SPORTS KUMITE

SALAM & HISASHIBURI DES NE!
VERY LONG VACATION INDEED NOW THE HOLIDAY FROM CONTRIBUTING IDEAS IN THIS BLOG IS OVER. I AM BACK THANK U FOR CONTINUING YOUR SUPPORT TO ME.
SPORTS KUMITE
As we all know, karate-do nowadays embodied by two main arts i.e. the KATA (literally means ‘form’) & KUMITE (sparring). Above all both kata & kumite comes from the KIHON WAZA (Basic techniques) that usually called only ‘kihon’.
Today, I would like to share on ‘KUMITE’. Basically, kumite is the division of karate- that focusing on application of each techniques or waza in karate. In the older days, apart from training the KATA as a
‘set of pre arranged movements that combined all vital techniques in a very sophisticated art and performance, as a mean of a ‘complete tool’ for the practitioner whenever facing the threat or danger in the future’,
the KUMITE aspect of the kata i.e. the BUNKAI (APPLICATION) are also need to be properly trained with a partner.
The training of BUNKAI give rise to the idea of IPPON KUMITE (ONE STEP SPARRING), which is done alternately by the partners whereby one side will attack and one side will defend. This will increase our ZANSHIN (ALERTNESS) & KIME (CONCERNTRATION of muscle and energy) and eventually attain the perfection in the particular WAZA (TECHNIQUES)
Another angle that we should know other than the IPPON KUMITE is there is also JIYU KUMITE (FREE KUMITE) whereby partners can use any techniques to attack or defend but still WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE TRADITIONAL KARATEDO WAZA (TECHNIQUES) such as tzuki, mae geri, uke and so on.
However, after 70’s when the emergence of World Karatedo Championship of WUKO till WKF, the JIYU KUMITE that was highlighted as one of the event apart from kata observed many ‘revolution’ in term of style and techniques that can be applied.
Among all is, let say when the real JIYU KUMITE concern on the execution of real ZUKI(punch) and real UKE (block) , this revolutionized tournament jiyu kumite applied the ‘punch and pull back’ technique, with the idea to decrease the injury. Hence the award of points such as IPPON (1 POINT), NIHON (2 POINTS) & SANBON (3POINTS) indeed make people would like to find the best techniques that could be benefited to get the highest point.
Although the guideline given by WKF is that it must be in the ambit of ‘traditional karate-do techniques’ , the exposure to various other martial arts eventually makes that there are several ‘new’ techniques are also considered as ‘karate-do kumite tehcnique’ such as URA MAWASHI GERI, UCHI MAWASHI GERI and so on.
Moreover, due to the scoring criteria where among all is the speed (of punch/kick and pull back), it makes the blocking techniques are almost impossible to be done. Can we imagined we can properly traditionally YOKO UKE, a lightning fast speed of GYAKU TZUKI that be pulled back right after ‘touch’ our body??? It is almost impossible, right? Perhaps the only available is just GEDAN SHOTEI UKE or any open hand tapping block technique but not exactly traditional karate-do technique.
Hm.. from here we can see the two sides of coins. At the good part is that, jiyu kumite tournament become a safe avenue for a fighting contest, less injuries and several new techniques were adopted into modern karate-do to equip the scoring requirement to win in the competition.
NEVERTHELESS, the sad part are, the close/ near/short range fighting technique such as URA TZUKI, TATEKEN TZUKI, FURI TZUKI are no more applicable. Besides, the focus is only to score and to win, without thinking abot preserving the beautiful and classic arts of karate. Besides, could us imagine if those champions be attacked in the street, could they actually defend themselves with this kind of kumite? I doubt so.
From these all ‘occurrence’ the term ‘SPORT KUMITE IN KARATE’ was come into being at early 90’s which actually concern on tournament jiyu kumite but not the traditional one. And slowly many karatekas and schools that only focus on this aspect came up, and put into the development of traditional in isolation.
Even in Malaysia, those schools even hypnotized and confused public mind by saying that the karate that there are training is the real karate. Hmm..by only punching and kicking, without focusing on the essence of karate-do such as kihon training, ippon kumite training and what more kata and bunkai training, the person already considered as ‘KARATE KA’ and even granted 1ST DAN BLACK BELT sensei??? This is pathetic and indeed a tragedy.
Therefore, let us take the example of Japanese Karate kas, regardless how far they go in ‘SPORT KARATE’ they are still hold firm on the root of the traditional karate-do training. No wonder most of older grand masters said in the words that could be read in the books or articles in the websites, “I MIGHT LOSE TO A YOUNG CHAMPION OF SPORT KARAE, BUT HE WILL DEFINITELY LOSE IF WE ARE TO FIGHT USING TRADITIONAL KARATEDO KUMITE” .true..very true.
As one of my mentor, Sensei Mizan said,”Sport Kumite in Karate is about SPEED & PRECISION” . While I would continue that, “TRADITIONAL KARATE-DO IS ABOUT APPRECIATING THE VALUES AND THE BENEFITS OF THE TECHNIQUES AND THE TRAINING AS A WHOLE..”
So we should be balanced. Could not only develop too much in Sport Karate by only concerning, tournament, tournament and tournament , without care to go deep down to the root of the Karate-do, that only could be obtained in the DOJO TRAINING.