Once upon a time in Karate Illustrated

 

I remember back in the 1980’s Karate Illustrated focused more on tournaments, including national rankings by region around the country. Then one day about the mid 1980’s they had an idea and were going to do articles about all the great champions of the past.

 

Then for about 4 issues they selected and interviewed about 4 past champions. The articles were about their past victories and what they have been doing since that time. Invariably all of the answers were it ceased being fun winning and so they discontinued karate. Then the articles stopped.

I guess Karate Illustrated got the idea that they took the time and effort to get real good. They they realized having done that there were other things to occupy their time. That posed a problem for KI, being as they were very involved in the tournament scene, they didn’t want to tell people that the reality was getting so good would cause them to move on. So KI discontinued those articles.

Now this is just from my memory and of course I may not be remembering correctly, but this is what it seemed like to me.

Reality is that is not what happened each time. The example would be those who continued to become instructors making their living by training other people.

But it made me think. I had been competing at a regional level, but when I began many of those competing became national champions themselves.

You worked year after year, then when those others moved on, you became one of the competing seniors. Perhaps your own day would come, and then you would find your own reasons to drop completion.

Most black belts did not compete but a few times. The few worked on their skills and grew better

.

But no one really talks about the numbers and what the average karate-ka of any rank moves on, and they do.

What tournaments mean means different things to different people. At one level they mean income for the tournament promoter, enough so many times the promoter relies on that income.

 

They are not the only thing karate is about. They are what they are. At one day, at one instant, the judges declare someone wins, everyone is other than the winner. That does not mean they are bad, they have a place to be managed in a karate career.