What is the best Karate style?
There's a multitude of Karate styles out there, some originating from China, some other originating from Okinawa or Japan. One question that I often get is "What's the best Karate style?".
In this article, I will cover the following:
- Two important questions before we start
- What are the main types of Karate?
- What is the best style of Karate for your body type?
- What are the characteristics of the best Karate style?
- The sensei matter more than the style
- It's not the style that makes the practitioner
- Some styles are beyond styles
- I wanna eat the whole cake, not just a slice
- Conclusion
In this post, you'll discover that there is no such thing as a "best Karate style". Please read on and discover why.
Two essential questions regarding Karate styles
Before we answer "what is the best Karate style", I think it's important to understand two things first. We need to define what is a style and what 'best" means.
What's a Karate style?
I know that you know what's a style, you know Shotokan, Goju-Ryu, and Shorin-Ryu, but I'm talking about the concept of "style". A Karate style, is a way to see the world, it's a way to express your Karate. When you belong to a style, you don't see Karate as a whole but do you see it as a fraction of the whole.
It's like wearing colored glasses. If you wear red colored glasses, the world is going to be red, and if you wear blue tinted glasses, then the world will be blue. That would be an illusion to say that the world is red or blue, right? Your glasses are representing only a part of reality, not reality itself, just like a Karate style does not represent the reality of Karate.
What do you mean by “best” style?
Many people are asking "what’s the best Karate style", but think it's essential to define what do people mean by "best". I'm assuming that when people are looking for the best Karate styles, they mean best in terms of effectiveness and practicality. But effective, where? In a ring? In a competition? In self-defense?
For me, the best Karate style allows the practitioner to defend himself or herself during real-life aggression, and it's on that principle that this article is based on. It's important to understand that not every Karate style are created equal. To understand this, we will see that, independently of styles, there are three main types of Karate and each type as very different objectives and purpose.
What are the main types of Karate?
As you probably know, there's a lot of different Karate styles. I wrote a good article about it, I suggest you read it.
Karate is divided into styles, but besides that, I think it's pretty fair to say that there are three main types of Karate and that each has a different vision of what effectiveness is. The three types of Karate are Okinawan Karate, Japanese Karate, and Sports Karate. Let's explore the differences between each type regarding their objective and purpose.
1. Okinawan Karate
Karate was developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom before its 19th-century annexation by Japan (Okinawa). It should be clearly understood that Okinawan Karate is the original Karate. It's not a combat sport but a martial art dedicated to personal protection and life preservation — it's first and foremost a practical, self-defense based type of Karate. That's the reason why it was created in the first place.
Although Japanese and Okinawan Karate share similarities, they are very different in their objective, purpose, and application. Compared to Japanese Karate, Okinawan Karate is smooth, relaxed, and powerful. It utilizes higher, more natural postures as well as more practical techniques. Okinawan Karate is more a close range martial art that includes lots of grabbing, twisting and dislocating, throwing, trapping, and pressure point techniques. When fighting, you walk straight in and destroy your opponent; there is no fooling around. The goal is not to exchange technique, but the clear and simple destruction of the opponent. You can't get more practical than Okinawan Karate.
2. Japanese Karate
At the beginning of the 20th century, Okinawan Karate traveled to mainland Japan where it was quickly transformed into a martial art oriented towards social education more than practicality and self-defense.
To understand the reason for this transformation, it's essential to understand the socio-economic context of Japan at the time. Karate was used, as well as other "new" martial arts like Judo (watered down jujutsu) and Kendo (watered down Kenjutsu), as a way to mobilise, educate and shape the Japanese youth in order to revitalize Japan after the depression that followed World War I. Martial arts played a significant role in the rise of Japanese nationalism.
Gichin Funakoshi (and his son Gigo), the founder of Shotokan Karate, tried to broaden its appeal. Many of the more deadly aspects of Okinawan Karate were removed, including many strikes, joint locking, and throwing techniques. Karate started being taught in schools and universities as methods of education for the Japanese youth and not as a self-defense method. As a result, effectiveness and practicality became attenuated and relegated to the background.
The is a great paper on this subject from the Department of Anthropology of the University of Iowa called The Japanization of Karate, it's quite interesting.
Years later, after World War II, Karate transformed into a Budo, a type of martial art far less concerned with effectiveness and practical application of techniques in combat, but much more focused on the spiritual and moral development of the individual.
NOTE: Understand me well, I'm not saying that everybody practicing a Japanese Karate style is uninterested in effectiveness, but in general, Japanese Karate styles tends to be more focussed on social education and personal development than on practicality. Maybe your school or your style is not like that, then it's great.
3. Sports Karate
As we saw before, the objective and purpose behind Okinawan Karate is self-defense and survival. For its part, Japanese Karate emphasizes self-development and spiritual growth. Sports Karate is derived from Japanese Karate and is more about competition and scoring points than anything else.
When Karate arrived in Japan in the 1930s, it was quickly transformed into a practice oriented toward competition. The Japanese people love competition; they see it as a way to test the spirit of their participants. As I mentioned before, many techniques were removed from Okinawan Karate, and new techniques were added like high kicks, hook kicks and jump kicks to match the competitive nature (often point-scoring) of sports Karate. Okinawan kata was also transformed with wider, longer, and lower stances, making it more appealing and aesthetic for competition.
In sport Karate, the techniques are more quick, light and reactive, and are designed for sports fighting, not for self-defense. Because in sports Karate, there are weight classes, protective equipment, and rules, the state of mind of competitive fighting (whether point-based or full-contact) is different from the one required during a self-defense situation or personal protection scenarios.
As a result, sports Karate practitioners develop attitudes, habits, and reflexes that are dangerous to use in a personal defense scenario. There's nothing wrong with the sports Karate, but as you can see, its objective and purpose are oriented towards competition and not practicality.
Summary Table
What is the best style of Karate for your body type?
A lot of people say that you should choose your Karate style based on your body type. Personally, I don't believe you should limit yourself to a particular style because of your body type.
Your body type will definitely influence the way you practice Karate. I don't care what anybody says that's just how it is. An individual with a large build is not going to spar or even do self-defense or kata the same way a tall and slim individual would. The very nature of their body is influencing not only the way they move but also their psychology towards movement and its application.
That being said, we should not see body type as a reason to practice or not to practice a specific style. During practice, your body is going to change and adapt anyway independently of the kind of body that you have. Don't create imaginary reasons why you can or can't practice a particular style.
Please remember that there is nothing in Karate that wasn't meant to be practiced by everyone. In other words, whether you are small or tall, large build or frail, you will make your Karate work for you.
Go beyond limiting concepts.
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