Is the Origin of Karate in Okinawa?

The Origin of Karate

Did Karate originate from the Japanese island of Okinawa just as Mr. Miyagi claims in the film Karate Kid?

The Origin of Karate can be found as far back as the dawn of man.

Karate is actually not unique at all. Hand-to-hand combat has been practiced for at least 2500 years and probably much longer than that. The first weapons the first humans had were sticks, stones, rods, and other things they could find in nature, And when that wasn’t enough, they probably just used their hands and feet. It’s not strange to suppose that in the beginning, everybody used some sort of primitive martial art.

Later, soldiers and war-folks always tried to train and prepare for every kind of opponent as well as every kind of situation. The Roman and Greek soldiers trained with weapons, and they trained without weapons. The training techniques with weapons became the foundation for track and field… And hand-to-hand combat techniques became the foundation for a series of martial arts from Scandinavia to South Africa, from Japan to America. Kicking, throwing, punching, and holding is in no way unique to the east. 

The seeds of modern Karate.

Japan stretches from northeast to southwest between the Russian Sakhalin Island and a point south of Korea. But the Empire of the rising sun doesn’t finish there. From Kyushu in the south, Japan continues almost all the way to Taiwan. These are the Ryūkyū Islands and of these Okinawa is the biggest. 

The history of Okinawa goes back thousands of years. But let’s focus on the last six hundred of them. In 1429, Okinawa was unified as the Ryūkyū Kingdom. With a large and effective administration, little internal warfare, and a perfect geographic position right there on the border of the East China Sea, their Empire grew in importance. Through effective trade between China, Southeast Asia, Korea, and of course Japan they slowly became a lively, cultural melting pot. And it is in this context we should try to find the origin of karate.

The seed germinates…

origin of karate

Okinawa at the time had a very complex caste system. The Okinawans were born into their respective roles in society. 

  • There was the King and the King’s family. 
  • Below them, there were several noble classes and priests. 
  • Then came three levels of Pechin, the feudal warrior class. These were charged with enforcing the law and providing military defense to the nation, similar to the Japanese Samurai. 

In 1477 a general weapon ban was issued by King Shō Shin. He also moved most of the local district rulers to the capital, Shuri. All this to eliminate any possibility of uprising or rebellion in the districts. The ban lasted for 50 years until the King’s death. 

In 1609 the Shimazu family of the Satsuma-han (today’s Kagoshima prefecture) in southern Japan invaded and conquered Okinawa. From that point on, Okinawa has always been, in at least some way, a part of Japan. This was the time when a second weapon ban was introduced. 

Although these bans weren’t total and didn’t include all sorts of weapons, they still had a big influence on the way the Okinawan warriors trained. They had to adapt to the new rules. So, they developed and elaborated various techniques to fight with bare hands Te (手)… And they formed the Kobudō (古武道), which is a collective term for battle techniques with various weapons that were not forbidden, like staffs, hooks, sticks, etc. The chain stick, Nunchaku, is a weapon in this category.

The old Okinawan masters generally practiced Karate and Kobudō together. These two branches were originally one as fighting with and without weapons was all a part of the general technique of warfare. They complete each other.

China and the origin of Karate. 

Having close relations with all the surrounding countries, the Okinawans picked up useful skills from all of them. That included not only China but also other countries in the neighborhood.

origin of karate

It is sometimes described as if the origin of Karate was just Chinese Kung Fu, and the Okinawan Pechin just modified it.

The truth is that hand-to-hand fighting techniques were not at all unique for their particular origins or location, Chinese, Japanese, or otherwise. There were hundreds of various disciplines, and styles, and every corner of the landscape had its own schools and masters. 

Having said that, it is true that China and Okinawa had a long history of mutual economical and cultural exchange. 

After 1609 Okinawa still wasn’t yet fully Japanese. It was a Satsuma (Japanese) vassal state, and as such enjoyed quite a lot of independence. Interestingly it was also a Chinese tributary state.

China requested the tributary status to engage in trading relations. And as Japan didn’t have good relations with China, and as China straight out banned all economic transactions with Japan, Okinawa became the backdoor for anyone who wanted to exchange goods between the dominant powers of the region. It was a win-win situation for all. And it also allowed for China to continue dominating the cultural influence over the Ryūkyū islands.

