You easily realise that what happens in movies isn’t quite the real thing. To start, in competition there’s manners and fairplay. Athletes can wear several protections (gloves, face-caps, knee-caps, and caps for delicate parts of the body…) that guard your physical integrity. Too much contact is punished, and can also get you out of the combat/championship. As a rule, this intends to encourage better control, which is one of karate’s goals. And last, the extra points are given to those who excel performing a technique or to those who can resolve a combat situation (the “ippon” point, which is twice the “wazaari” or normal point).

There’s another type of competition called kata. Katas are pre-determined sequences of postures, techniques or defensive blockages. They’re imaginary combats in which the karateka shows his knowledge of the martial art.
Kata is studied in different stages. The beginners are taught only the most simple ones, due to their ignorance of the art. As your belt darkens you begin to learn the more complex ones.

It is similar to sports such as the Olympic jump (swimming): it’s beautiful, the execution can be individual or done by a synchronized group; the scores are given according to the level of difficulty.

Referees

Judges