When beginners enter a Dojo and start practicing #Karate, they mainly do so, to primary learn how to defend themselves, unaware of the many other ways they will benefit from Karate. At some point, many of them drop out... They think Karate is inefficient and does not work in a street-fight. Beginners get a little too quickly to that conclusion, and the main reason for this, is that they haven’t studied Karate long enough to understand the concept. Then in search of answer, they find the general and unfortunate inefficiency stereotypes of Karate on the internet. That’s all the excuse they need to drop out.
It all starts with the misunderstanding of what basic Katas are, as well as the apparent non-existent practice against realistic attacks in Karate beginners’ classes. Unlike many other “martial arts / combat sports”, Karate first focuses on building the foundation of combat for quite a long time, before going into more practical scenarios.
Over 75% of all Karate beginners will give up before they can even have the minimum knowledge to understand what Karate is about. Only beginners who studied hard and stayed for the long run will be rewarded. The high drop out rate is also the unfortunate consequence of living in a society with instant gratification. Anything that requires more than average effort is deemed not to be working.
Karate is very efficient in a multi-opponent street-fight, and was initially designed to fight against any kind of attackers, skilled or not, not just other Karate-kas. When you teach or practice Karate drills with partners, especially when doing #bunkai, it is very important to also consider defense against all type of attacks, even the type that a Karate-ka would not typically do. This was part of the initial Karate training before sport-sparring Karate became widespread. It is no longer emphasized in many Dojos that stick to practicing defense against typical Karate techniques. If your head Sensei regularly made you practice Kata bunkai/defense against a whole range of conventional and unconventional attacks, including hook punches and uppercuts, you should be well on your way to make your Karate street-fight efficient.
Again, you get to realize that Kata bunkai is the key to making Karate street-fight efficient.
If you are a beginner reading this article, and don’t know what the word “Bunkai” means, please ask your head Sensei about the purpose of Katas and bunkai, and keep in mind it is one of the most important things to make your Karate street-fight efficient.
If you are an instructor reading this, and you want to decrease your beginners drop out rate, my advice is to further explain what Katas are for, from the get-go, and occasionally integrate some real scenario drills in beginners’ classes, including defense against hook punches and uppercuts, so that beginners realize there is much more to Karate than just the core exercises they are rightfully initially taught. This in turn, will lead you, as an instructor, to breakdown all the different type of blocks for them, and explain which ones are efficient against straight type of attacks, vs circular ones.. something very few instructors still do.
Toronto, Sensei Alpha - KarateBoost blog
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