Sometimes one can see indications of a ‘hard’ style and a ‘soft’ style of martial arts. For many non-military artists, these terms may be confusing. In North America, these terms are used to classify karate styles into two main categories.
Japanese / Okinawan karate and Korean tae kwon do are often referred to as sturdy styles. The movements in both karate and tae kwon do are usually accompanied by your forms (traditional chronological movements) performed with a slow movement.
Chinese kung fu styles are often referred to as soft styles. The circular motion of kung fu forms makes them look more or less soft especially when most movements flow from one to another. Even Korean kuk sool won sometimes referred to as 'Korean kung fu', is often classified as a soft style as its movement is more streamlined than the standing and moving tae kwon do or karate.
This is not to say that strenuous styles like karate or tae kwon do are stronger than karate than kung fu and other soft styles. The word 'soft' is a little misleading because the power from round kung fu is often hidden. A circular motion can generate equal strength to that of a direct one.
The names of the strong style and the soft style emerged as a result of the emergence of North American martial arts competitions, particularly in the diversity of forms. For many years, open karate competitions that allowed for all martial arts, with competitors from different martial arts competing in the same categories.
All competitors at the same level, whether using Japanese / Okinawan karate, Korean tae kwon do or Chinese kung fu form, compete together in the same categories. This provided an excellent karate show for the spectators especially at major tournaments.
However, some competitors and judges view the diversity of integrated styles as a very complex one. For example, the judges were familiar with only Japanese or Korean styles and had a difficult time finding rivals who practiced Chinese kung fu. Sometimes rivals of different styles of fighting feel that the judges are biased against them.
Judging a solid style form against a soft style was often like trying to compare apples to oranges. To help solve these problems, many large karate tournaments have been expanded to accommodate different categories of strong and soft styles.
This was a way of balancing things and adding more righteousness to all the competitors. Major tournaments continued with another step and also divided the Japanese and Korean karate styles of the tae kwon do stylist by placing them in different categories. This has left many kempo style makers high in the air because their forms have both strong and soft style elements as both movements are straight and circular.
Some organizers of major competitions have decided to embrace kempo stylists by adding in different forms sections because of their style as well. Of course many local competitions have not been able to offer different categories of solid and soft style to karate form competitors mainly due to budget constraints.
The terms strong style and soft style are used only in North America and in some parts of Europe as these are the only regions of the world with open combat competitions. Martial arts competitions in other parts of the world such as Asia are usually limited to certain styles.
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