Karate Rules In The 70’s
‘Hydration’ didn’t exist.
3 hour full contact sparring sessions with no mitts or pads and ‘hydration’ was a few pints of light and bitter in the local pub afterwards.
Teeth knocked loose were spat out and sparring continued.
Students knocked out were propped against a wall until they came round.
Vomiting meant pulling the jacket forward and using the inside as a sick bag.
If you forgot your belt you were whipped by the other students using their belts.
If your suit was creased it would be ‘ironed’ by the othe other students using kicks and punches while you were still in it.
Everything was cured by tiger balm.
Everything smelled of tiger balm, ralgex, hai karate, spray starch old spice, aqua velva, smelly feet, sweat and cold.
Barefoot runs in karategi in Peckham and Rotherhithe always ended in street fights and flying sidekicks into the car doors of piss takers.
10 minutes of kata and 2hr 50mins of knocking the shite out of each other.
‘Dojo visits’ to test reality.
Sitting in your car and waiting for concussion to ease so you could remember where you lived.
Being the unofficial bouncer for the pub you trained above.
If someone didn’t attend a session we’d go round their house to see why.

The ‘good old days’ eh? 😂