If you were to walk into a strip mall karate school, the first thing you would see would be trophies. A huge part of modern martial arts (such as sport karate) is competition. When I first explain to some people that we do not compete or spar, many are incredulous. “Then how do you know it works?” is a common response.
Despite their centuries-long history, competition in the martial arts is a very new phenomenon. It began with competitive Judo, and moved into other schools in the 1960s. So let us begin with Judo. Judo was founded by Jigoro Kano, who wanted to restore the public image of Japanese martial arts after the modernization of Japan. Jujustu, for example, was seen as old-fashioned, obsolete in an age of firearms, and uncivilized. Kano had studied Jujutsu extensively, and wanted to create a new style that would be an art of honor, to be followed by civilized people. He changed the suffix –jutsu to –do, to indicate that the goal of this new art was the betterment of the individual, rather than battle expertise. He taught an art stripped of its most violent techniques – eye gouges, finger breaks, etc. What was left was a collection of throws and comparatively gentle holds. After Kano’s death, Judo was incorporated into the Olympics in 1964. The rules were made more restrictive than they had been. For example, a throw which landed the opponent outside of the ring no longer counted.
Think about these two changes according to a real situation. If you must defend your own life, gauging someone’s eye is a fine strategy. If you throw an attacker to the ground, what does it matter where they land? In competitive karate matches, competitors primarily use face-height kicks, despite the fact that doing so exposes their groin to attack. However, in competition, it is against the rules to strike the groin, so why bother to protect it? The point is, there is no such thing as realistic sparring in competitions. Practicing fighting through sparring is akin to practicing shooting with pop-up cardboard figures – your reflexes are tested, but under no circumstances does it prepare you for a real firefight. In today’s modern world, people often look to the martial arts to guarantee their survival and their freedom from fear. The problem is, even the most highly-trained fighters from any discipline, including the military and the police force, are subject to the same risks as the rest of us – they might die during any confrontation. Their skills merely increase their odds in a given situation. This is why violence cannot be viewed as a sport or as a game – no matter what you study, or how hard you train, there is no guarantee of safety, and the only freedom from fear comes after a person can truly accept this fact. Unfortunately, competitive karate can make a person feel invulnerable. If, in these artificial circumstances, a fighter is often victorious, they might get cocky, and be more likely to escalate a real-world situation, instead of looking for the peaceful way out. In other words, it might actually increase a person’s odds of getting hurt!
Competition also focuses students’ attention in the wrong direction – away from personal progress, and toward domination. Proper technique is often less vital in a competition than bloodlust, especially in the lower ranks. With less-experienced students, more often than not, a match will end in favor of the larger, stronger, more aggressive individual. This causes students to focus on getting stronger and more aggressive, instead of focusing on the correct execution of technique. Because a major goal of the martial arts is to be in control, fostering negative emotions, (anger and aggression,) is counter-intuitive.
Experienced professional soldiers will tell you that the most important ability during combat is not any single technique or skill, but the ability to think clearly in a stressful situation. If you can kick higher than your own head, or successfully hit twenty different targets in a minute, what use are these skills if in the heat of battle you panic? Your valuable skills leave you, and you are helpless. Staying focused is essential for real-world self-defense. This is the subject of the next section.
One of the goals that all people share is the desire to make the most of every moment of our lives. Our ability to do this is governed by our autonomic nervous system, which uses a “toggle switch” to go from the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight,) and the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest.) The latter (the parasympathetic,) is used to enjoy the moment. You can literally stop and smell the roses, enjoy a delicious meal, and listen to good music. When most people are faced with a stressful situation, they feel either the emotion of fear or of anger. Their sympathetic nervous system kicks in – their heart races, their nostrils flare, their eyes dart from side to side, and their parasympathetic nervous system is muted. It is impossible to feel peaceful and happy, to enjoy life, while experiencing fear or anger.
In schools that compete, the sympathetic nervous system is encouraged – fear (but more often, anger, or its slightly milder version, aggression,) is useful in a sparring match, at least in the first few crucial years. In non-competitive schools, free sparring is replaced with controlled partner training. In the beginning especially, the attack/defense series is totally choreographed and predictable. Therefore, as long as both partners are focused, accidents are rare, and dojo members learn to trust each other. In other words, there is no need to feel fear, and without competition, there is no need to feel anger, either. Students are actually being trained to leave their parasympathetic nervous systems in control as much as possible, even in stressful situations! This applies to all stressful situations, including non-threatening arguments, troubles with work or school, etc.
All of this leads to one conclusion: a sport martial art trains people to be more aggressive, while a traditional martial art actually trains people to be more peaceful and controlled, in every facet of their lives. This, while learning techniques which are effective for self-defense! No wonder the history of the martial arts begins with meditative monks!
So how do we know it works? Unfortunately, some Doshinkan members have found themselves in tight situations, when violence was the only recourse. From past, real-world experience, we know it works. However, it only works if the student trains with sincere focus and effort. Half-hearted training leads to skills that, at a crucial moment, will not be helpful. The three ingredients that make for a good martial artist are a good school, a good teacher, and a good student. Doshinkan is a great school, and Renshi Dan is a good teacher. The rest is up to you!

Addendum: Related Topic – Breaking

Boards, bricks, or blocks of ice, breaking has become another cornerstone of competitive karate. Some schools began having their students break one board at a time to demonstrate their ability to focus through a target – an important skill. However, in competition, breaking has become a contest of strength, much more than mental skill. “I can break five boards.” “I can break ten!” “I can break four stone pavers!!” “Oh, yeah? Well, set those pavers on fire!!!” This display of testosterone is silly enough, but then there is the fact that so many injuries result from breaking objects too solid for human bone. To lessen the risk, many participants modify their hand technique to one that would be less effective if ever used against a human opponent! Despite this precaution, breaking contests often end with at least one fractured wrist.