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For those who have never met me in person, I will remind you once again that I am short...really short...5'1" short. Take a moment to appreciate that and let's move on to the next fun fact, I'm a nidan (second degree) in karate and I teach that art. I do not teach MMA (that is a blog that would not end if ever I did start to write it), I teach one art, Okinawa Goju Ryu Karate Do, the same art I have trained in for over a decade.
Often, when someone learns this about me they make one of the following (dumb) remarks; either they tell me I am too small to be a black belt (Okinawa, the birthplace of karate being filled with seven footers, as it is...), or they tell me they want to fight me. There is a third camp, who tell me that karate is violent. I find the first two just annoying, the third ironic given that it is the people who do not train in a martial art who generally tell me they want to fight me, not the other way around. Anyone who has ever participated in or even watched a karate class will tell you that it is not violent (if it is, run out of that dojo like it is on fire!). Karate when taught correctly, like all continuing education classes, should be about discipline, self mastery, respect, body awareness and awareness of everything around you.
Having trained with thousands of martial artists from around the world for over more than a decade, I have rarely met one who has been in a "fight" (bare fist, street clothes, outside the dojo), since they started training in a martial art. Go to any hockey arena, football stadium, or fitness centre and I bet you'll find more fighters than you will in the average dojo. Comparing what you see in action films or the UFC is like comparing what goes on at a Greco-Roman wrestling tournament to the WWE. Yes, there will be some "bad" Sensei's and dojos, just like there are bad coaches and teachers, but that is indicative of that particular person and to condemn an entire art form with over 200 years of history because of a few bad practitioners is ridiculous and ignorant.
Karate is no more violent than any contact sport, in fact I would say it is less so as, in realizing your own power, emphasis in teaching is placed on learning to control it. The world would be a better place if more people learned that.
