Taekwondo Vs Karate – What Is The Best?

Both Taekwondo and Karate are traditional striking arts. Taekwondo has its roots firmly in Korea, whereas Karate originates from Japan and is somewhat more fragmented into various styles.

The similarities between the two are that both have reasonably wide stances and focus on both punches and kicks. You will need to be fit and have a strong core to do either of these martial arts at a high level. Nonetheless, both are very friendly to beginners – easy to pick up, but very difficult to master.

The differences arise as Taekwondo is more kicking-focused, especially to the head. Whilst Karate does accommodate for head kicks, it doesn’t place a giant emphasis on this. Another difference is a lot of kicking attacks in Taekwondo require the practitioner to leap into the air generating great torque and power. Karate is more conservative with its attacks with the student mostly keeping at least one leg on the floor when striking.

Strengths & Weaknesses of Karate

Strengths

Modern-day Karate is a reasonably versatile martial art. Yes, it is fragmented, but that just means you can find a style that suits you the most. Or if Karate was going to face off against Taekwondo, perhaps Shotokan would be the preferred style as it has the most fight experience of full-contact matches.

Karate is nicely balanced between punches and kicks. Although primarily focussed on punching, it does not put them in the backseat so much compared to Taekwondo doing the same with punches.

This applies to both martial arts, but obviously Karate is very good for physical conditioning and offers a full-body workout.

It also has some very limited grappling, ground fighting, and takedown variations, something which Taekwondo does not offer.

Weaknesses

Modern-day Karate is also largely obsessed with kata and form. Whilst it is always best to have good form. It is much better to spar well against resisting opponents. Your form can be the best in the world, but if you don’t defend yourself then it doesn’t matter.

Unless karate is modernized, it also has a very traditional and sometimes restrictive stance. Hands by the waist is almost never a good thing to do. In theory, you can probably keep your opponent at a distance, but one mistake and your head is left undefended.

The wide stance can also be a drawback since the opponent can be very wary of your back leg and fist. You won’t be able to generate a whole lot of power from your front leg or arm. Due to the other leg being so far back, a trained opponent will know to avoid strikes from this side of your body since it can generate so much force. The roundhouse kick and knee strikes are very difficult to land against experienced strikers, even if they come from other martial arts.

Strengths & Weaknesses of Taekwondo

Strengths

Taekwondo techniques possess some of the most powerful kicks in any martial arts. Some of the spinning kicks generate an enormous amount of power capable of knocking out any opponent. There is not really another martial art like this. Other kickboxing arts do have knockout power in their kicks, but nothing really compares to the force generated in Taekwondo. With that being said, of course these powerful kicks are less accurate. But taekwondo has all of its bases covered with standard front and side kicks as well.

Practicing Taekwondo will give you great flexibility in your knees and hips, as well as an extremely conditioned core and legs. There isn’t really another martial art that focuses on kicks quite as much as Taekwondo, so you will not find anything else like it.

In some Taekwondo gyms, punches are also focused on, which gives a nice balance between punching and kicking.

Weaknesses

Taekwondo has also been watered down in a similar way to Karate. Although there is less emphasis on kata style performances (poomsae). Taekwondo has also become a point fighting sport in modern-day, with some competitions disqualifying competitors using “excessive force”. This has developed to a point where fighters will kick each other and run away, trying to score glancing blows for points. Then spending the rest of the fight defending.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with doing this to win a competition, it is not going to help you if you were in a real fight, or if there was going to be a karate vs taekwondo match.

Another weakness is often the over-emphasis of kicks. Punches are often not trained properly in Taekwondo, therefore a lot of practitioners are often fighting without hands. It is often realized by practitioners of taekwondo just how much their hand striking skills are lacking whenever they go to a boxing gym for the first time. It is quite a realization of how much they don’t know.

What would win in a fight?

It is very difficult to think of this objectively since everyone has their own opinions, experiences, and beliefs about which they think is the better martial art.

Overall there really isn’t much between the two. It would really come down to who is bigger or the more technical fighter. If two people of the same size and weight had trained for 5 years each in their respective arts – it would be interesting to see who the winner would be in a K1 ruleset.

To be honest, I think that as karate is the more well-rounded art, it would have a slight edge over Taekwondo. Although, with that being said. Taekwondo still has tremendous knockout power and could change the fight in an instant. It would be extremely close and there wouldn’t be a clear favorite either way.

Final Thoughts

In summary, the two arts are both striking disciplines and have a lot in common with one another. Both are ideal for beginners to learn self-defense and get in shape, yet there are distinct differences between the two further down the line.

After you have a few months’ experience in each, you may find out that you prefer one fighting style over the other. There is nothing wrong or right about this, it’s just personal preference as everybody thinks differently.

Both are solid martial arts to learn if you want to defend yourself, keep a fit body, and become mentally stronger. Of course, like all martial arts, you should make sure that your instructor is good at what they are teaching and that you are not in a Mcdojo. It is always best to train at a few gyms to get an idea of who is the best at what they are teaching.

If you’d like to learn more, then this book does a good job explaining the similarities between the two.