Is Karate good for self defence? 

Short answer - yes. Long answer - that’s what it is by design, Okinawan karate original had no sport element. Life protection, that was it.

Right off the bat John goes into situational awareness, knowing your laws, etc. THAT is exactly what I want to hear from someone teaching self defense not a bunch of B's Abt how amazing the style is

Learning any type of martial art is better than nothing. Karate is no better or worse than other martial arts. Excellent video again John.

Finally a video about whether karate is good for self defense 🙏🏻. Thank you! Keep it up John!

Situational awareness and de-escalation are very important. Another interesting thing would be the use of improvised weapons (an umbrella, a purse, keys…), which is a lot of Kobudo’s spirit but is very rarely taught in MA’s.

I restarted karate(Enshin) after 27 years off and it is self defence/mental challenge/staying fit that are my main drivers. It is a relief not to feel the must to grade at every opportunity and focus on my goals in the time frame that suits me and makes me focus on my drivers on why karate. Focusing on Self defence also makes me think and question what works on techniques, I often retry and experiment on details at home with my bag, not always the time or possibility to do that in the dojo.

I'm a karate black belt and yes it works great for self defense as well for self control. My style of Karate we don't kick high. Fast punches to the face and mid section hard kicks to the legs works every time. Yes implement s ground game you good to go

This video addresses so many questions I had as a kid learning karate who then moved to Thai boxing in my teens. And then I also had some questions about stance limitation of Muay Thai too. It’s good to hear your questions around techniques and situations and try to adapt them. I’d like to see more of your ideas with karate and how it can become more effective and applicable to situations, like the wild looping punches and close range situations etc I’ve always felt that karate was an excellent base for combat but just felt like with other styles, some tweaks would be effective

Great video. I couldn’t find anything else to add in my comment! 👍👍😊

Great video! I think the best thing Martial Arts have done for me, no matter what I was training, was just communicating and interacting with a variety of people while sometimes being responsible for their safety or in a high stress environemnt togeth we. It really helped me build empathy and get better at talking to people.

The best strategy is to avoid fighting. My Master has always told us after a training session. Of course, we always encounter a situation where a fight is inevitable. Your advice is super helpful, and I can compare Your experience and skills to mine. It's very interesting, especially because my base style is TKD. Very good job !

Came across your channel a few months back, really good to see practical solid information, thanks

No disrespect to Shotokan. But that's why I love Kyokushin. It's real fighting with awesome techniques that fit for the streets 😎 Mas Oyama was a brawler and in many many streets fights! He made Kyokushin from different Karate styles and even Boxing/ Taekwondo and Judo. Even some MT techniques etc, as the Ultimate Selfdefense Karate style, and who could take on any other style in competition! And as we know, he never ever lost a fight. He single handly beat Japan's absolute best of the best in every style. So that says a lot IMHO 😉 As we do full body contact we also don't back down, when we feel a punch or kick! Well to be honest - Kyokushin is Total Badass And I love every second learning more and getting together and stronger 🙌 Love all your videos as you know! Keep up the good fight buddy 👑👍 You and Nate, are the 👑

my 1st instruction always said we do Karate for one reason self defense / life protection for ourselves or others (this was 1980s/1990s, thats the logo), that Karate is 80 - 85% Hand Techniques (Palm Heel Strikes, Punches, Ridgehands, Finger thrust to eyes when needed, for example confronted by a knife your thrusting the eye very violent not some poke) and 15% - 20% Kicks, kicks are to be low, Calf, Groin, Knee (Thrusting side kick to the Knee, Bassadi), Stomach (snap kick so they can't catch it) .... if one is very athletic , with excellent high kicks maybe one of two head heads (and that was a maybe) .... we also incorporated what people would today call Japanese Jujitsu, like spinning the shoulders and taking a rear choke (Godan application off the hook punch), Osoto Gari takedown with a palm heel to the Chin, as well as Wrist Locks/ throws (thumb to thumb grip Koti Gaseshi)..... I personally know someone who KO'd a person threating him with a upward palm heel to the nose (whole bunch of blood on the sidewalk) .... many others, so with the fact that kicks should only account for 15%- 20% and should be stomach and lower not sure why now everyone thinks of Karate as high kicks, and why so many now emphasize high kicks, We used to say all that kicking is for the TKD / Taekwando people and not practical for self defense, sure it can work but its high risk, we're not wrestlers and don't want to end up on the ground ... OSS

