Someday you’ll be talking to a friend at a party and the subject of karate will come up. In the beginning, it’s pretty normal to be so obsessed with your new martial arts hobby to be the one bringing up the subject. You love it. The current subject can be about football and somehow you swing the conversation around to karate. Or maybe it’s a discussion about economics that suddenly veers off into a jump side kick. Or the topic is peanut butter sandwiches and you drag it over to a tournament fighting. Don’t laugh. You’re the one that did it. I just write this stuff. But, you really do love karate. Suddenly, a new member enters this dynamic conversation and says … “I used to be in karate” … or, “My (relative) was in karate for (whatever) years.” Your response? “What rank were you?” The answer, “brown belt”. Almost always.
How do I know this? Because they know you won’t ask them to do a brown belt form to prove it at the party. That would be unheard of. They know you would not be too impressed if they told the truth and said “yellow belt” because you’d probably not respond with an emphatic and impressed “Really! No kidding!” So, it’s safest and more impressive to say “I was a brown belt when I quit”. They’re betting a brown belt is probably higher than you because you’re the one who just of switched the prior conversation from Peter Pan Extra Crunch on a crescent roll to jump crescent kicks. No black belt would do that, right? Their guess is … this person is a yellow belt … maybe green.
Then, aha! You drop the bomb. The killing shot … “What style were you?” Whoa Boy! Mumble … mumble. Then it’s hard to predict what words will tumble from their lips. Probably Tae Kwon Do, since it’s a more common style, especially after the publicity of ’88 Olympic Games. If it’s some macho dude with a slight magazine based interest in karate, the answer will be Jeet Kune Do, or Bruce Lee’s very own style (that’s dead with him). Probably half of the time you’ll never get some Okinawan style you never heard of… or even Kung Fu. “You mean Master Po and grasshopper” … is that karate, too?
What is karate? Let’s take a look at the word itself. The word “Karate” is of Japanese origin. It means “the way”, “empty hand”. When used to describe the martial arts, it’s a biff word that covers a lot, much like “Football” can be used to describe Soccer, Rugby, or American Football and all its different levels of play from Pee Wee to the NFL.
According to the history books, karate appears to have been born in China in the Shaolin monasteries of the monks. The monks practice karate as a basis for their religion and they do it all every-day (Don’t complain anymore about long warm up stretches, OK?). But the martial arts gravitated into other parts of the Orient to Japan, Okinawa, Thailand, Vietnam, and beyond as a practical way to defend oneself without a weapon. In other words, “open hand” defense. The practical force driving the martial arts was this: If you were caught carrying a weapon, you would be immediately executed. That was enough of a deterrent to make most common folk leave their weapons hidden at home. Rather than be bullied about or killed for sport by the Samurai and royal class who all carried swords, multi-pointed spears, curly daggers, spikes and other lovely weapons … the common folk learned how to defend themselves with empty hands.
So, is Kung Fu “karate”? Yes. Is Tang Soo Do? Definitely. How about Kenpo? Again, yes. If it’s a martial arts style that employs open or empty handed defense, it’s karate. The question then is “wonder how that style started?” There are some fascinating stories about the origins of various styles, including our own Tang Soo Do taught at Kinney Karate. We’ll cover that history in our next newsletter.
For now, here’s some advice. Have some fun. When the next intruder into your party conversation announces he or she was a Brown Belt, reply by saying … “Yes. Yes. I remember being a Brown Belt. Those were the best 10 years of my life.” What the heck, they won’t know and they’ll wonder what “Belt” you are. If they ask, tell them you’re not allowed to discuss it.
