KARATE AND BOXING GLOVE IMPACT

Abstract

Karate, an oriental art of self defense which has been adapted to sport form, has gained considerable popularity since the development of sparring and tournament competition. The sport form, one aspect of the martial art, has three distinct sparring divisions: controlled or non-contact, limited contact, and full-contact competition. In non-contact competition the blows are delivered with "full power" . Opponent injury is avoided by focusing the blow just prior to contact. The match is awarded on points by judges for probable injury occurance. In limited contact sparring, light and moderate contact is required, however emphasis is on demonstrating a successful blow has been delivered rather than damaging the oponnent. A point system is also used for this division. In full-contact karate the object is to knock out the opponent with a hand or foot technique and in this respect it is similar to boxing. In the absence of a knockout, the match is awarded on points.