Sakugawa Kanga.

Very little is known about this extraordinary master of Karate. He was born in the second half of the 18th century, probably in Akada Village outside the capital of the time, Shuri. He studied the traditional Okinawa hand-to-hand fighting technique, Te (手).

Karate punch wall

When he was in his thirties (.. or twenties.), he traveled to China, once or several times, and studied Chinese martial arts. Once home again, he started a school in Shuri where he taught his own merged variant of Te. 

The name of his technique was Tōde Sakugawa.  

  • Sakugawa, well that part is obvious.
  • Tōde is made up of two parts: De is the character for hand, Te (手) in Japanese. 
  • Tō is the character for Tang, as in the Chinese Tang dynasty. To (唐) in Japanese, but pronounced Kara as Karate (唐手) in this Kanji. The reason for calling the Chinese Tang was that Okinawa had made its first contact with the Chinese during the Tang dynasty. After that Tang (Tō) continued to be used for Chinese and Chinese goods in general… As well as “foreign” in general.

So, the translation would be Chinese Fist/Hand of Sakugawa

Ancient Okinawan Te bears a resemblance to Chinese Kung Fu.

Now, let’s sail over to Japan

Over in Japan, big things were happening. In 1868 the last Tokugawa shogun had to resign, and that was the end of the Edo period in Japan’s history. After that, the country returned to imperialism with its 122nd Emperor, Meiji. In 1872 an imperial order abolished the feudal domains, and overnight most of the samurai found themselves without a job. From being the backbone of Japanese society, suddenly they were obsolete. 

If you’ve seen the film The Last Samurai, you get the sort of general idea.

What followed was 15 years of brutal westernization. And in that process, the old ways of a feudal warrior didn’t fit in.

To that, we have to add, modern weapons… If you face rifles and canons, that could shoot you from hundreds of meters, the traditional battle techniques fall kind of short. Never bring a sword to a gunfight.

The result was a surplus of instructors, masters of ancient fighting techniques who nobody needed.

Karate as entertainmentThe origin of Karate – Public entertainment.

So, everything had to be European or American. The old Japanese culture was looked upon with skepticism The only martial art that still was popular during this period was Sumo. Because Sumo wasn’t a martial art connected to warfare and the feudal Tokugawa period. It was a sport, an entertainment, more tied to Shinto performance. It didn’t suffer as much from the anti-domestic movement in the late 1800s.

Kendo

In 1873 Sakakibara Kenkichi, who himself was one of the Samurai, engaged in organizing traditional Japanese sword battles, Gekiken Kogyo. As real swords were too dangerous, as well as banned, they used training swords made of bamboo. And so, Kendo was born. 

But even though I wasn’t supposed to write about Kendo, the birth of Kendo still has a lot to do with the origin of Karate. It was the first time one of the old battle techniques was used as entertainment rather than a way to kill your enemy in battle.

What Sakakibara Kenkichi did was to add a few very important details to his exhibitions, all borrowed from Sumo:

  • He introduced Sudden Death, the possibility to win with one strike if it’s correctly done. 
  • He introduced an independent referee. 
  • And lastly, he introduced commentators whose job was to explain the various rules, strikes, and how they were carried out. That made it enjoyable to watch, even if you didn’t understand anything about the event.

Judo

Judo vs Karate
Jigoro Kano (right) and Kyuzo Mifune (left)

In 1882 Jigoro Kano created another Japanese sport based on the old hand-to-hand fighting techniques. He called his sport Judo and added two more very important attributes that would become a great advantage for all the Budo – Modern Japanese martial arts. 

  • He added a universal ranking system loosely based on the ranking system for the popular board game Go. The Judo ranking system allowed any student to compete against any other student based on their respective rankings. It also made it possible for a student to go from one Master to another without having to start all over. Everybody agreed upon the standards that had to be met for each level of ranking. The Judo ranking system was based on several classes, Kyū (級), with colored belts, and normally 10 steps, Dan (段) with black belts. 
  • Jigoro Kano chose to name his sport: Judo, instead of keeping the form Jujutsu (jiu-jitsu). Although the most radical westernization was softened considerably by 1882, the old battle techniques weren’t fashionable. The lingering sense that the Samurai methods were outmoded, remained. By adding the word do (道) meaning way, as in “the way of…”, Kano introduced the idea of personal development through sport. And that was a stroke of genius. 

