Martial arts have changed drastically in the last half of the 20th century. Bruce Lee made apparent the shortcomings in karate; mainly the lack of mobility, footwork, combinations and drawing or faking techniques. Basically, karate was not a comprehensive martial art. It was very specialized and technical but not always practical! Some traditional karateka ignored this and continued training and teaching as they had been taught. But others did not.

There were karateka who saw that Lee was making a very valid point. There were almost no grappling skills taught in karate and there were things from other martial arts styles that were very different but worked! One good example is boxing. Mohammed Ali was boxing at around the same time Bruce Lee lived. Many still consider Ali to be the best boxer ever because of his speed and mobility, not to mention his use of space (the ring). "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" was his motto. Ali showed that footwork and combinations worked. Those that wanted to combine the kicking of karate and the footwork and hand combinations of boxing created kickboxing.

Others looked at other traditional eastern martial arts and started incorporating different motions into what they were studying. The locks of jiu-jitsu, the flow of aikido, the grappling of wrestling. They amalgamated skills and incorperated them into karate, for better or for worse. This has resulted in off-shoots of karate, with (it seems) every Tom, Dick and Harry putting together his/her own "new" martial art.

The idea of tournaments also brought a new dimension to karate. To this day there is no worldwide consensus on a style of competition or unification of rules, and this fragmentation has produced division within schools that support competition. Sparring gear differs, rules about contact differ, the method of scoring points differs...the only thing that seems to be a common bond is that tournament karate is indeed very different from traditional karate.

Tournament karate is concerned with scoring points. A point consists of a hit with control. Of course the degree of control and the target area itself depend on the tournament style. I compete in WUKO (World United Karate Organisation, if memory serves me correctly) style tournaments.