A 'personal view' on the state of karate in 2019 - far removed IMO from the karate we learned in the 60-70's. The hard side of karate; as in the case of many martial arts, now watered down and sacrificed at the altar of sport.
Some of the boys from Merthyr KC which was then run by Lyn Powell under the Wado Ryu system. Lyn Powell was a highly successful and well respected karate-ka, and it was Ged Moran’s good fortune to meet up with Lyn in1976.
Ged Moran interview for Martial Arts View channel with Tommy Casale and James Leporatie
Recently I was able to meet up with some former students of mine, Shotokan men and women who had trained with me as far back as 1967 during my KUGB days. Also, there were a couple of senior students of mine who now run a successful dojo in Greece – lots of warm memories shared.
As I approach my 49th year of training, it occurs to me that perhaps I’ve been lucky in more ways than one, in connection with the martial arts.
I’m often asked why Legend doesn’t produce more ‘modern’ programmes based on competition events that are current, or at least from the last decade. The answer is simple: resulting sales from current events would not even cover their production costs.
In various interviews I’ve talked about falling standards in martial arts which I feel is possibly as a consequence of the huge variety of competitions available these days and to which people are attracted and which, to a great degree, allow them to avoid the painful and often boring repetition of doing basics over and over.