The K is on iits way, but with no Kata... Hitler is not happy! [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IAA-6f0x1Vc"]Hitler Reacts to Karate Becoming Olympic Sport - YouTube[/ame] Warning - contains some rude words! Gary
What will the ruleset be? If it becomes truly popular, what will the relevance of clubs not teaching that ruleset be to people currently outside the art? Mitch
It's sponsored by WKF. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Karate_Federation It recognises the next styles as valid: Goju-Ryu, ****o-Ryu, Shotokan and Wado-Ryu. (I am glad it does not my style)
But presumably, as there is no Kata now - any style can enter (as long as they follow the competition rule set)? Gary
london bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, london bridge is falling down, my fair lady.
They should have knockdown fighting as well. Knockdown isn't limited to kyokushin either, just popularized by it. In okinawa they have yearly knockdown competitions with goju ryu and shorin ryu being the main competitors. Shidokan does very well for the most part.
this is the WKF we're talking about. they don't actually do karate anymore, and haven't for a fair while. sport karate is a VERY different animal altogether.
The WKF have moved kumite in the direction the IOC want. It goes against the Olympic creed seeing too much blood, folks knocked out and bones broken. That's why Olympic boxing is so tame compared to the pro-stuff, and why Judo is a shadow of its former self.
and yet olympic TKD has spectacular knockouts and is technically a full-contact sport. sport karate on the other hand has: -face punching -throwing maybe they should just merge it and have a FC-optional face-punchy, high-kicky and people-throwy southeast-asian MA ruleset where you can win by KO or by points equally as easily, and just open it up to kung fu, muay thai, krotty, tkd, FMA, etc, and cover them all in huge padding so the MT people don't kill everyone (at least until they wise up and start toughening up). that should breed some interesting matches, methinks.
It's just a marketing thing. A bunch of karate organisations think karate will become more popular if it's in the Olympics. They're just overlooking what they'll have to do to karate in the process. I shall stage a personal protest by never using a straight legged ura mawashi geri in kumite.