Here is a comment posted on a recent YouTube video. (I won’t mention any names)…… “I post this as a person who has trained many years in karate, then to judo and jujitsu, and then to boxing. I would also say, I have spent many years in law enforcement roles and I know what works. I couldn’t count the number of people who have told me they have superior fighting skills due to their martial arts ability but who were totally unable to restrain a suspect.” – End Quote
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I write about ineffective martial arts endlessly it seems (ad nauseam), and there are so many people who are in denial of the inherent benefits of karate for self-defense, partly because its performance and practice is seen solely as a succession of punching, kicking and ineffective applications.
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Many karate practitioners are given just the most basic explanation as to the purpose of their karate. Most of it involves some kind of sparring as the ‘ultimate’ answer to everything. They are not given the principle or concept behind the technique(s), therefore they don’t delve further to learn realistic applications. This basic explanation remains with these practitioners, they become an instructor themselves, and the cycle continues.
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It is vitally important that practitioners understand the nature of real confrontations if you are to understand your karate for self-defense. Most practitioners do not engage in realistic training. Common karate type attacks are used to demonstrate ‘real’ attacks, and pressure testing doesn’t include anything but competition type sparring. Therefore they do not see the errors, and failures that will occur in real confrontations. Their interpretation of their karate remains at a basic or fundamental level.
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The problem is….. some instructors and practitioners can’t, or don’t want to admit it.
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Without understanding the combative applications, the importance of karate as self-defense diminishes. If people don’t understand what and why they are doing something, they won’t invest the necessary time and commitment necessary to understand it in any depth. Simply concluding that it has no value in any form for practical self-defense.
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The creators of the original art were all experienced fighting men who had used and relied upon their skills in real situations. They lived in violent times where the acquisition of fighting skills were a must if they wished to take care of themselves and their loved ones.
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The majority of practitioners today do not have to face violence on a daily basis and therefore have no idea what it’s like. When these same people fail to study karate in the required depth, then assumptions are made about the nature of violence, the art is misinterpreted, and for them, it does become woefully inadequate. 
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 Image courtesy of & with thanks to Samir Berardo founder of Muidokan
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