Some people practise karatedo only because they want to take part in karatedo competitions, some people practise only those techniques that can be applied in karatedo competitions, and some people regard winning competitions as the ultimate goal in karatedo training. Nowadays, many karatedo training centres only teach competition karatedo.
In fact, other than competitions, there are some other meanings and practical reasons in karatedo training.
Karatedo was originated from a kind of fighting technique using bare hands a long time ago. At that moment, people often used this fighting technique to protect themselves and kill their enemies. Therefore they had to practise the technique in such a way that they could “kill people in one blow of the fist”. Therefore, in this tradition, there are many very powerful and effective fighting techniques in karatedo, such as, Hiji Ate (elbow), Hiza Ate (knee), Tobi Geri (flying kick), Furi Tsuki (round-house punch), Koken Uchi (back of wrist), and Nukite (fingers), etc. However all these techniques are prohibited in karatedo competitions. Karatedo becomes incomplete if these powerful and effective techniques are not included in the syllabus of karatedo training. If the situation continues, these techniques will be lost in karatedo after a period of time.
“Competing” is a means to polish techniques and one’s spirit, and it only forms part of karatedo training, not the entirety. In addition to it, there are other different means to perform karatedo training, such as, “learning”, “doing”, “watching”, “studying”, “teaching”, “refereeing”, “applying”, and “researching”, etc. One may ask: among the very famous karatedo coaches in the world, how many of them were national champions or world champions before? The answer is – “rare”. Let’s imagine how worst the situation becomes if there is an occasion where we have to apply karatedo to protect our families and ourselves, and we can only do competition karatedo with skin touch or light touch.
Therefore, for the sakes of our well-being and karatedo development, please take training with complete karatedo techniques.