The early karate tournament scene in North America was coloured by the popularity of the Korean & Japanese systems. These were popularized by the numbers of US military personnel who had served in Korea & in the occupation of Japan in the post WW2 years. Canada had a preference for jujitsu, which it retains to this day.
In the post WW2 years in Britain, jujitsu was popular until its instructors became fascinated with judo & its emphasis on throwing techniques. This put off the youths of that era who were fascinated by jujitsu's striking & kicking techniques, which they relied on in fights as the 1940 & 1950's were a very violent period. By the late 1950's karate started to become popular in the form of Yoshinkan, the military form of Shotokan karate.
By the 1970's, other systems of karate became popular, but their harsh training & violent sparring put off the very people it was targeted at - the people who needed self-defence training. Within the Shukokai system, tournaments were no more than punch-ups between different clubs, even though such application would disqualify fighters.
By the 1980's, things were calming down & tournaments were taking on a more professional aspect. More interstyle tournaments were held, which allowed for the absorbtion of credible techniques into styles from other sources. Karate also went on to involve itself in tournaments with Korean & Chinese systems, & bettered itself because of that.
To the present day all systems have benefited themselves by this manner, especially by involvement with full contact systems.
With the increased popularity of the Phillipino & Indonesian systems who knows where that will take us!
(Take deep breaths. Calm down. There, there now)  | 
Linear Mode
