About a year into high school I stumbled onto Karate. It was
great! It consumed a lot of my energy and attention; however as a teenager I
think that was a good thing. I gained a lot from it – things that will remain
with me for the rest of my life – but looking back at the experience as a whole
I can see some major flaws in the system, and as an adult has left me wanting.
It started when my younger siblings were invited to test for
their gold belt after taking some after school classes. For whatever reason I decided to attend their “test”,
it was all very basic, they stood at attention showed their fighting stance,
did some punches and kicks and that was that. After the test the instructor
gave my mom a sales pitch encouraging her to enroll my siblings in his Karate
school. I remember asking the instructor some questions, (actually I was trying
to point out how weak I thought the stance was) I had watched a few Bruce Lee,
and Jakie Chan movies and considered myself well versed in the martial arts.
The instructor answered my questions (short of slapping me in the face) and my
Mom enrolled my younger siblings, myself and herself for some classes. As it
turns out my Mom had wanted to take Karate ever since she was a kid.
If I may take a detour to explain that while there is an actual
Japanese martial arts style called Karate, in America, the word Karate is used
as a generic term for martial arts. The type of Karate we took was called Jhoon
Rhee Tae Kwon Do. Jhoon Rhee immigrated to America from Korea in the 1950’s and
in the 60’s he befriended Bruce Lee and is commonly known as the father of
American Tae Kwon Do.
I ended up really enjoying it. It gave me a lot of structure
and discipline. It definitely increased my coordination, something that has
stuck with me to this day. I moved through the lower belts at lightning speed.
I even tested for two belts in one test. After the first year the belt
frequency tapered dramatically, and so did my motivation, but I stuck with it.
Long story short, after about 4 years I tested for my conditional black belt,
which I received, and then I basically quit to go on a 2 year mission for my
church.
While I do feel that I gained a lot from my experience with
Karate, I also feel a sense of disappointment. When I look back at the experience
as a whole, I’m realizing that it left me lacking in practical self-defense
skills. I think the reason for this disappointment is because the style I took
focused too much on the “art” aspect of martial arts. It was all about how your
technique looked. For example, in order to pass a test for your next belt you
had to perform the techniques in a series of steps called a “form” (often
called kata in other styles). We also had something called point sparing, which
was basically a glorified game of tag. Both opponents would wear protective
gear on your head hands and feet (and chest for the lower belts) and square off
against each other attempting to gain points. Points are awarded for a kick to
the head or stomach, or a punch to the head or stomach. When a point is gained the
ref would halt the match, record the point, and square you off for the next
round. Best of 5 would win the match. Every once in a while, literally only two
or three times a month, we would spend 5 ot 10 minutes on “self-defense” we
were never tested on these techniques and it was only taught when we had a few
extra minutes toward the end of a class. These were the only practical
techniques we were ever taught, and they usually consisted of how to defend
yourself from bear hugs or some choke holds.
Overall I feel that the Karate I took lacked practicality.
While I do feel that what I gained in coordination and a slightly increased
sense of awareness, is better than nothing. I don’t feel that it has prepared
me in a substantial way to defend myself from an attacker in the real world.
Shouldn’t that be the point of martial arts?
So here I am nearly 10 years after the fact wanting to take
martial arts again. Only this time I did my research. I wanted something
practical. I definitely knew I didn’t want a competitive style, the real world
has no rules and forms and katas aren’t my cup of tea anymore. Even MMA has
issues in my opinion, for example it has rules that don’t apply on the street,
and in the real world you’re most likely not going to face off against an opponent
of equal weight and skill. You’re probably not going to be prepared for the
fight and you’re not going to want to prolong the fight in any way. But MMA is
still at the top of my list because it’s a purely combative style. I ended up
finding Krav Maga and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
Krav Maga is a noncompetitive martial art and eclectic self-defense system developed in Israel that involves striking techniques, wrestling and grappling. Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and extremely efficient, brutal counter-attacks. It was derived from street-fighting skills developed by Hungarian-Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler, as a means of defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava in the mid-to-late 1930s. In the late 1940s, following his immigration to Israel, he began to provide lessons on combat training to what was to become the IDF, who went on to develop the system that became known as Krav Maga. It has since been refined for civilian, police and military applications.
Krav Maga seems to focus a lot on physical conditioning and performing
technique under stress. For example last night we ran some drills to simulate
being blind-sided by an attacker. We would spin in circles while bent over
until we were sufficiently dizzy and then the instructor would yell FIGHT! We would
then have to start fighting off our attacker (a partner holding a pad). My
partner said he’s been blind-sided before and this drill felt very similar, you
feel dizzy, sick, and disoriented, except in real life your head also hurts and
you’re pissed off.
At the end of each class I leave feeling thoroughly exhausted
but with a smile on my face. I feel good that not all the techniques I learned
as a teenager in Karate are useless; however I’m now learning how to apply them
and adapt them to work in the real world. We’ll see where this takes me, but so
far I’ve found and end to my search. Krav Maga is exactly what I was looking
for!
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