Karate gained immense popularity after the film Enter the Dragon across the world but the sport has failed to live up to its past glory. This may soon change as karate is set to feature in Olympics 2020 for the very first time. The introduction of karate will add another sport to the martial arts category which currently has boxing, taekwondo, wrestling, judo and fencing.
Apart from karate — baseball, softball, skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing are making their début in the 2020 Olympics.
The martial art sport will have two type of competitions —kumite, a freestyle fighting tournament and kata, where athletes demonstrate various karate moves. There will be 60 participants in kumite and 20 participants in kata from around the world in Olympics 2020.
Karri Someswar Rao, the founder of Dragon Tiger's Shotokan Karate-Do India, says, “Inclusion of karate in Olympics is not only good for the sport but everyone connected with sport. But worldwide karate is losing popularity because, unlike boxing and taekwondo, it doesn't have direct contact.” The rise of mixed martial arts seconds this trend.
The Dragon Tiger's Shotokan Karate-Do India was founded in 1983 and it continues to train karate masters with the hopes of keeping the sport alive. Rao continues, “There was a time when masters from Dragon Tigers were training in several government schools in the city. But now, it’s not the case.”
In 2014, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports selected Karate Association of India (KAI) as the National Sports Federation for Karate. Rao says, “This is a good thing. Now, there's just one body which sets the rules and regulations. This makes the preparation for the Olympics 2022 more streamlined.” Since then all karate trainers have to be recognized by the KAI.
Satyanarayana T, a karate trainer since 2015, says, “Not many schools in the city can hire a martial arts trainer in addition to a general sports teacher. A school typically pays between ₹4000 to ₹15000 for a martial arts trainer for 12 hours per month.” He continues, “The problem comes when a school doesn’t know the about KAI and they hire masters without KAI certification because they charge less.”
Martial arts help build both physical and mental strength. Nandagopal Bonthu, 22, a former karate student says, “Before training we would do warm up exercises and meditation. We were also taught how to control temper as well. I continue to implement my learning in day to day life.” Arya Reddy, student of a popular high school in the city say, “We don’t have karate training in our school, nor the school participates in any competition.”
Reddy is fourteen years old, he is learning karate since last four years, he adds, “I joined karate to learn self defence. In today’s world no one knows what the other person will do, we can only take responsibility of our own actions.”
Rao says, “Karate was never about the money for the trainers. I remember, when I first joined classes I paid ten rupees per month. But how will the sport grow if there is no one left to teach?