I am growing tired of the digital bashing some MMA enthusiasts dish out to traditional karate. From what I have read by far the largest defamation is that traditional karate is ineffective. I take objection to this point of view. There is no doubt that MMA is effective, I do not dispute evolution - however the evolution of this sport occurs within the confines of a cage, literally. In its mainstream competitive form, MMA is a watered down yet no BS blend of what can be learned quickly and delivered effectively by athletes combating under rules in a cage ... no dispute that it is effective within this context. If you put a karateka in a cage with an MMA fighter then the outcome is evident - the MMA will tackle the karateka to the ground, sit on him and pound his coconut like a gorilla on heat. However karate is a martial art path which means so much more than cages, tough guys and egos. Having trained in Kickboxing and freestyle borderline MMA in the past and then trading this path for traditional karate, I have come to see profound differences in the two. On the matter of traditional karate being ineffective, no one would dispute that most real fights start and end with the right hand ... everything else is dropped like a colon in Bali when its really on like Donkey Kong. In my first year of learning Shito Ryu Shukokai, almost every class of the five classes a week were spent learning how to throw a strong right punch. Even after years of training in modern MMA or 'freestyles' ... it wasn't until I started training in traditional karate that I discovered that I couldn't punch at all. Best example ... try smashing a rock hard kick shield and stopping it dead with a hard right punch when the shield is being held by a 110 kilogram karateka charging towards you. All the Kickboxing and freestyle MMA methods of delivering a strong right punch mean nothing as your entire wrist and arm collapses. Traditional karate is effective ... just not when rules and rounds are involved. No real fight rarely runs beyond a few seconds ... before the MMA fighter can shape up to shoot the karateka to the ground the karateka delivers a fast hard straight punch to his chin shattering his jaw like a glass ashtray. However this situation should never occur for a real karateka ... a real karateka would do their best not to put themselves in harms way in the first place. What kind of person would enjoy doing such to another human being?
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