Karate, just like Kendo, Judo, Aikido, can be referred to as Karate-do… The way of the empty hand (空手道). 

karate borrowed the colors from judo

Karate later also adapted the white uniform from Judo, the Judo gi. As Karate don’t use holding, grappling, and throwing, and subsequently the material doesn’t need the same strength, the Karate gi is much lighter.

Back to Okinawa.

After the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the new government in Japan wanted to solidify its grip on Okinawa. The subordinate status was not well defined and could possibly open for claims from other countries. China still had vassal claims on the island, and when they upgraded Taiwan to a formal province, Japan saw that as a motive to tie up Okinawa harder. In 1887 they annexed the whole Ryūkyū archipelago and established Okinawa prefecture

The politics were therefore very different from that in Japan. After the annexation, there was not only a westernization in Okinawa but more so a Japanization. The Japanese language was mandatory in schools, and much of the Okinawan culture, such as the Martial Arts, was banned. The reaction was that of hostility towards the intruders and secret admiration for the domestic trademarks. 

Gichin Funakoshi

basic kata
Gichin Funakoshi

Gichin Funakoshi was born in 1868, the same year as the Tokugawa shogunate ended in Japan. He was of Pechin class and desired to become a medical doctor. But as his father was a hardened traditionalist and insisted on the boy wearing his hair in the traditional Pechin-hairstyle, he practically couldn’t even approach any prestigious education facility, necessary to accomplish his dream. Instead, he became a teacher.

Already in primary school, he had come across Asato Ankō, the father of one of his classmates. He also met Itosu Ankō. Funakoshi started training Karate secretly with those at night and continued doing so during all his school years and even as a full-grown teacher. His masters taught him not only Karate but also about Okinawan traditions, and language.

So, when the ban was lifted in 1901 and Funakoshi finally could open his own Dojo, he was trained not only in Karate, Okinawan culture, Chinese and Japanese philosophy, and language but also in the art of teaching. 

Funakoshi chose a name for his school that was identical to the pen name he had used when writing traditional Chinese-style poetry… Shoto (松濤) meaning waving pines. The school was called the house of waving pines – Shoto-kan (松濤館). 

Funakoshi went to Japan in 1917, but it was his trip there in 1922 that really made the difference. He was invited by the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, to demonstrate Karate at the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo. He was supposed to stay only for the demonstration but ended up staying for the rest of his life.

Growth.

At the end of the 19th century, Japan had a brand new, western-style education system. And just like the schools in Europe and America, physical education was an important part of educating the new generations. And so, a lot of funding was put into the schools, and a big part of this money went to hiring coaches.

The various new Martial Arts that had sprung up, all wanted a piece of that, rather juicy, cake. They competed with each other, but very soon they found out that the biggest adversaries were the western styles, the European and American sports, such as Baseball, Football (Soccer), Track and Field, and of course Boxing.  

In an attempt to unify the resources and work together to promote their various Martial Arts, they formed the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, DNBK  (大日本武徳会). An important selling point was the possible positive effect these domestic sports could have on the ethics and personality of the Japanese students… Remember the “do”. This argument increased in value during the 20th century when extreme nationalism grew in Japan.

At that time the DNBK tightened its bonds with the military and the police force. 

But long before that, the DNBK introduced and popularized the label, Budo, meaning some kind of Martial Art with the goal of moral cultivation and physical exercise.

The DNBK was and still is today an umbrella organization for Japanese Martial Arts.

Boxing and Karate.

At the beginning of 1900 Japan strengthen its hold on Southeast Asia. Japan was on the winning side in WW1, and they had captured German possessions in the Pacific and in China. 

Domestic politics went from nationalism to Shōwa Statism, an ultra-nationalism similar to the movements in Italy, Spain, and Germany at the time. Now it was more important than ever to have cultural manifestations that were truly domestic.

The match of the century between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier in 1921 turned everybody’s heads toward the ultimate sport – Boxing. The young crown prince Hirohito was in Europe when the fight occurred, and could follow the hysteria from the UK. Back in Japan, he was crowned Emperor later that same year. As he was a big fan of sports, and Martial Arts, in particular,  he wanted something similar but of Japanese origin. And nothing suited better than Karate. 

