Martial Arts In The Olympics, Combat Sports And Competition

In the Olympics there are 2 eastern martial arts included (Judo and Taekwondo). Karate has been vying for a sport in the games since the 90s and will be a spectator sport in the 2020 Tokyo Games. There are a lot of Karateka excited about it and a lot not. Judo and Taekwondo as sports have gone through many changes since their inception. Whenever a change is made some folks are going to disagree with it. Many of the changes are necessary to make the sport worth watching and interesting to sponsors. As we saw with the sport of Wrestling, viewership and interest went down over the years and they were almost taken out of the games. Now Wrestling has modified the rules and the uniform (long sleeve, so there will be more scores), so that people can better understand what's going on. Changes in these sport are good because if they get viewers they reach more people. The purist have a problem with these changes because they tend to be close minded. If these changes increase viewership and revenue, they stay around. Martial artist who look at competition as something bad are usually those who would never get on a mat and test themselves. They will criticize those who do.  When people see martial arts on TV (movie, sport, etc.), interests increases. If a kid goes to a martial arts school because he or she wants to be an Olympian, it is a good thing. They get exposure to the marital arts, they have an opportunity to compete and the instructor has the opportunity to show them other aspects besides competition.