Great video and that is how I like to train.Thank you very much for the informationp osu🥋

Coming back to escaping. My windsprints were the best when I was with the JKA! 👍

OKAY SO I LIVE IN JAPAN AND MY TEACHER TEACH ME Ryūsei Ken AM I DOING IT RIGHT Mechanics of the Ryūsei Ken Preparation Stance: Starting Stance: Begin in a natural stance (Shizentai) with feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. This position provides balance and readiness for movement. Hand Position: Rear Hand: Pull the rear hand to the side of your head in a guard position, palm facing inward. This prepares the hand for a powerful strike and also serves as a defensive position. Lead Hand: Extend the lead hand slightly forward with the palm open. This helps measure distance and sets up for the deflective motion. Execution Step Forward: Hip Rotation: As you step forward with the rear leg, rotate your hips explosively. This rotation is crucial for generating power in the strike. Transition to Stance: Move into a deep Zenkutsu-dachi (front stance), ensuring that your front leg is deeply bent and your rear leg is straight. This stance provides stability and support for the striking action. Deflecting Motion: Lead Hand Action: As you step forward, bring the lead hand across your body in a sweeping motion. This combines elements of Gedan Barai (lower block) and Soto Uke (outside block), clearing any incoming attacks and creating an opening. Guarding Hand: Ensure that the lead hand is effectively positioned to deflect or parry an attack while maintaining balance and readiness. Meteor Fist Strike: Arm Movement: Drive the rear hand downward in a powerful arc. The motion should be similar to a descending punch but with added force from the hip rotation. Impact Area: The strike should target the opponent’s clavicle, shoulder, or upper chest. The bottom of the fist should make contact, delivering a powerful impact. Kiai (Spirit Yell): Release a strong kiai at the moment of impact. This not only enhances the power of the strike but also adds psychological intimidation. Follow-Through: Retract and Guard: After the strike, quickly retract your fist and return to a guarded position. Be prepared to defend or follow up with additional techniques. 2. Application of the Ryūsei Ken In Kumite (Sparring) Setup: Use the lead hand to create an opening or distract your opponent. This can involve a feint or a quick jab to draw the opponent’s attention. The forward step and hip rotation should be used to close the distance effectively while maintaining balance. Execution: Apply the Ryūsei Ken during a moment when the opponent is off-balance or distracted. The technique works best when the opponent’s guard is compromised or when they are moving in a way that exposes their upper body. Follow-Up: After executing the Ryūsei Ken, be ready to transition into other techniques. This could involve additional strikes, joint locks, or throws, depending on the opponent’s reaction and the flow of the sparring match. In Self-Defense

Your videos are really helping me after re-starting Karate. I d be delighted if you ever considered any karate weekend camps/ courses.

Hi John. Karate IS SELF DEFENSE. People ask these questions out of ignorance, and lazy thinking. They want simple answers to a complex issue, namely training karate true to traditional standards. So they pick out a simple element like the one-strike kill... and make their entire case about some uninformed discussion on the topic. MMA proponents are famous for this, arguing that the one-strike kill concept is unrealistic or myth. Arguments such as these are based on rhetoric because obviously a person doesn't die or in say boxing, isn't knocked out every time they are struck. this doesn't invalidate the concept since there is no rationale discussion of the contributing factors, including how karate works by tradition. Hope that helps. 🥰🥰Cheers.

Hi John. Following on my first comment, Karate is self defense. You touCH on a number of salient topics which is good. What the karate critics do, HOWEVER, is find fault with karate, assume why is doesn't work for say self defense. Seriously studying the art is too much work, beyond them... so they pick out a single item, such as the reverse, high hook kick you talk about as seen in tournaments; and say it wouldn't work in the street, or it's other wise impractical. Well, I can rhetorical too, and it often doesn't work in competition either. So the real answer is why is this kick seen as a staple in karate competitions? Traditional karate goes to great lengths to incorporate every conceivable technique, that is the true answer re karate. And when it comes to convention, conventional karate kumite's bread & butter technique is the reverse punch (similar to the boxing rear cross), which is perhaps the most efficient technique to execute. People may form opinion, a bout karate but without serious study of the art, they aren't any good. Hope that makes sense. 🤩🤩CHEERS.

