Modern training, mixed martial arts, traditional karate and Gakusei Karate

As far as we know all martial arts started off as self-defence or battlefield training. Karate was no different, you can see through the study of traditional kata this included a wide range of techniques and fighting strategies- including grappling, throws, takedowns, hooks, uppercuts and a myriad of other techniques which aren’t practiced in karate sparring in the majority of karate styles. The point is that over the years karate evolved into a more specialised and narrow, less versatile art. This happens to a lot of traditional arts, in karate’s case it became very stylised when it was introduced from Okinawa to Japan, to make the art more uniform and easier to teach. Then as it developed sport fighting/competition rules for safety and to make it easier to judge, the range of techniques narrowed again.

Of course, this varies from club to club, to the point where some styles can no longer really even call themselves self-defence, instead, they are a highly stylised sport. Others still claim they are self-defence but in reality, they lack credibility in this department. I personally used to train in a “traditional” style that in spite of having 9 fundamental blocking techniques none of them could reliably be used to block the most common attack in self-defence; a swinging punch, without massive modification to how they are practiced and drilled. They also heavily promoted themselves as self-defence in spite of glaring failings in the most basic self-defence skills. This is not uncommon in the karate world. In contrast; Gakusei karate has 6 fundamental blocks 2 of which are specifically designed to block swinging punches + many other techniques we practice frequently to deal with the most common attack in self-defence.

In 1993 the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) started as a one-off spectacle to see if a boxer could beat a wrestler or a karate-ka could beat a sumo. What evolved out of this was not expected. It became very clear from even early events that if a martial artist wanted to compete in an event with few rules and no constraints on how you can fight then they had to learn how to fight both on their feet (stand up) and on the floor (ground fight) and know how to transition between the two. Very quickly this evolved into the mixed martial arts movement.

While the UFC and mixed martial arts still has rules for the safety of fighters which make it a sport rather than a self-defence system, the broad rules allow fighters to fight almost, however, they want to, this has really exposed the whole martial community to what is actually effective and what works.

For example, Karate based fighters like former world champions Georges St Pierre and Lyoto Machida punch more like boxers at medium and close range, but at long range, their direct karate punches serve them very well. They chose to adapt their punching style to become more effective rather than stick exactly to how their original style performs them.

In this arena martial art styles who only do stand up or only do grappling are now exposed for simply not being complete. Even self-defence based styles have to acknowledge the fact that a lot of self-defence situations end up on the ground and may even start on the ground. 

Now throw into the mix the rise of combatives, which are self-defence systems – they are devoid of sport rules and have no art form side to them. Combatives are not sports nor are they about personal improvement they are about personal protection. The most famous of which is krav maga, which is a combative system developed by the Israeli military. Krav maga is famous for it’s whatever works philosophy, and was developed by adopting techniques from other martial arts. 10-20 years ago you would be hard pressed to find clubs like this, but these days this movement has become increasingly popular, because of mixed martial arts movement exposing most traditional arts as actually not that good at self-defence and Hollywood blockbusters like the Bourne films which showcased this gritty, no rules kind of fighting.

This movement has also influenced the world of karate too, sure there are many clubs who still blindly follow traditional doctrine, but many clubs out there are broadening their teaching. Definitely there is a lot more emphasis on the study of kata bunkai these days as karate-ka are looking to understand and claim back the wide range of techniques and strategies demonstrated in kata. There is also a growing movement of clubs choosing to call themselves karate-jutsu instead of karate-do. This term implies that they are focused on the practicality of karate rather than the form and philosophy.