The Olympic karate rules are heavily influenced by traditional kumite. Normally no protective gear is worn, and the safety of the participants depends on precise control of techniques. Excessive contact is therefore penalized, even with safety equipment.

Throwing (which by itself does not earn points in karate) must be a clean technique followed immediately by a killing blow. The takedown in that match looked a little off-balance, and at any rate the first followup punch seemed to miss.

EDIT: Someone just lost their bid for Gold in Men's Kumite when he knocked out his opponent with a kick.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kkina,

The Women's 10m Air Pistol was a real nail-biter...

Karate is similar to some other "artsy" martial disciplines - don't hurt your opponent but try to look good doing it. That is why people only disciplined in this fighting style often get crushed on the street. (or in a cage)

Noteworthy exceptions would be Georges St. Pierre and Lyoto Machida.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Graniteguy,

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
They need to bring this back:

Except maybe like in some of the science fiction stories that feature dueling or other battles with real weapons. More realistically, how about contests with at least Simunitions: one-on-one and/or teams? Weren’t the original Olympics and even the first modern contests supposed to involve abilities useful in warfare?

Or knowing that that would be impossible for the actual “Olympics,” why no modern military skills games? If things like the international sniper or US Army Best Ranger competitions were conducted and covered somewhat similarly to the Olympics, I might even buy a TV just to watch them.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

Except maybe like in some of the science fiction stories that feature dueling or other battles with real weapons. More realistically, how about contests with at least Simunitions: one-on-one and/or teams? Weren’t the original Olympics and even the first modern contests supposed to involve abilities useful in warfare?

Or knowing that that would be impossible for the actual “Olympics,” why no modern military skills games? If things like the international sniper or US Army Best Ranger competitions were conducted and covered somewhat similarly to the Olympics, I might even buy a TV just to watch them.

Well, the modern pentathlon is still a part of the Olympics. I got lucky and just happened to catch it the other day on TV by accident.

"The modern pentathlon is an Olympic sport that comprises five different events; fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming (200 m), equestrian show jumping (15 jumps), and a final combined event of pistol shooting and cross country running (3200 m). This last event is now referred to as the laser-run, since it alternates four legs of laser pistol shooting followed by an 800 m run (for 3200 m in total). The event is inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the ancient Olympics; as the original events were patterned on the skills needed by an ideal Greek soldier of the era, the modern pentathlon is similarly patterned on events representing the skills needed by cavalry behind enemy lines."

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
...why no modern military skills games?

Modern military skill games is pentathlon.

Militay sports is CISM (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY SPORTS COUNCIL) at milsport.one. CIOR (Confédération Interalliée des Officiers de Réserve) is an alternative.

Couldn’t be happier about the fall-off in TV ratings due to wokeism.

https://www.americanthinker.co...tings_plunge_49.html

Wokester wake-up call: NBC Olympics ratings plunge 49%

Well, the Olympics television viewership ratings are in for NBC and, boy, are they ugly:

NBC’s primetime coverage of the Tokyo Olympics on July 26 averaged 14.7 million viewers -- for a 49% drop compared to the equivalent night from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and 53% less than the 2012 London Olympics. The opening ceremonies saw their lowest viewership since 1988.

Fox News reports that the network is actually giving advertisers extra ad time just to make up for all the lost revenue.

And sure, there are a few reasons -- Simone Biles's exit, and subsequent Oprahfied melodrama about her mental health certainly sucked a lot of air out of the room. The capacity to watch the shows one likes on YouTube any time one likes is another. A third one is the International Olympic Committee getting rid of "guy" sports like wrestling in favor of circus-dancing contests (complete with sparkly lion-tamer costumes) such as rhythmic gymnastics. The big one, though, is the one the advertisers don't talk about: Wokester politics invading sports, which repels the public.

We saw that earlier, with professional basketball following professional football off the ratings cliff. Now the Olympics, and in particular, U.S. Olympics, has followed that sorry herd.

Some instances were out there, like turds in the Olympic punch bowl.

One, that character who crossed her arms on the Olympic podium to protest the U.S. after winning Olympic silver. Who the heck was she and what can we do to ensure we never hear from her again?

Two, the pre-Olympic shenanigans of Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who disrespected the flag at a qualifying event and promised more should she win a medal, and the loud support of her wokesterism from the U.S. Olympic Committee. There was a lot of cheering when she lost.

Three -- there's also the wokester coach of the men's basketball team, one Gregg Popovich, who has spouted every wokesterism in the book. His team won gold, but does anyone care? Not if they have to listen to him and his pontifications. Sorry, team.

Four, and most prominent: Megan Rapinoe and her U.S. women's soccer team. Did anyone care that she hit an 'olimpico' goal, a very hard corner-kick that won her team the bronze? Nope, not really. The only thing people saw and tuned out from thereafter was her constant kneeling at the flag, Colin Kaepernick-style, to protest America's awfulness. Who needs that?

To say that wokesterism wasn't the prime reason for the viewers tuning out is nonsense. Two days ago, the New York Post reported that Subway franchisees have begged their mother company to pull their Megan Rapinoe ads based on angry encounters with their customers, the ones who pay them money.