Heian Yondon has always been one of my favorite Kata, Knees/ Clinch Knees/ Elbows, it has all the combative elements ... yet in Point Fighting Knees and Elbows are not allowed - OSS

Well said. Very well said.

Great video John

Great video, could we get a long form video with more examples about how to teach self defense using karate? Thanks in advance!

Once my son started training in karate, I noticed a few changes. It wasn't just about his skills but also his attitude and newfound confidence. He was no longer afraid of other kids who wanted to confront him. His posture and behavior improved significantly thanks to his karate training, and a lot of the bullying he faced at school stopped.

Nicely explained keep it up

Yes. But it also depends on other various factors. What is your purpose for training? Are you training specifically *for* self defence? Are you training just for exercise?

Some of the best Karate I have seen. Osu!

Thanks. Helpful.

Hi, I'm a fan and subscriber of your videos and follow you regularly. Regarding Karate and Self Defence however, I differ in my opinions. Karate per se can of course be beneficial, and I agree with your points regarding this, but karate can also be detrimental regarding street altercations etc. In karate we are taught that "there is no first attack," but in a real-life situation, to attack first (the pre-emptive strike) is crucial if one thinks an attack or physical threat is imminent. Further to this, a pre-emptive attack (if there is no escape route, or if verbal dissuasion had failed) is legal. Action is always faster than reaction, so to think about any kind of blocking really is foolhardy. What's more, I personally always presume that any would-be attacker would be carrying a blade of some description, so always prefer to be safe than sorry (e.g. dead). Self-Protection (rather than self-defence) starts with Zanshin, relaxed awareness, and, as I'm sure you know, helps one to recognise a threat long before an aggressor can approach and grab you. Awareness of the people around you and of your environment is a huge plus and is easily learnt and turned into a habit: and consequently helps make you a harder target. As I said, I love the videos and look forward to the next one, Oss!

Appreciate the intention, but Shotokan and its derivatives have never been about self defence, by design. It’s a fitness system inspired by karate over which a type of competition sparring was bolted on at a later stage. I completely agree the being fit,muscular and athletic is a plus in most funky situations, and certainly karate can help there… but I suspect, for example, that you’ve also spent time at the gym? 😊 The original, pre-Itosu combat approaches were (and are) tremendously effective (of course with the caveat about law etc that you mention) but they’ve got very little to do with Shotokan… which is just fine, since it’s not what it was ever supposed to be. If one wants to do karate for self defense, it starts and ends with the katas (tough not, of course in the sense most people nowadays would understand the sentence). That’s all there is to it - plus tons of practice and, when information is lost, reverse engineering 😊

Great video👍🏻

Karate provides you with the tools of the trade. It doesn't make you a good tradesman. I have seen very high ranks and great practitioners in the dojo get destroyed in a street fight. The two hardest things to learn are the following 1: to push yourself past the mental barrier and actually hurt your opponent in the street. 2: Once you master point 1, to learn to control yourself and not turn into an absolute thug. Winning a street fight can be very addictive. I have seen many high ranks loose in a street fight for the simple reason that they pull their strikes in a street fight because that's what they train for in the dojo. In my younger days, I would travel around dojos in Australia to teach and challenge the instructors in the clubs to hit me as hard as they could, every time they would pull the technique because that's how they trained. I never trained that way and people knew that when I came to teach, pain was always part of the lesson. Given that, in 50 years of teaching, I have never had injuries in my clubs. The other side of this is that if you get hit regularly in the dojo by trained practitioners, you tend to lose the fear of getting hit in the street by amateurs. Mental conditioning is often overlooked in karate.

Yet another nuanced post!

