I have not participated in a martial art tournament since 1983. That one as an observer. Recently I viewed a video clip of a tournament and the following quote from Peyton Quinn's book helped me to understand what was going on.
"Rules of a karate tournament that prohibit hand blows to the head and neck, but full-power kicks to the head are perfectly acceptable. The reason is that hand blows to the hear are so much more effective than kicks that if they were permitted, too many people would get seriously hurt. It is also considered a more traditional karate contest by one well respected and great karate fighter." - Payton Quinn
During the clip I noticed the targets of hand and foot techniques and none touched the head or neck as indicated in the quote given. Then I viewed the lead contestant using a spinning kick to the head. I noticed that in a couple of instances they carried off the recipient. I could not understand why they would keep hand hits from the head while allowing feet.
The explanation given seems off kilter to me. Even if true that the chances of injury increase due to the hands it seems to me that using legs and feet shift those statistics. I wonder if a study was done as to the ratio of hand techniques to the head vs. foot techniques with emphasis on injuries to number of strikes. In other words, simply put, if ten hand techniques resulted in one injury while ten foot techniques resulted in three, etc.
I get a sense that this rule, in all probability, was a result of one or two serious injuries as a result of hand techniques caused an uproar or some legal proceeding that caused a knee-jerk reaction where the rule was instituted into karate tournaments of this type.
I suspect that the ratio of hand techniques to injury were much larger, i.e. say fifty hand techniques to one injury, while the leg/foot techniques to injury were less, i.e. say five foot techniques to one injury. I also suspect that the frequency of kicks to the head are rare or infrequent vs. hand techniques which are easier to apply.
I also feel that due to the differences in weight, application, power potential, etc. that foot or kicks to the head have a greater potential for injury. I have seen many hand strikes/punches result in no serious effects or injuries while a solid connect with the foot tends to knock people out and head injuries are a serious injury.
What I get from this thought process is neither hand or foot techniques should be applied in sport tournaments to the neck and head. I still wonder what it was other than opinion brought about this particular ruling. Anyone?
p.s. the book is highly recommended for your MA library by the way :-)
Bibliography:
Quinn, Peyton. Real Fighting: Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-Based Training. Paladin Press. Colorado. 1996.
Another aspect Would be to promote high kicks. They're more fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I've never participated in a tournament, so maybe I'm not qualified to answer such a question. But, kicks are generated by limbs with considerably more strength, and travel a larger distance(ground to head level), that a solid impact with a kick would deliver enough damage to cause concern. In that case, it seems most likely that there was a couple bad instances of hand to head injury which has led to the current rules... as you mentioned. We practiced point sparring in my karate dojo and hand strikes to the head were allowed, with proper head gear of course. To take that out would seem ... strange. Great post.
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