Sport Is OK!

sensei8 · KF Sensei

Kanazawa Sensei is quoted as saying the following...

"Sport is ok, but sport and Budo are very different. Sport is the same as a male and Budo is the same as a female, both human but very different. Male and females are opposites, same as sports and Budo. Opposite thinking."

This was his answer when he was asked about Sport Karate, more specifically, WKF Sports Karate.

Your opinions?

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JohnASE · Green Belt

I don't believe men and women are opposites, nor do I believe that "sport" and "budo" are opposites. Both pairs have much in common.

I believe that everything in life is a game. You play by rules, and you win or lose. With budo, you might win or lose your life, and the rules you compete under are determined by yourself, your opponent, and your environment, rather than by a committee.

WKF kumite is different from NBL sparring which is different from MMA which is different from boxing which is different from budo, but to me, they're all sports with different rules and different stakes.
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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

I think sport is ok. There is a lot of negativity toward sport Martial Art, but there has to be a way to up the ante and increase training levels and contact levels. Sport is the way to do this. It is a necessary training aspect in order to get better at the budo aspect. They should go hand in hand.
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isshinryu5toforever · Black Belt

They definitely go hand in hand. Martial Arts without philosophy is just fighting, but martial arts without fighting is just philosophy. I'd say his quote accurately conveys the idea of Dao. The idea that everything has two sides, and that the two sides must work together to make a whole. They aren't necessarily opposites, but it's the only English word that conveys the idea. There are no real opposites in the theory, just two codependent halves.
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- Tao Te Ching

"Move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain."
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Soheir · Orange Belt

Sport is okey! And there is a lot incommon on those two, but for me they don't go hand in hand.. They're differend.
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Montana · Pre-Black Belt

To me, the martial arts are all about self-defense and improving your ability to do so, and making your self into a better human being. Self-defense is all about improving your ability and increasing your chances of saving not only your life, but the lives of others if you so choose.

Sport martial arts is playtime and has little relevence to self-defense. It's a game to test your skills on a given day as compared to the skills of another in a controlled environment with rules, referee's and judges that can stop the contest at any given point if they determine the rules are not being followed.

Do they have similarities? Of course they do, but their end goals are different.

The martial arts goal is self-preservation, whereas martial sports goals are to win trophies and recognition.
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If you don't want to stand behind our troops, please..feel free to stand in front of them.

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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

AdamKralic · Blue Belt

Sport karate encourages training. You need to be faster, faster, faster. You are going up against others that are training hard. Not only will the winner be faster in offense...but faster in defense as well. How many times will you fight for your life? Hopefully never. If you did...would you not like to be fast and confident? How will you truly know if you are fast and confident if there is no measuring stick?

Sport karate merely offers a level playing field with which one can judge their progress. Are there techniques that work better in sport karate than in pure self defense? Absolutely. Nobody here would suggest not learning self defense techniques...would they? It's not one or the other...it's both that is ideal.

JusticeZero · Black Belt

Unfortunately, sport also encourages playing to the letter of the rule rather than the spirit.

As I recall, Fencing has or had an issue wherein the sport, intended to teach sword technique, was being won by people whipping their foil at people so that the blade would bend at a sharp angle to touch people on the back of the head. Hours upon hours of training time was being dedicated to this, even though it has nothing to do with any skill related to actually fighting with a sword.
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"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." - Baleia

lowereastside · Orange Belt

My 2 cents - sport is ok - but must be put in perspective. You have to separate the Art from Sport. When I practiced Karate in the 60's - it was mayham - very tough - it was survival - however the sparring was nothing like the katas we were doing - It was boxing hands with kicks and sweeps. At tournaments without the patch on the uniform you could not tell one style from another - so 2 much of the sport takes away from the original purpose.

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