Zwn Annwn

15th Dec 2007

The Karate Kid (1984)

Question: This is in regards to the tournament in this movie and in part 3. Is it compatible to tournaments in real life? In real life, are they physically hitting each other or do they pull back on their punches? What do they do in the tournaments in both movies that is not allowed in a real life tournament?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: Without knowing the exact style of karate, it is impossible to answer. I perform in martial arts tournaments but we wear various protective gear and are prohibited to strike at targets like knees (as in the movie) but are also prohibited from "excessive" contact on legal targets. My brother-in-law, though, does another style - and he won a match by kicking a person so hard he broke ribs and the other participant couldn't continue - so my brother-in-law won the match. Different styles differ. Back in the 70's and 80's "Point sparring" was very popular. This is where the contestants pull their punches only making light contact. This was considered a good skill to have as it taught one control their punches and to learn distance. It was very boring to watch and with the development of safer protective gear point sparring pretty much went away.

Zwn Annwn

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