21 September 2011 Science and Karate in Iran: challenges and possible strategies 1st National Congress of Science and

Karate Tabriz, Iran Hossein Mokhtarzadeh* *PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Australia hmok@student.unimelb.edu.au
http://mjreflection.blogspot.com/

Iranian coaches have shown to be able to educate outstanding Karate kas who can be world class champions in Martial arts especially in Karate. However, there is a dearth of persistence of such leaderships from time to time. Before considering the reasons for such fluctuations in winning competitions, it is worth noting that the purpose of spreading physical activities is not only to obtain medals but also to achieve high standard of societys health while less injuries take place. Iran also takes advantage of substantial number of participants in Martial arts. There is a tendency among youth in Iran to learn Karate, taekwondo and other martial arts techniques and even add more complexity to the combination of such techniques. Everyone who has attended Karate classes fully understands the extent of confidence, agility and flexibility that such trainings would provide them. The positive effects of Karate exercise are worldwide. But there are some efforts that have been taken in developed countries while we still have not realized their values. Up to authors knowledge, the challenges can be categorized as follows: 1- English proficiency of participants and instructors as well as Judges and referees 2- Lack of scientific approaches from Dojo levels to the Karate federation executives 3- Collaboration with research groups and Universities

English language is vital because we have to communicate with the rest of the world. This cannot always be done through interpreters. Though, two to three years of intense education is simply required to improve the level of English among people who have realized the importance of communication in this Global Village. Nowadays, regardless of our expertise, every one of us uses a product that has come from scientific approaches even in our daily routine such as YouTube and facebook in which all Karate competitions can be viewed right after the match form any corner of the world.

However, such approaches cannot be done properly unless we ask scientists to take right actions. For instance, reading a magazine article about motion capture system and its application to determine Karate kas agility would not give us enough knowledge to be a biomechanist. Although, having such a person in our national team as a coach assistant may help develop new training methods based on facts and figures. Let me give you another example, in Australia there is an institute called AIS (Australian institute of sport) similar to National Olympic Committee in Iran in which quite a few number of scholars , PhD students along with physiotherapist and other scientists gather together to help improve and evaluate their athletes performances from different aspects. This is apart from the joint collaborations with Universities and other research institutes. This takes place because experts are in their own positions where they are needed. It of course happens all over the world where executives and coaches have to be responsible for their actions. Author believes that one of the most important issues regarding Karate in Iran is the lack of enough scientific studies to help us decide what should be done properly. Such ignorance to the facts that science can provide positive outcome, may lead us to rely on our perception based on trial and error. Other than that as the saying goes by Stephen Hawking, The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge. Regarding sports in third world countries such as Iran and in particular in Karate, the best approach to be on the right track is to realize that we do need to learn everyday and this is not achievable unless we accept the fact that without real scientific findings through correct methodologies, we wont be able to keep up the good job our young Karate kas make available for us. In conclusion, I would like to stress the importance of learning English as a tool to communicate with the rest of the word. Also, the initiation of good collaboration with Universities as well as research groups abroad should be taken into consideration. Finally, knowledge transfer through its main stream, for instance, documentation of matches via videos, conferences and international scientific meetings, journal papers in addition to media exposures are strongly recommended.