Karate in the early days was employed for fighting actual armed enemies and in itself was a deadly weapon. In recent years, sparring was made possible as the concept of delivering a technique to the opponent, just short of contact, was developed and recognized. During sparring sessions, there must be a mutual trust between partners that, any attack that targets a vital point, is forbidden. This is also said to be the 'morality' of Japanese martial arts. Sparring can be divided into two groups. One, free/simple sparring where partners spars freely with each other, and yakusoku kumite (pre-arranged sparring). In pre-arranged sparring, pairs of students are instructed to carry out clearly defined offensive or defensive techniques, with repetitive rehearsed sparring movements. Pre-arranged sparring is designed to improve timing, rhythm and judgement of fighting distance.

Free sparring is a completely free form of sparring in which both opponents’ movements are not pre-arranged. Sparring may resemble boxing, except the attacks are pulled just short of contact. Free sparring is not encouraged until a Karateka has a firm grasp of the basics, a high level of fitness, and has been practicing pre-arranged sparring with good focus and control.

The actual free-sparring is one of watchful, relaxed alertness with a free exchange of attacks, blocks and counters until one of the players gets in with a focused attack at an opening of his opponent.

The Shiai Kumite (sparring) is perhaps the competition, most familiar to the general public as it is visually exciting and for that reason, receives media exposure. The contestants spar within an 8 by 8 meter square, with each match lasting 3 minutes for men and 2 minutes for women, or until either of the contestants score a Sanbon (three points), whichever is earlier. Contestant’s score when an effective and controlled technique is delivered to a non prohibited area. An Ippon (one Point) is awarded to an excellent technique which has met all the necessary criteria, the criteria being Good form, Correct attitude, Vigorous application, Zanshin (perfect finish), Proper timing and Correct distance. A Waza-Ari (Half point) is awarded for a technique almost comparable to that needed to score Ippon, but does not satisfy at the most one criteria.

Rules for Kumite