My wife is a ballet dancer/teacher. She said the other day: `Why do karateka wear a karategi? You can not see the small details if the teachers leg is completely stretched or bent just a little. You can not see the details of how the schoulder is positioned etc... You can`t see the teachers details and he can`t see yours.` She has a point. So what is the practical reason for wearing one?
(not interested in how funakoshi copied and altered the judogi. Just looking for a good reason to wear one)
One reason I can think of: In training you can throw or sweep a guy and you can catch him on by his dougi, and he can grab your dougi whyle you catch him on the way down. So he doesnt get slammed in the hard flour if you train without mats.
Any other advantages?

I can see a practical reason for the trousers.

The baggy trousers are what allow them the freedom of movement of the legs in the first place.

Sure, if you wear more baggy trousers, you can't see the detail of the leg, but you also probably won't be able to perform the kick properly all that well, because you'll be stretching the trousers themselves.

The karateka's keikogi is a lightweight facsimile of normal clothing. You're correct that it provides handles on the body and friction to work around. This is important for many techniques in schools that do more than punching and kicking.

She seems correct that I can't see minute differences as well as when someone wears spandex, but part of the reason that dancers get away with wearing skintight clothing is that they are, as a rule, thin as a rail and easy on the eyes. This is, shall we say, less common among karateka.

Han090, the gussetted gi pants are inferior to spandex/leggings in regards to freedom of movement. You seem to be criticizing non-gussetted legwear, which is a strawman in this context.

Personally I prefer the heavyweight karate gi, judogi, and no-gi (t-shirt or sweats). The karategi is useful, practical, and helps me look good--certainly better than I would in spandex--but training in different gi types, and without a gi, is fun and informative.

I often used to grab and pull people's gi sleeves as I punched them.

Karate gis are worn because Japanophiles wouldn't feel very Japanese in sweats. There is really no good reason for wearing a gi to practice a striking art.

Well, that's what you get for practicing karate as a striking art.

Well, that's what you get for practicing karate as a striking art.


Please spare me. Don't even start with the "Karate has grappling, too" fallacy. There's no good reason to wear a gi to practice karate. None.

My wife is a ballet dancer/teacher. She said the other day: `Why do karateka wear a karategi? You can not see the small details if the teachers leg is completely stretched or bent just a little. You can not see the details of how the schoulder is positioned etc... You can`t see the teachers details and he can`t see yours.` She has a point.


This is only important in dance, and kata competitions,



neither of which has anything to do with effective Karate.



Gi are a tradition, not all schools wear them.

If you don't like them, train somewhere that doesn't require them,

or in an art that doesn't wear them at all.




The world is full of choices.


:hello:

Please spare me. Don't even start with the "Karate has grappling, too" fallacy. There's no good reason to wear a gi to practice karate. None.

Karate has no grappling. For instance, Funakoshi only used strikes, as you can see here:
http://www.theshotokanway.com/throwsandlocks.html

Joe Swift discussing ground defense, jointlocks, chokes and throws in early-20th-century karate:
http://seinenkai.com/articles/swift/swift-tidbits1.html

Funakoshi's students doing kata guruma and something throwing/grappling related:
http://www.waseda-karatebu.org/waseda/history/images/history004_l.jpg

Whether or not you wear a gi, karate is not a striking-only art. What style do you do, that you think it is?

Karate has no grappling. For instance, Funakoshi only used strikes, as you can see here:
http://www.theshotokanway.com/throwsandlocks.html

Joe Swift discussing ground defense, jointlocks, chokes and throws in early-20th-century karate:
http://seinenkai.com/articles/swift/swift-tidbits1.html

Funakoshi's students doing kata guruma and something throwing/grappling related:
http://www.waseda-karatebu.org/waseda/history/images/history004_l.jpg

Whether or not you wear a gi, karate is not a striking-only art. What style do you do, that you think it is?


Sigh.

Please spare me. Don't even start with the "Karate has grappling, too" fallacy. There's no good reason to wear a gi to practice karate. None. I beg to differ.
1. Cool snap sound with strikes, specially with heavy material.
2. Shows blood well.
3. Hides paunch.
4. Goes well with a black belt.

I beg to differ.
1. Cool snap sound with strikes, specially with heavy material.
2. Shows blood well.
3. Hides paunch.
4. Goes well with a black belt.


Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

Don't forget the money that is made: manufacturers' markups, schools' markups, and so on.

What's really annoying is this false equation of gis and "tradition". They haven't been around long enough to fit most people's expectations of "tradition" (rightly or wrongly, the word is linked with things that have been around a long, long time). In my years in Japan, people looked upon gis the same way we look at track suits: something you wear for training so that you don't sweat up, bleed on or tear up your usual clothes...nothing more than that.

My issue with gis is that there is no practical reason not to hang onto some old street clothes instead and spar in them if self-defense is one's goal: the closer one's training resembles the situation for which one trains, the better it prepares one for that situation.

a well fitting gi does not in any way preclude the visibility of "details."

advantages of a karategi over no gi at all:

a: without a gi, there's no excuse to wear a snazzy belt.

b: it's expected. a hundred years is a long time, particularly given how much shorter training "generations" are than reproductive ones. it's also expected by onlookers: they see people training and say "oh, those are martial artists" rather than "oh, those are hooligans."

c: having a specific uniform of some sort allows people to more easily transition into a different "role," and also serve as "personal space armor," allowing training partners to get closer than might otherwise be comfortable.

d: clothing designed specifically for a given task will typically last longer and hold up better than clothing not designed for that task.

e: maintaining presentability plays into the training ethos cultivated in most dojos.

and i've already forgotten several other points while typing that up.

advantages of a karategi over a judogi or jiujitsugi:

absolutely fucking none. go woven or go home.

(note that i don't actually care if i'm training with or without a gi - i'm mostly listing things for my own entertainment - but i do place great stock in point C listed above)

+rep. Point C is the best argument for the ritual associated with most judo and karate schools: bow onto the training area, bow to begin class, bow to acknowledge your partner.

The way I see it is, the dojo is a different kind of place. I don't care who you are, where you come from, what you think, whatever--on the dojo floor, you work hard, act professional, and take part in activities that are quite reasonably considered weird as hell.

Grabbing each other suddenly (and with force that surprises and sometimes insults the newbies), hitting each other, grinding our pelvises together, whatever. It's weird stuff, and separating that from the everyday can be useful, psychologically.

Sidebar: I noticed years ago something I dubbed the "gi effect." I would have a cold/indigestion/whatever when I came into the school...I'd gi up, and forget about it. Back to normal clothes later, and suddenly I'd remember that I had a huge headache, had to piss, and my stomach was churning.

Anyway, this isn't to say that the gi is a must. No-gi training is great.

Sigh.

What kind of karate do you do?

Because my karate involves ground grappling, throws, jointlocks, and chokes.

If yours doesn't, that's a problem with you and your school, not karate.