is there ANY upsides to karate? Because, having this romanticied idea of martial arts, growing up watching Bloodsport, Rocky, Kickboxer etc. and now watching UFC, this just isn't right to me. A grown man can take a jab to the face you know.

Probably just ranting, but I've been commiting to this for a while and to find out that my training and sparring is 100 times harder and more fight based than the tournaments themselves, it makes me wonder if I'm completley wasting my time.

/Rant

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FFL
A. Overeem : G. Nelson : R. Khabilov : T. Means : C. Mills

Life B Ez

What kind of karate? Shotakan(sp) and kenpo are generally the only ones worth anything.

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"Discipline Hurts Less Than Regret"

ClydebankBlitz

Wado. I never really wanted to be a karate fighter, as I said I'm into UFC and martial arts movies so points fighting is never going to be my cup of tea. But at the same time, for weeks I've been excited. I would train hard as ****, pulling my punches during "light sparring", and saying to my mate "I can't wait to properly give it my all". It was the same mate I was fighting, and the to a degree I was still holding back the punch power because he's my best mate you know. But I got called for what they called "contact" twice, on half power clean punches, and lost 2-0. It's just crushing to be really excited about something, and then to find out that my sparring matches during training and 100% more like a fight than an actual karate match.

I know it's not a knockout sport. But the way I see it, if you have good technique, the power level shouldnt matter. I'm not using illegal moves like hooks and uppercuts, so if I knock someone out with a jab or a straight then it's all down to their lack of conditioning and I shouldn't be warned over it.

Guess karate just isnt the style for me. I'll keep it up but I'll be looking to move somewhere with a good MMA or Jiu Jitsu gym.

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FFL
A. Overeem : G. Nelson : R. Khabilov : T. Means : C. Mills

Voiceless

If you like the training, stay with the training. If you don't like the tournaments, just go to other tournaments. It shouldn't be a problem to participate in kickbox, Muay Thai or MMA tournaments if you want to. If at those Karate tournaments there are certain rules, you either accept them or look for something else.

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ClydebankBlitz

Yeah I'll continue and see how it goes. At least I won't be let down in the future. In sparring I prefer to go to war and have a great fight as opposed to keeping everything slow and working on jab/body straight. I guess it's something I need to work on myself.

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FFL
A. Overeem : G. Nelson : R. Khabilov : T. Means : C. Mills

mrmatt

In the BJJ universe, we often see karate as a mcdojo sport. Don't get me wrong, it is probably a really good martial art, but promoting 13 year olds or guys that's been training for 5 years just isn't right.

By the time you train karate and get your black belt, you would probably still be a blue belt (second belt) in jiu jitsu.

Definetly, you should try BJJ, MMA or muy thai and see which ones fits you the best!

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When we go to the ground, you are in my world. The ground is the ocean, I am the shark, and most people don't even know how to swim. - Rigan Machado