A Little HIstory
14/Dec/11
From an interview with Keith D. Yates by Blue Snake Books
In the introduction of your book you explain, “American karate and American tae kwon do aren’t really so much styles of martial arts as much as ways of approaching the martial arts.” Can you please expand on this?
America has been called a “melting pot,” and that is certainly true when it comes to taking activities and sports from other cultures and stripping them down to the essentials. Because Americans don’t have the prejudices that someone from a certain country might have concerning their martial arts we can pick the techniques that work best for us. Bruce Lee, ironically not American born, was the man who popularized this approach in the United States.
You use the term “traditional” to refer to martial arts practice that places the emphasis on the “self-defense and character building aspects” and you use the term “modern” to refer to martial arts as sports, those geared toward “tournaments and competition techniques.” Are both found equally in America? Do you believe either one to be superior?
Well, I think it boils down to what you want out of your training. If you want to add another sport to your lifestyle, if you like competition and the spoils that come with winning them then you’ll enjoy the more modern approach. If you are interested in things like getting into better shape, improving your self confidence and self discipline, then you’ll probably be drawn to a more traditional approach to the martial arts. Having said this I doubt you will find many schools in North America that totally ignore one or the other of these aspects. It’s more a matter of degree. I will say that the more traditional the approach, the longer the students probably stay with it (I’m talking decades here). You probably won’t want to be competing in tournaments into middle age.
Your book addresses the martial arts of karate and tae kwon do and you, like many tae kwon do specialists, use these two terms interchangeably. You also explain that karate is the general term for “any striking martial art.” Will you please clarify any important differences in the history or practices of karate versus tae kwon do?
The term karate (empty hand) came into practice in the 1920s. The term tae kwon do (way of kicking and punching) was coined in 1955. So both are fairly modern names. Karate became popularized in America after servicemen returned from World War II. When I was growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, we read tales of “karate experts” in comic books and saw them on TV (“I Love Lucy” and “Dick Van Dyke” to name a couple). So when the new Korean martial art of tae kwon do was introduced into this country, the first teachers used the term “karate” because it was already in common usage (and, of course, early tae kwon do WAS karate—read the book).
By 1988, when tae kwon do was introduced into the Olympics, the art had enough of a following that the term was recognizable by most Americans. So most of the Olympic style practitioners (call them the Korean Kuki schools) hate using the word karate. And if your karate school proudly traces its lineage directly back to Japan proper you, no doubt, refuse to use the term tae kwon do. Still, there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who just call what they do American karate no matter the origin of their systems (remember the “melting pot”).