Is Karate Useful For Self Defense?

In modern day martial arts, Karate has somewhat of a mixed reputation. Movies in the 1970s and 1980’s such as The Karate Kid popularised the sport in the western world and brought it to the forefront of our screens. At this time you wouldn’t have youtube or any kind of internet forum to find out how well certain styles, teachers or schools were. The popularity of martial arts was exploding with Judo and karate in particular, becoming very mainstream.

Due to the lack of policing and transfer of information, this age led to a number of get rich quick dojos and teachers rising up out of nowhere. Before you knew it, there would be an overweight guy in your town or city who claimed to have a black belt with many years of experience and historical sparring matches under his belt.

This has led karate down a very fragmented path with various styles and schools not wanting to be associated with one another – and for good reason. If you are a legitimate school teaching good karate fundamentals, there is no way you would want to be grouped in with the aforementioned crowd.

Ultimately, Karate is useful for self-defense IF taught correctly and sparred properly. There is a big difference between a McDojo and a good quality gym. Imagine if you were to learn tennis from Roger Federer and practiced with him every day, compared to if an overweight guy taught you the sport, despite having never achieved anything in the game. The results between each coach would be very very different.

Karate In MMA & Practical Implications

The early 1990s saw a massive shift in martial arts. If you were to ask people before UFC 1 who they thought the best fighter in the world was, most likely they would either pick a boxer or a K1 champion. People never used to think of grappling as being a particularly useful art, and nor had anyone thought about combining the strengths of all martial arts to minimize your own weaknesses as a competitor. Of course, Bruce Lee was the first to do this, but he died before really getting the chance to test himself on the world stage and it wasn’t until 1993 when this became possible.

The first UFC events saw a variety of different competitors, each with a different skill set of martial arts in a no holds barred ruleset. This competition was the first of its kind (at least shown to a worldwide audience) since the popularity of Pankration had more or less been at rock bottom after it was removed from the Olympic Games. The public had no way of knowing which martial art was the “best”. That was until MMA started to become popular.

In all honestly, karate did appallingly in the early days of the UFC. Karate specialists such as Johnny Rhodes and Minoki Ichihara were nearly always taken down to the ground and submitted by grapplers. This is because they had the knowledge of an average man in the 1990s. They had been led to believe that striking was the king and that nothing else was needed. However, this was pretty much the same for all striking martial arts. They all suffered because they were arrogant and believed themselves to be the best.

Since then, karate has started to make a small comeback along with other striking martial arts. In modern-day UFC, you will often see kickboxing, karate, or a taekwondo specialist, who also knows how to stop takedowns and escape from ground positions. Whilst it’s not talked about as the second wave of striking, it is clear that karate is certainly effective in modern-day MMA and just as valuable as other martial arts.

Karate Specialists in MMA

Stephen Wonderboy Thompson

Stephen Thompson has an excellent record in MMA and is currently 15-4 with a variety of knockouts in his career. Whilst Thompson does have black belts in other martial arts such as BJJ (as is necessary for a modern-day fighter) 7 of his wins have come by striking, whilst he only has a single submission on his record. He holds a black belt in Tetsushin -Ryu Kempo and is certainly a skilled practitioner. Wonderboy is not a “traditional” karate expert, as seen by his variety of lateral movements and unpredictable strikes. There are four major styles of karate, with each one having sub-styles within it. Thompson has shown that none of this really matters if you are to train properly.

Lyoto Machida

Known best for his karate kid crane kick style knockout of Vitor Belfort, Machida is a true karate specialist within MMA. Whilst he ended his career at 26-10, this is not as impressive as other athletes on the list, but still extremely good considering the quality of opposition. Machida is a 3rd dan black belt of Shotokan karate under his sensei Walter Broca. His highlight reel looks like something out of a Kung Fu movie and other than Anderson Silva, there really isn’t any other striker like this in the history of MMA.

Bas Rutten

Now the host of Combat Karate, Rutten is a fully-fledged mixed martial artist. He is a black belt in a variety of martial arts including BJJ. Rutten was known for implementing palm strikes in some of his earlier MMA matches since closed fist strikes were not allowed. He is known for pioneering the live shot in MMA, which shuts down your opponent’s ANS and makes them crumple in a heap on the floor.

