Future of Karate

The future of karate and martial arts is brighter than ever. It has grown immeasurably since its inception when it was taught in secret and only known to a small number of people. The traditional styles of karate which have evolved over hundreds of years will remain strongly rooted in the fundamentals and continue to be taught to generations to come. However the newest developments and growth are in the modern martial arts. The latest developments are in extreme martial arts. This new style is based on a combination of traditional karate, acrobatics, and gymnastics. It is sometimes referred to as action karate, movie martial arts, or as we call it NeoKarate.

The strongest growth of acrobatic karate has been a result of national karate competitions. Competitors, inspired by acrobatic moves of traditional styles like Wu-shu, Hong Kong martial art action films, gymnastics, and even karate based video games, have continually pushed the envelope of karate techniques. In the 1990s competitors began incorporating back flips and 540s into their katas or karate forms. (A 540 is a jump spin kick. The same leg is used to jump, kick and land.) The competitions adapted by introducing new divisions such as creative forms, open forms, and musical forms.

Each year it seems that the competitors have reached the limits of the human body and have exhausted the possibilities of karate kicks, strikes, jumps, spins, flips, and combinations. Yet, they continue to improve and innovate. The techniques listed on this site are an example of the creativity and abilities of this new bread of martial artist or, as they sometimes call themselves, tricksters.

There are heated discussions about what consitutes a martial art and some people disregard the new techniques as trash with no place in karate or any martial arts style. On the other hand, most people see it as a natural progression. Martial arts is not just about self-defense or bone crushing kicks and strikes. It is about conditioning the body and the mind. It is true that the extreme techniques of NeoKarate are not meant for self-defense or even for sparring. But more than any other traditional technique, we believe, the high difficulty moves of NeoKarate demand an elite level of physical skill, concentration, and air-sense. (Air-sense is a gymnastics term referring to the ability to feel one's orientation in space while off the ground spinning, jumping, or flipping.)

We think the future of karate is indeed bright. The traditional styles will continue to spread throughout the world and the new styles will evolve more as an art-form involving extreme acrobatic skills. Both can co-exist and flourish. They offer the practioners different benefits and challenges. We at NeoKarate believe the adage that flash is trash without basics. We encourage tricksters who want to live the way of a true martial artist to study a traditional karate style to supplement the extreme flashy kicks and flips of NeoKarate.