The answer to this question is yes and no. Many aspects of karate are completely ineffective or at least cannot be relied upon. For example, I recall learning the following technique. I would move at my opponent, striking, with one open hand, his groin, while at the same time striking, with the other hand, his throat. Both of my hands would then close so that I am grasping tightly both his throat and his groin. I would then lift him onto my shoulders, spin in a circle, and throw him to the ground on his head. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that this technique would not work. Yet we had to do the same technique, as well as several other useless techniques, over and over again.

And what about kicks to the head? For extremely athletic people, they are quite effective, as we can see by watching full contact karate matches. But you won't usually see forward snap kicks to the head because they are usually ineffective because they tend to just slide off of the opponents' body. Yet we did plenty of forward snap kicks to the head-in the air, of course.

But karate in the right hands and properly executed is extremely deadly. I recall, decades ago, at one point karate tournament when I sparred someone who punched me just once to my body. He almost always did one technique, but he did it right. He would smother his opponent's arms with a right side thrust kick, and then he would follow up with a full force left punch to the midsection. He completely incapacitated me with that one punch. After catching my wind, I was a bit demoralized. I tried again, but he again hit me full force. I hurt badly for days after that match.

Another thug at another tournament punched me so hard in the chest that my wind was completely knocked my wind out, and I again hurt for days. At still another tournament, I chased an opponent out of the ring. I can still remember seeing his fist heading in the direction of my nose. If my memory serves me correctly, I flipped over backward in mid air, landing in a puddle of my own blood.

These thugs, and others I've encountered, never even apologized to me. But, why should they? They did what they set out to do. Senseis do not, generally, seem very good at teaching the Golden Rule to their students.

Senseis should all impose very strict rules on the behavior of their students. In fact, because karate is so lethal, before a student acquires any rank at all, the student should be required to learn first aid and CPR. After all, once someone is injured by a karate practitioner, it is the responsibility of the karate practitioner to render aid to the other person-regardless of whether the other person is the attacker.

And, we live in a civilized society. Here in Illinois, for example, it is illegal for two people to fight, even if they both agree to fight. It generally appears that the "winner" of the fight is the one who would lose in any resulting civil suit. So it seems to me that the best self defense, aside from using the brain to avoid dangerous situations, is usually to just use the legs and run.

And youngsters who idle their days away thinking about how to rip people's groins and throats out would be better off preparing for exams. In conclusion, karate is a great way for a youngster to hurt him or herself, and few methods are superior at achieving this objective.

Learn more about this author, Joey Benedict.
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