Maybe it came already in other words but having general speed and understanding and closing the distance fast are huge benefits (distance if you have a stance to dictate distance like ex. in a park which of course usually isnt the case but anyway you can finish the fight just by closing the distance since the opponent dont understand how fast someone can come. I mean often times these aggressors dont have MA background). Maybe this is obvious for most but if you ever got into a fight dont start to think your karate (or whatever you have practised), its in you already, now you just have to act, forget all forms, right techniques etc, they are just for training perfection and competition. In real situation you dont need perfect technique, fast kick is a fast kick with or without perfect form and its going to do damage. Also I have thought this legal thing. In my country its legal to defend with same kind of weapon than the aggressor has. I dont think there is time to think legal issues when someone is trying to hurt you badly, even he/she is not trying to kill you, unfortunately there are too often cases where one hit kills (not usually the hit but the falling and hitting the head to ground and dying). I think good principle is when the threat is gone dont attack anymore and you should be legally fine (of course life is often unfair and as a MA practitioner you probably get bigger sentence if deemed quilty), unless its some terror attack or something like that then I think its ok to be sure attacker is passed out before police comes. And I hope no one ever takes zenkutsu dachi or any other kihon stuff in real situation, its basic training, body conditioning etc.

Thank you. That was really a great video. I felt like my own Sensi was talking. All the things you said reinforces what i am learning. We do shoulder taps to warm up sometimes. I am getting better at going in, then pulling back before getting tapped. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for remembering the sequence of the Katas we learn? Besides practice, practice, practice. Thank you for making these videos. They are well explained and inspirational. I look forward to seeing them every time you post.

I don't believe that karate has any limitations, at least not as a whole. I look at all of karate styles as being different elements in the same soup. The style you choose is simply about preference. And when I say karate I am strictly talking about fighting without weapons of war, so I am including hand weapons and civilian self-defense weapons, traditional and modern. Pistols, clubs, and knives count, as do other styles and systems outside of Japan and Okinawa. I believe that the only limits are those of practitioners. If you can understand the context of where your style thrives then you can plan your self-defense strategy accordingly. You get to choose what skills you use, don't use, or need to add. This would take time and exposure. That same boxer he spoke of training for the ring already has most of the skills and abilities he would need to defend himself in almost every situation, common situation that is. He would be fit, have good balance and footwork, good hand-eye coordination, etc. He would just need to know what he can apply in which situation. How would he do this? He would have to war-game it and then experiment a little. He is trained to fight with one opponent. Can he learn strategies to fight with multiple? Of course! What in his game would he need to change? I would say not much. He has the footwork he needs. He has the striking ability. He should already be able to get out of a clinch, depending on his development but that is part of the game already. He can already stick and move. So in this sense it is not the art but the artist. Build your self defense strategy around what you are already doing.

I think true name of Okinawate is Okinawavmaga All Karate Kihon/Kata techniques are for real situation

Super bro

How do you determine what is "realistic"?

One step sparring is overpowered why because in real life it you stand there not showing you wanna fight back your enemy will lower his guard because he thinks your afraid then when he punch towards you You suprise him with zenketsu dachi and age uke and Karate punch to his chin but what if he will block it ?? No he wont Why he didn't know your gonna attack while you know he will attack, this tactic use element of suprise to caught your enemy off guard the same time this is check mate for that untrained attacker my freind and Me start sparring every month and did you know he got stab why because he didnt see it coming this is same logic im using here

Can't be explained in a better way. Avoid any shit situations around you. Always zanshin and possibly zen attitude towards anything. Thanks again

I wished karate in general focused on Bunkai much more. Maybe it’s a western thing, but I want to understand why I am learning something. As opposed to just learn it, and maybe be able to figure it out why years later.

I don t think that limits are in karate but i think that limits are how people see karate or maybe that limits are the way they practice karate...

Anche giocare a pallavolo va bene per self defence... Dipende tutto dalla persona, un pallavolista ti può staccare la testa con uno schiaffo. Nel karate c'è tutto, ma bisogna saperlo usare e dipende sempre da chi trovi.

Train under Sensei Tani Japan , S. Kimura USA, and Daniels England! Sensei Kimura was my head instructor in the USA until his passing in 1995 then started my own school! All were great instructors of the sport! Kimura Shukokai Karate! Nice video btw! Keep them coming! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UqDj-xKDShU.htmlfeature=shared

what style is this

I'd like to ask you about Your opinion of this situation: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qVQhdJhWXng.html This is an old video from a local Karate tournament in my country. As you can see, this fight ended with a knockout, but the reference decision is a very controversial, and among my friend circle, we had a small bicker about that. The green belt competitor was disqualified. What is your opinion ? I'm asking you as a karate expert because my style is TKD and the rules are not the same. This situation has a timestamp 1:50

Best self defense is walk away if you can.

Bunkai!

Sorry, but karatetechniques are too lethal for the ring.