“We should open karate to the public and receive criticism, opinions and studies from other prominent fighting artists.”
— Chojun Miyagi
Honestly, this might be one of the most important quotes in all of karate.
And unfortunately, I think much of the karate world ignored it.
I say that as someone who has dedicated most of my life to karate.
There have been many times over the years when I almost hesitate to tell people that we teach karate at our school. Not because I believe karate is ineffective — I absolutely do not believe that — but because of the baggage the word carries today.
When many people hear “karate,” they immediately picture one of three things:
- kids punching the air,
- point sparring from the 1980s,
- or movie stereotypes like The Karate Kid.
They don’t picture pressure testing.
They don’t picture hard contact.
They don’t picture clinch fighting, takedowns, toughness, conditioning, or realistic self-defense.
And honestly, I think Chojun Miyagi warned us this could happen.
Miyagi believed karate should remain open to criticism, study, and influence from other skilled fighters. That mindset requires humility. It requires honesty. It requires martial artists to ask difficult questions:
“What are we doing well?”
“What are we missing?”
“What no longer works under pressure?”
“How do we continue improving?”
But somewhere along the way, much of karate became isolated.
Instead of evolving, many systems became overly focused on preservation.
Instead of pressure testing, they protected tradition.
Instead of adapting, they resisted criticism.
And over time, karate lost respect in the eyes of many fighters because it often failed to keep up with the realities of modern combat sports and self-defense.
Now let me be clear:
I am not saying karate itself failed.
I believe karate still contains incredible value.
The problem is not karate.
The problem is stagnation.
The original karate masters were innovators.
Gichin Funakoshi changed karate.
Mas Oyama changed karate.
Hironori Ōtsuka changed karate.
Chojun Miyagi himself changed karate.
None of them simply froze the art in time.
That’s one reason I’ve become more and more passionate over the years about realism, pressure testing, and learning broadly. My own journey through Kyokushin, Combat Kenpo, MMA, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, and self-defense training taught me something important:
Truth does not care about style loyalty.
If a boxer has better footwork, learn from it.
If wrestlers understand takedowns better, study it.
If jiu-jitsu exposes weaknesses in your ground game, address it honestly.
If pressure reveals flaws in your training, improve the training.
That mindset is not disrespectful to karate.
I believe it is exactly what Miyagi was advocating for.
At our school, we still deeply value karate. We value discipline, kata, toughness, conditioning, respect, and tradition. But we also believe martial arts should prepare people for reality, not just repetition.
That means being willing to evolve.
Because once a martial art refuses criticism…
once it stops testing itself honestly…
once it becomes more concerned with preserving appearances than effectiveness…
it slowly begins losing its identity.
Karate was never meant to become a museum piece.
It was meant to be alive.
-Sensei Brian