Before Rutten was doing these techniques a lot of people would have dismissed them as some traditional methods which don’t work. However, he truly is one of the greatest martial artists of his time, especially from a striking viewpoint. There is simply nobody who hit as hard as him. Rutten retired going 28-4 in his career, often finishing people with leg kicks and various arm strikes. He was never stopped and only lost to submissions and decisions.

Karate As A Gateway To Other Martial Arts

Karate is quite unique in its mass appeal, perhaps only Judo and Karate have this positive attribute. The two martial arts are very friendly to kids, with discipline, technique, self defense, self confidence and mental toughness all being rolled into every lesson. These features make karate an ideal first martial art for kids. Especially as they can spar in a sports format which means injuries will be extremely rare and there will be no future problems such as back pain or knee/hip problems when compared with sports such as wrestling or BJJ.

Whilst saying this, karate is not just for kids, it is also for teenagers and adults. Karate can be used as a gentle gateway into full contact kickboxing or simply competitive karate. As it is largely a sports format these days due to the popularity of the Olympics, karate also has competitions such as “Combat Karate” which is a full contact league.

These options offer a nice mix to both casual and competitive types of people. If you are a hobbyist who does not really want to get hurt but wants to learn a bit of self defense, then you can learn sport karate. If however, you are training with a specific goal such as MMA fighting, then you will probably want to choose a full contact style of kickboxing karate.

Once you have a few years karate under your belt you will have the fitness and conditioning to try other martial arts if you wish. Wrestling for example requires a very strong physique and exceptional cardio. Whilst karate does also require these things at the elite level, it is much more forgiving for out of shape beginners to get them started.

What Happened To Karate?

The image shows the google search trends of Karate over time compared with Kung Fu, BJJ & Muay Thai boxing. All of these martial arts with the exception of Kung Fu seem to have steady popularity over the past 5 years (we can ignore the big spike at the end).

This shows that karate is still in people’s minds and people are still interested in learning about it. Perhaps the perception has changed, but people are still willing to find out what it is.

Overall though, the quality of karate has sharply declined since it came to the west. As mentioned in the introduction, some unscrupulous characters have emerged with their own systems, ineffective styles and useless teachings.

Instead of promoting students on their merit and skill level, the sport has become more child friendly and is often based on promotions for cash. Whilst it’s not a bad idea to get kids involved in the sport, it certainly is a bad idea to make people pay for gradings, essentially offering a service where you can pay money to get a higher colored belt.

This is the main reason why karate is no longer effective. The training curriculum has been significantly watered down and softened to appeal to a casual market. A lot of modern gyms do not even spar, which is great if you’re just doing it for fitness, but terrible if you actually want to learn how to fight effectively. It is no wonder that in the early days of karate vs muay thai, karate would generally win. Whereas in modern day Muay Thai fighters are a lot tougher and train with head and elbow strikes in Thailand. Western karate has become a weaker version of the once tough Japanese art.

Remember What Your Goals Were When You Started

Self defense is at the heart of karate, whereas sport and point fighting karate are more of a modern evolution. If you joined wanting to learn how to defend yourself, then sport karate might be fun, but it is not why you started. If all you are training is fighting for points at a competition then you are not going to be effective at self defense. Obviously, you will have more skills, fitness, and technique than before you started, but you may not have actually reached your goal.

You do not have to become the best fighter in the world, or even win karate competitions. But you should at least make sure that you are able to defend yourself. A good idea would be to test yourself against complete beginners, especially if they are overly aggressive. You can use their aggressiveness and inexperience as a test, to see if you really could handle yourself in a self defense scenario, or whether you need to keep training harder.

Karate With Weapons & Disarming Them

Whilst karate literally translates as “empty hand”, this is because it was a non-weapon fighting style in ancient Japan. At the time of inception, it would have been very common for martial arts to use weapons since Japan has such a rich samurai history. However, karate is a striking martial art. Any martial art or fighting style that uses hand strikes can always be used with weapons.

This is because a weapon is essentially an unnatural extension of your body. If you are able to strike someone in the chest, then you would be easily able to do so with a knife. If anything, the technique would become easier since you have a greater range added to your reach.

