How civilian defence grappling differs from sport grappling
An example of a karate arm bar: Note how Rob is kept just out of grappling range - and off-balance to prevent him entering grappling range. There is a tendency among many karateka today to find grappling applications (bunkai) in their kata. That is fine. Yes, karate is (undeniably) a "stand up" fighting art, first and foremost, but it also has grappling applications . My only problem with grappling interpretations of kata arises when the bunkai strays into "kata has comprehensive, built-in BJJ applications!'" territory. Let's make this simple, shall we? It doesn't. Karate and other traditional civilian defence arts are not, and never have been, grappling arts - at least not in the same sense as judo, jujutsu or Greco-Roman wrestling. If they were, they wouldn't involve quite so many solo "kata", so many obvious punches, kicks, strikes and " blocks ". They would mostly revolve around... grappling ! With a partn...