By Keith Vargo

Can Full Contact Save Karate?

Does anyone remember karate?

I do. I remember being a boy 20 years ago when the traditional Japanese martial arts had a magical glow about them. Asia was a place where “Shangri-La” was real, where mysterious philosophies became religions. It was a place both sinister and compelling in the war stories of our grandfathers.

But this mysterious elsewhere called Japan had a special significance in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was the new world power that seemed to be overwhelming us. As a result, we adopted Japanese things and ideas like talismans against that power. Business leaders relied on Musashi’s Book of Five Rings, American corporations adopted Japanese management styles, Japanese script appeared on T-shirts and headbands everywhere... and martial arts like aikido, ninjutsu and karate seemed like express trains to nirvana (and the invincibility which enlightenment promised).

Somewhere in the late 1980s, the hype ended. America’s economy had nearly caught up with Japan’s. American management had taken what it could from the Japanese and was moving off in its own direction. The fad of wearing kanji-covered clothing and reading books by samurai had ended. The talismans had worked and were being set aside.

Now that the hype has ended, America has set aside karate, too. We now look for martial skill in kickboxing gyms and Brazilian-jujutsu schools. As for enlightenment through the martial arts, I’m not sure anyone believes in it anymore. Karate is not dying; it is simply becoming irrelevant.

Is there any way to keep karate from becoming meaningless? Yes. I believe the salvation of karate lies in full-contact tournaments that favor karate techniques. Fighting is what karate is about. Without it, kata become empty movements married to equally empty philosophies. Fighting is the heart that pumps life into the ideals of karate.

Currently, there are two major full-contact karate tournaments in the United States: Denver’s Sabaki Challenge and Chicago’s Shidokan Open. They use differing rules that reflect their differing philosophies, but what they have in common is a belief in the strength of karate as a fighting art as well as a way of life.

Of the two, the Sabaki is the more traditional tournament. No strikes to the groin or knees are permitted, and no hand strikes to the head or neck are permitted, either, (Although kicks and knee strikes to the head and neck are permitted.) Points are awarded for clean sweeps and blows strong enough to make the opponent turn away or drop to one knee. Knockouts with legal techniques, of course, win the match, but they are difficult to score on karate fighters at this level. All strikes are bare-knuckle and full-contact.

The Shidokan is a more eclectic tournament. The first two rounds of each Shidokan match are fought by the same rules as a Sabaki match. If the competitors survive that, they put on 12-ounce gloves and fight by Muay Thai kickboxing rules for the third and fourth rounds. If no one gets knocked out or “out-pointed” by then, the final two rounds are fought with 5-ounce gloves according to submission-fighting rules. (In other words, you have a certain amount of time to fight on the ground and make your opponent submit before the authorities make you continue the fight or your feet.) Shidokan is karate’s most complete answer to critics of traditional bare-knuckle tournaments. If you’re a kickboxer or submission fighter and you think karate is weak, try making it through the first two to four rounds. Then you can test karate’s strength under kickboxing rules or submission rules.

The best thing about these tournaments is that they show us there is something substantial in karate. They highlight the powerful techniques that often get lost in the intricacies of kata. People still caught up in the Asian-culture hype of 20 years ago are letting them be forgotten. They still see karate as a semi-religious ideal that leads to supernatural powers. No-holds-barred fighters (who fight by rules that favor grapplers) are trying to convince us that karate is useless. The only way to keep karate meaningful is to support these kinds of full-contact events, for competition is what keeps the ideals of karate alive.

About the author: Keith Vargo is currently living and training in Finland.

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