Can karate really help you defend yourself?

Question

Also if you are doing karate what belt are you

Answer 1

OSU!   yes karate can help you with everithink about your body or spiryt.

Answer 2

It can.  You must train with a qualified instructor --  you can't really learn it from a book or from videos.  My instructor always cautions us not to go looking for a fight and to try to de-escalate a tense matter.  However, if the person begins to attack you, you must act quickly and put the attacker down.  It does not really involve a lot of fancy moves, it just involves determination and knowing what to do. A lot can be learned during classes, but much of the real learning comes from sparring and working out with a heavy bag doing punching and kicking.  

With karate training, you get used to people punching and kicking you, and you get used to what it actually feels like to kick or punch somebody really hard.  

The main goal is to keep somebody else from hurting you. If you can quickly disable somebody, that is good. It means that he won't hurt you or be able to chase you.  I would use any opportunity to kick an assailant in the chest, to try to break his legs or knees, and make sure he was not in condition to harm me.

I am a green belt.

Answer 3

Karate can certainly help you to defend yourself. Along with karate you need to be able to develop the mindset necessary to fully commit to an attack. When your fight-or-flight impulse kicks in, if you cannot run, you must be able and willing to fight or get beaten or killed by an attacker. The more people there are who are skilled in martial arts, the safer we will all be.

Answer 4

Yes.

But that is an overly simple answer...

Just because you have a gun doesn't mean you can enter a sniper competition. There are a lot of "conditions" that could change my answer of "Yes" to a "No"...

All martial arts offer a person a chance to learn how to defend oneself. And then the conditions come into play.

Answer 5

Hi.

The short answer is yes, as can any style of martial art.

This is the long answer, just incase you're interested:

The effectiveness of a given style of martial arts varies from style to style depending on the specific emphasis placed on the self defense applications.  

Some styles focus on the sport aspect which is great for the ring but not for the street.

Some styles get so caught up in the art aspect, making everything look so pretty and precise that the self defense applications get put on the back burner if not forgotten completely.  The problem is it takes so long to learn everything just the way it's supposed to be that you don't learn how to effectively apply it even after years of training.

There are also "self defense styles" in where the self defense applications are not only emphasized but are an inherent part of the style.  With this type of system being one of the exceptions it generally depends on the school.

In some styles where self defense applications aren't inherent the applications for them may indeed be emphasized within an individual school by the instructors.  It also depends on how effective the instructors are.

You could train in the best style for self defense in the world (not that there is one, it’s just an example) but if the instructors aren't effective or even if the atmosphere isn't conducive to learning self defense then you may get very little out of it.

I’m a Black Belt in Chinese Kenpo Karate.

I hope this adequately answers your question :)

Answer 6

Well it can but only instructed Karate along with weight training and flexibility.

cause if your 5''5 and this dude is 6''0 and bigger than you.

But just run or do a cheap shot

it can help you along with strength and flexibility

Answer 7

Yes it definitely can...

Answer 8

It depends on the style, I generally tell people that no matter how good of a martial artist you are unless you can apply it to an uncontrolled fight you are more than likely going to get your butt kicked.

The higher you rank the more power and control you have and of course that could offset if you are fighting a rookie, so keep that in mind.  For my belt as far as karate is concerned im only a purple belt but I have other styles so ....

Answer 9

Most definitely but practice and repetition are very important as well as the quality of your training and skill.  Some beginners have defended themselves with little or no experience but that is really a little bit of luck and others don't always fare so well.  There was a question recently where a person had a friend that was a yellow belt and was fighting someone who kicked there butt and the person was a little surprised that their friend was beaten up.  In this day and age of diploma mills and watered down standards some people get a yellow belt in a month or two.  That is hardly enough time at training or much in the way of experience for a martial artist to truly rely on their skills or have much in the way of ability.  Karate gives you the ability to defend yourself and the longer and more you do it and the higher your skill and ability the better your odds of successfully being able to defend yourself is how I look at it.

Answer 10

Any art can help defend yourself, it just matters how much dedication and practice that you put into the art you do.

Answer 11

No, it can not.

Any more than a rifle in unskilled hands, will not make a marksman.

Also; defense, is getting out of the way of an attack.  Breaking an opponent's attacking limb, and then striking full force at their neck or collar bone, is not defense.

And no I am not doing Karate; I do Kihon and Katas for fitness purposes.  I USED to do it though, although, back when I practiced it, and had to use it, most of the stuff that worked for me were all the neat joint locks and trips.  You'd be shocked how well those neat joint locks and trips work against multiple opponents!

But alas, sigh, I am far away from competent instruction.

I saw other posts saying you can't learn it from books or videos, when instruction in America is so incompetent and often irresponsible, you may as well learn from those mediums....

Can it help in self defense?  Again; the neat joint locks, trips and throws, actually saved my life once.  Didn't even make it to blue belt either, back when I practiced.

SO YEAH IT WORKS, DON'T ASK THAT STUPID QUESTION AGAIN.

peace out.

Answer 12

well it can make you feel more confident and in control so less people will want too fight with you. im 13years old i do mixed martial arts and for the last like 20mins of the lesson we learn self defense like how too block punchs and get people too the ground e.t.c so if you want too learn how too defend yourself id reccomend MMA! but thas just me lol. i think diffrent classes do diff things cos thats what ive notcied from readin alot of answers from diff. questions!

Answer 13

Karate is good for self-defense if the self-defense is taught. These days to many dojo spend their class time doing to much stretching and doing unrealistic training.  Bottom line is that it depends on the student, what he was taught, and what his skills are. The style is not important as long as the training is done correctly and completely.

As for my rank, I hold high black belt ranks in several styles, including karate, kempo, jujitsu, as well as lower black belt ranks in Iaido, Sogokendo Kempo, ...etc.