(Approx 2 minute 40 second read)

When I started karate back in 1974 I wanted to learn to protect myself, I wanted self-defense. Someone said in a comment recently that “most people who do karate have very little interest in self-defense.” I disagree.
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In my experience, most people begin karate because they want to learn to protect themselves. Maybe they were bullied, perhaps they live in a bad area. Maybe they witnessed something worrying. The list goes on. Over the decades I have taught, many of the students I have asked say that they want to feel safer, to protect themselves.
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The problem is that too often they don’t get what they asked for. Instead they’re steered into tradition, sport, or something advertised and described as self-defense but isn’t. But if much of today’s karate is acknowledged as artificial and unrelated to real violence, I don’t see how it can be an effective starting point for self-defense. At best it points people in the wrong direction.
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An instructor friend of mine told us about a senior dan grade who claimed that modern karate “added finesse” and transformed primitive methods into an art. Really?
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What began as 1930s modernization hardened into 1960s dogma, and much of the karate world has been stuck there ever since. Surface-level methods have been polished to look good, but have no connection to the original purpose.
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Now if you’re not interested in protecting yourself in the real world, if you’re comfortable with karate for other reasons, then that’s fine, stop reading here.
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For the rest that may have an interest. Karate has been hollowed out. Associations pushed precision, repeatable exercises and tournament-ready routines, and stripped away the self-defense at its core.
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Drills are defended not because they work, but because they’re easy to teach and easy to grade. Whether they prepare anyone for real violence rarely enters the conversation.
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Some justify them as being good for beginners or colored belts. Others call them a first stage before sparring. A few even concede they’re just “warm-ups”.
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But if you already know a drill wouldn’t work in a real assault, then be honest about what it’s for.
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The distances and timings used in these drills have nothing to do with any kind of real-world altercation. Reflexes, footwork, and coordination should be trained for functionality, not how snappy your karate-gi is.
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If your interest is not self-defense training that’s fine, but the drills should always be practiced in the context they are intended for. Teaching self-defense under the guise of tradition, or starting with drills that aren’t realistic, does no one any favors.
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Many people message me to say that karate is “more than self-defense”, that it’s about rituals, stances, exercises, and tradition. Let me be clear: I am not interested in self-defense to the exclusion of everything else. I value the richness of karate, the history, the discipline, and many other aspects. But self-defense is the priority, that’s why I was drawn to it in 1974. If you take it away, for me, karate is no longer whole.
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This didn’t happen by chance. It happened because associations wanted something marketable: simple drills to teach, tournament rules to govern, and products to sell. Ego and profit took the place of honesty and function. The result is a karate that entertains but doesn’t protect.
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Karate primarily was a fighting art, not a sport, a stage act, or a business model. The pioneers built it as a method of survival. Yes, some them began that change.
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But at the end of the day, it’s up to you what you want? Just remember though, it doesn’t matter how snappy your karate-gi is, it won’t help you get home safely.
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Written by Adam Carter – Shuri Dojo
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Photo Credit: Patrick McCarthy Hanshi. – Early 1900s Okinawan students practicing ‘tegumi’, a traditional form of Okinawan grappling sometimes likened to ‘Okinawan sumo’. Techniques from tegumi can still be found in old-style karate.