And as for wokesterism, Rapinoe has toned it slightly down. When President Trump put out a missive stating that wokester leftists such as her are leading to losses, (something I observed here) Rapinoe pretended to be a stateswoman and called it a "sad dig," adding "I’m just like, ‘You’re rooting for people to do bad?’ Yikes." Which was disingenuous. Yahoo! Sports noted in its backgrounder:

The relationship between Trump and the team has long been strained, particularly when it comes to Rapinoe, who last year blasted Trump as a “white nationalist.” Asked in 2019 about the possibility that the White House might invite the team for a visit, prior to their FIFA Women’s World Cup victory that year, Rapinoe let it be known: “I’m not going to the fucking White House.”

Such a civility-filled charmer. But now she's 'shocked, shocked' that Trump was happy she lost. A lot of us were.

Yes, that's why people don't want to watch soccer or much of any of the summer Olympics. A 49% plunge in viewership comes pretty close to matching the number of Republicans in the country, so when a player goes woke, half the audience tunes out. They showed it in spades in the Olympics. Now if they wokesters can just learn to keep their politics to themselves, they might just retain the missing half of their audience. But it's hard to say if they really will. They don't understand economics, they don't understand cause-and-effect, and therefore, they carry on with the wokesterism. Maybe it's numbers like these, and the lower paychecks that follow that will serve as their wokester wake-up call.

I am familiar with the modern pentathlon, but somehow I can’t quite picture too many modern military forces using fencing épées or horses in their operations. “Shooting” laser pistols—even those that make a tiny effort to replicate the action of real guns—also seems a little remote from any genuine military skill. That’s why I included “modern” in my mention of military skills.

I checked the International Military Sports Council site and although I understand its goals, volleyball and basketball are not what I had in mind either. I gather, though, that they do at least have shooting events with service weapons, so there’s that. So thanks for pointing out that organization.

I am of course just fantasizing that anything like what I have in mind would ever be sanctioned in our modern world. Unless the next totalitarian autocrat who comes to power thinks it would be a good idea, but hopefully I won’t be around to see that.

quote:

Originally posted by 2BobTanner:
Couldn’t be happier about the fall-off in TV ratings due to wokeism.

This HUGE DROP in ratings this year really pleases me. Be woke somewhere else, as the common man/woman do not want to see it in the Olympics.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: parabellum,

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Karate is similar to some other "artsy" martial disciplines - don't hurt your opponent but try to look good doing it. That is why people only disciplined in this fighting style often get crushed on the street. (or in a cage)

Noteworthy exceptions would be Georges St. Pierre and Lyoto Machida.

When my daughter and I were taking karate locally taught by a friend, he taught everyone "street fighting" style, NOT how to make it look good. His intention was if we ever had to use our skills in the real world, we would be able to prevail, not look pretty while getting our butts kicked!

Even though I had to quit due to neck problems and neck surgery right after attaining my lowly yellow belt (one step up from beginner for those who don't know), I already knew how to kill a person several different ways with my bare hands. Now I hope those skills are never required as being skilled in such things require consistent practice, plus these days my body is in such bad shape I'd never be able to manage most of what I learned, so consequently I am now armed 24/7 with a lead-slinger instead of trying to depend on my fists!

Yes, Bronica - having broken both my hands several times I also opt for the leadslinger. Having trained in Muay Thai for several years you would think I would have learned to favor shins and elbows vs. fists.

I care as much about swimming and volleyball this year as I do every other year.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Karate is similar to some other "artsy" martial disciplines - don't hurt your opponent but try to look good doing it. That is why people only disciplined in this fighting style often get crushed on the street. (or in a cage)

Men's 75+ kg Gold Medal kumite final
https://youtu.be/A1HQDP-tkxo

The Saudi karateka in Red is dominating the Iranian karateka in Blue. At 4:20 in the vid, Blue w/ his hands down walks into Red's kick. Blue collapses like a sack of potatoes. Blue is TKO'ed, but Red gets DQ'ed for kicking too hard; therefore, Blue who was taken off on a stretcher is awarded the win. Gold medal to Iran.

I've read the karate lobbyists defend Olympic karate as requiring more technique & control than allowing to two opponents to square up and try to beat each other up (e.g, boxing, wrestling, judo, TKD). You know what would impress me? The kind of technique & control required to successfully block an opponent's kicks & punches.

^^^

That was about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in athletic competition.

What a joke.

I was somewhat less impressed to find out this performance from the closing ceremony was not a drone display, and only the tv audience could see it. I guess why bother when the stands are all empty anyway.

The first minute is digitally augmented reality. People at the stadium could not see it.

Ok, that was even dumber than that ridiculous woman’s fencing I watched. He kicked too hard. What subjective hell does that sport live under?

As for the closing ceremonies, they should have just played Star Wars scenes since it was all fabricated CGI nonsense.

This Olympics was a bust for me. If you enjoyed it great. We all need to find enjoyment. The Olympics aren’t it for me.

The Olympics are finally over? Good. Now I hope Subway dumps the purple haired rug muncher. Not that I will ever eat there again anyway.

Jersey Mikes is FAR superior and there isn't any anti American spokes "person". Regards 18DAI

Puerto Rico is not a country. How did they enter as such?

Let them be a country, and that way, they'll stop trying to glom onto the United States.

Winter Olympics are much better anyway for me.
My hope is that none of this woke crap two years from now.