With that being said, you should always be careful and mindful of schools that teach you to disarm weapons. Obviously disarming a weapon from someone is extremely dangerous, particularly if they have a knife – and should only be used as a last resort. It would be foolish to think that you have a high percentage chance of being able to disarm someone. Even the smallest of mistakes could be a disaster against a knife.

You must also think objectively about what your plan is if you wanted to train with karate with weapons. Of course, your karate would be more effective if you had a weapon in your hand, but the same could be said for an untrained man. Anyone would be more dangerous if they were holding a weapon. Each state and country has its own laws and rules about self-defense. Just because you think you are in the right defending yourself with a weapon, does not mean you are legally right to do so.

Forget About Learning Ground Fighting From A Karate School

Grappling and ground fighting is the main weakness of karate – since that is not what it’s taught for. Karate is meant to be a purely dynamic striking art with both kicks and punches to anywhere on your opponent’s body. You are also meant to be able to keep your opponent at a safe distance from yourself whilst being able to strike them if necessary in a self-defense scenario.

Karate is not meant to teach you grappling. Therefore anything you learn about grappling in a karate school will be sub-standard. Think about it, would you go to learn Karate in a BJJ school? Or do you think that they would have sloppy striking technique?

Your first instinct in a fight should be to make effective use of your karate skills. This means you should try and stay away from a clinch and certainly stay away from the ground. If you truly want to learn how to grapple and fight on the ground you should cross train at an appropriate school. Karate is not even in the top 10 grappling martial arts, so do not get false confidence about what it can and can’t do.

Do Your Research – Choose A Good School & Instructor

This is the key to your own development as a student of karate. If you have a bad teacher in a bad school you will simply be learning a poor technique and an ineffective style. Remember – practice does not make perfect, it makes permanence.

One key element of finding a good school will be finding an instructor who actually spars with his students. If the instructor is not sparring (at least in a sports context, it doesn’t have to be full contact) then you must ask yourself why? Sparring is a great way to teach your students, force them into making errors, and then correcting them. Without valuable pressure testing of your style and skill, how do you know if your karate is effective?

You should be wary of any school that is promoting their students extremely fast, high level belts who are out of shape with poor technique, and anyone who wants to charge you for grading. All of these signals are red flags. If there are several red flags then it’s likely that you have found a McDojo and should look elsewhere for instruction.

If you do realize that you’ve signed up with a bad school, do not be tempted to stay there as you’ve already invested a lot of your time and money into it. Realize that if you cut your losses now, you can find a good school and will be a lot better off in the long run.

The Road To Recovery

The MMA fighters listed above have shown that karate can get back to where it belongs, provided that it is trained properly. The same can be said for a lot of traditional martial arts, they need to stop being so constrictive. Thompson and Machida were able to find huge success in MMA because their styles of karate were non-linear. If we think of an average karate school, almost all of the movements are backward and forwards with robotic-like form.

Being linear is not necessarily a bad strategy when fighting, however if you never deviate from it, then it becomes terrible. Without lateral movement, you are extremely predictable and your opponent will be able to find angles as well as forcing you backward – which is almost always a bad thing in a fight.

Karate needs to keep evolving to where the stances are less rigid and more fluid. This way its traditional strikes become even more effective since there are now more combinations and ways through an opponent’s defense, rather than everything straight down the middle.

In addition to this, the traditional karate stance is also “bad” in a real fight. The legs being far apart from one another and flat footed is very restrictive and hands at your waist is terrible. Yes, if you keep the distance from your opponent then your hands will not be needed to guard your head. But who is confident enough to say that they will never let their opponent get near them? Keeping your hands by your waist is really unnecessary and not good form in a non-sport format.

Overall, Karate and other striking martial arts such as Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and any other K1 discipline are all just variations of kickboxing. Kickboxing is obviously effective but needs to be trained properly. You must spar, learn how to control distance against your opponent, and not be afraid to deviate from traditional teachings. If you want your karate to be effective you must do these things, otherwise, you will just be learning more of a lifestyle and mindset martial art, rather than useful techniques.

To learn more about the history of Karate and its combat origins, check out this book.