Martial Arts

Ever heard of Semi Contact Karate?

Most real world "street fighters", meaning all those that believe to be already Street Samurais, although we are still some historic incidents away from a downfall and a Cyberpunk utopia becoming true, such as hooligans, rockers and debt collectors will got stuck in Mua Thai, Kickboxing and some more intellectual persons go for Jiujutsu to dream of that Mixed Martial Arts career in underwear but a cage come true.

Well, Karate in Kumites called competitions comes in full contact and semi contact. 

In semi contact Karate only impact punches, clear hits are counted. Depending on the rule set in half or full points and after every successful score the opponents interrupt the fight. This way in the entire match usually only a few points are made, but those require the highest skill in all martial arts exercised in a competition.

The fighters require precision, timing, body control, patience and swift execution to be successful. A MMA style uncontrolled attack based on aggression putting down the opponent and than hitting him from above will fail. The rules forbid scoring more than once, yet knock outs happen.

Semi contact Karate is an Olympic discipline and currently the qualifying matches are online available on YouTube. The fights lack the blunt aggression of professional MMA fights and might look for many more like two persons dancing until suddenly striking. The fighters on this top level of Karate are the worlds very best and show the speed, quickness and light footed movements required in a one-hit-stop match that forces to have perfect body control and a most clear mind being a master of arts. 

 such as here: Karate Olympic Qualification Tournament | DAY 1 - FINALS