Karate versus Judo in The Cybernauts

[Dandy Forsdyke]

I was watching The Cybernauts episode recently and this exchange between the Karate master and Mrs Peel has always interested me ....

Sensai: Please state your business, Mrs. Peel.
Emma Peel: I am interested in Karate.
Sensai: Interest is for the onlooker. From students we require dedication, nightly attendance for practice and demonstration. We never tolerate absentees.
Emma Peel: I appreciate that.
Sensai: Then appreciate too, Mrs. Peel, that Karate, unlike Judo, is not a sport. It is a science, an art, a discipline. The word Karate...
Emma Peel: [interrupting] Means empy hand.
Sensai: But the hands, though empty, can become more deadly than any weapon. It is the combination of force and a development of courage.

Obviously Karate is more effective than Judo but mention of Judo as a less efficacious fighting skill always seems to me that they were telling us Mrs Peel was more dangerous than Mrs Gale.

[Cariheart]

I've taken Judo and Karate lessons and they both hurt real bad!

Seriously, I wouldn't put one ahead of the other, they are equally damaging.

[Mrs. Peel]

I think Karate has more style and it seems more difficult...but each to his own

[VA_Avenger]

The sensei was generally correct. However, the amount of "hurt" really isn't the discriminator between judo and karate as sport or not.

Karate was developed specifically as a method of unarmed defense and attack. In its original form, it was never intended as a sport.

Judo was developed by Dr. Jigoro Kano as a compilation of methods taken mostly from jujitsu. Dr. Kano modified and augmented this compilation into a fairly modern form (ca. 1880) that is easily practiced as a sport.

Both judo and karate are practiced as sports today, and both can be lethal if used with that intent.

Final comment on the "hurt." As a dan holder and former instructor in both Taekwondo and Hapkido (Korean jujitsu), and standing Uke to my master instructor's Tori during Judo demonstrations, I can totally, unequivocally verify the "hurt" factor.

(for those who don't know the terminology, Uke is the guy who gets tossed around)

[Borgus Weems]

Interesting thought - I work with somebody who studied judo in the late 60's/early 70's, and apparently the kind of martial art as practiced by our 60's spies is no longer taught that way... the form was changed quite a bit since then.

[Dandy Forsdyke]

There was a judo class at school, but I went on the wrong day when it was trampoline class - and stuck with it (Which is very 'Chandler Bing', but perfectly true ... )

When I started work in the late 70's this chap invited me to try out his karate class. I said I was more interested in judo - and he gave me a look of disgust as if it was a poor comparison.

I think there a forum member who's a judo expert.

[VA_Avenger]

Any Karate-ka who thinks Judo is a poor comparison is likely to be surprised. In a direct confrontation, the Karate-ka has the reach advantage. However, if he does not land a disabling strike or kick, and the Judo-ka gets inside, generally, it's game over.

Although it's a bit different, witness how many of the extreme fighting matches are won by grapplers as opposed to strikers.

I'm not advocating one discipline as superior to the other, but I've learned by experience that plans made on those types of generalizations gang aft agley. (With apologies to Robert Burns)

[Mona]

I garnered a black belt in Karate, Wado Kai, style (similar to Shotokan), in Japan, years ago. Part of that form of karate uses some aspects of Judo in it. I taught Wado Kai for a couple of years back in the States.

I don't think a comparison of Karate and Judo is necessary--given good skill by a practitioner of either method whatever self defense needs to happen, no doubt will. Both are respectable forms of defense.

Anyway, a solid steel bowler and an amazingly strong right punch can apparently take out FIVE younger, brawny Russians by British spies who don't know any Asian arts--we don't exactly see Steed's fighting skills behind the closed steel door, but we know he was successful in his fight at the end of "Town of No Return", winding up with his bowler playfully askew on his adorable forehead. I'd vote for Steed being the best fighter of them all!

Mona

[VA_Avenger]

You're correct, of course. The "this vs. that" discussion doesn't accomplish much. My only point was, that with fairly equallly matched practioners, the first one to lose the advantage is in trouble. Just an observation from 25 years of training (20 as an instructor) and five years of tournament competiton.

[Mona]

You're correct, of course. The "this vs. that" discussion doesn't accomplish much. My only point was, that with fairly equally matched practitioners, the first one to lose the advantage is in trouble. Just an observation from 25 years of training (20 as an instructor) and five years of tournament competition.

Oh, yes, I agree with that statement entirely. Let's just include Steed as "equally matched"!

Mona
(Somewhat monomanically focused on you know who)