G'day,

Name is Don and I wish to start training in Karate. I have a fair bit of kickboxing experience but that is it. I just wanted to ask some questions about Karate if someone would be so kind to enlighten me?

My understanding which may be wrong -

{ From what I understand Karate is a brilliant self defense system that wasn't originally intended to be a sport like boxing. It involves quick hard strikes with small parts of the hands or foot into the pressure points of the attacker and is meant to be take an opponent down fast before a match begins. There are some sophisticated take down locks in the system as well. Many clubs try to turn it into a sparring/kickboxing type of thing when that is not what it is. A self defense scenario may go like this perhaps - A karateka is threatened by a much stronger faster MMA fighter in the street. The MMA fighter has superior boxing skills to the karateka and the karateka would not last 1 minute in a stand up boxing match with this particular fighter as he trains professionally. The MMA fighter will not back down and is threatening the karatekas life. The MMA fighter steps forward to attack. With blinding speed the karateka throws a very fast knife hand strike that avoids the attackers gaurd into his opponents left eye, striking with the tips of his fingers. Temporarily Blinded in one eye and injured, the attacker grabs his face and falls to the ground while the defender moves away quickly. }

Am I on the right track?? I am after a more traditional style that does not have kickboxing sparring in it, just pure self defense. Which style would you recommend?

And am I correct in what I believe karate to be? What is it and what isn't it?

Any help would be much appreciated.