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A four-volume set of programmes that examines the fighting styles of some of the world's finest traditional fighters. Packed with thousands of breathtaking clips, recorded at major national and international events. The footage is unique and covers a time frame between the early 1970s up to the late 1980s. The vast majority of this material is Shotokan based and includes most of the world champions across those particular years, especially Brennan - Hall - Christopher - Best and many other top continental European fighters.
You will never again see this kind of combat: most of these events were judged using the FAJKO system of adjudication, which basically meant 'last man standing wins' and quite often this level of savage contact resulted in serious injuries.
The introduction of the WUKO system of kumite, and later the WKF system of judging changed competition fighting from combat to point scoring between athletes and although this was inevitable, it sadly reduced the highly-charged excitement of championship fighting and, of course, crowd size as well. It is not uncommon these days to hear people decry traditional karate as being “ok in the Dojo but little use in a real situation...” – well, once you have seen some of this footage, you will seriously question that kind of statement.
The final section of this compilation shows clips from the 2006 JSKA world championship event, clearly illustrating the difference between the original JKA standard of Shotokan karate, and the now accepted brawling - point scoring sport that modern Shotokan has become. It is sometimes suggested that the modern karate champions would outpoint the old school, this may be true, however if judged on devasting power and destruction of your opponent, rather than point scoring, there is no question about a verdict.
Legend Productions no longer record competition karate events due to the typically poor standard of kumite that currently passes as Shotokan karate. It is indeed sad that the art has been reduced to this level, but at least we have a record of how it was in the days when Shotokan really was a brutal, but paradoxely - a dignified art. In all of these clips you will note that even following very hard fighting, the karate-ka bowed then shook hands - just as the Shotokan tradition requires.
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