But the popular Okinawan styles at the time were too complex. So, a transformation started in the Dojos on the Japanese mainland. This transformation also depended on the need to somehow unify the techniques (Kihon), forms (Kata), and rules. For this reason, much of the holding and grappling that until that time was present in Okinawan Karate, was removed.

What was left was a sport, much more similar to boxing than the complete fighting technique that it had been at the beginning.

Kenwa Mabuni

Emperor of Japan
Emperor Hirohito

Many of the old masters from Okinawa were horrified by these changes.

Kenwa Mabuni, the founder of the Shito-Ryu school, said this about the new sport:

  –  The Karate that has been introduced to Tokyo is actually just a part of the whole. The fact that those who have learned Karate feel it only consists of Kicks and Punches, and that throws and joint locks only exist in Judo and Jujitsu can only be put down to a lack of understanding. Those who are thinking of the future of karate should have an open mind and strive to study the complete art.  

Jigoro Kano comes to Okinawa.

Another very important event was Jigoro Kano’s visit to Okinawa in 1927. He wanted to experience the birthplace of Karate himself. And that’s probably when the name of the sport started to feel a little too controversial, being labeled Chinese. The organizers of the event called their styles  Shuri-te (首里手), Nahari-te (那覇手), and Tomari-te (泊手) from three the cities Shuri, Naha, and Tomari from where the performers originated. These villages are only kilometers from each other and they are today parts of the city of Naha. 

The development into a worldwide, Olympic sport. 

In an attempt to be accepted in the Butoku Kai the name changed… Sort of. The many schools from Okinawa were all referred to as Chinese Hand (唐手) So, they dropped the “Chinese” (唐) together with names of Kata that were of Chinese origin. Instead, the name became Empty Hand (空手). These two words are pronounced the same, Kara-te. It’s just the meaning that changes.

In 1935, Karate was formally accepted in the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai.

So, that’s where it came from… From Okinawa. But once Karate had reached popularity in Japan it continued to conquer the world.

  • Although many prominent Okinawan instructors had been to Hawaii in the thirties, the introduction of Karate to the US mainland came after WW2. Soldiers that had been stationed in Okinawa or Japan during and after the war brought the new sport home.
  • Also after WW2,  Karate was introduced to Europe mainly by Japanese instructors. The  European Karate Union was formed in 1965.
  • In 1970 the international karate union was created. It almost immediately was disbanded as it didn’t include Japan. Shortly after, the World Union of Karate-do Organizations (WUKO) was born, which was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1985. 
  • In the 2020s Olympics, postponed to 2021, Karate made its debut as an Olympic sport.
  • Karate has more than 100 million active practitioners, in 192 countries worldwide.
  • …  The 2024 Olympics organizing committee has announced that karate will officially be dropped…


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Yes, the origin of Karate is in Okinawa. But the Karate we see in competitions today, in the World Championship and the Olympics, although that seems to be over for this time, is very far away from that origin.

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How high can a human jump?

Is the world record in high-jump of 2,45 meters set by Javier Sotomayor in 1993, the highest a human can jump… Ever?

How high can a human jump?

If everything is perfectly optimal, how high a jump is a human body able to perform? When is the world record going to be absolute, and no one will ever break it?

The human limit

The human body is a fantastic thing, an incredibly strong and endurable machine. It goes on and on for almost a hundred years, and it can be modeled and trained to perform the most unbelievable tasks. In sports, we see the most astonishing records every year and we watch in awe when the athletes seem to defy nature itself. 

Track and Fields is where the most interesting records are noted. Who is the fastest runner? Who is the longest/highest jumper? And who is the longest thrower? 

Track and Field

From the origins in ancient Greek, the art of running, jumping, and throwing was more or less forgotten in middle age Europe. For more than a thousand years, just as most other sports, athletics was not widely recognized. However, that changed when the modern Olympic games started in 1896. Suddenly the old war-training techniques became high fashion and from there a constant struggle to perform better and break the current record started. That path continues today with ever more refined measures and computerized analytics.

The records

Any performance depends on a variety of factors. And some of these are independent of the athlete or his capabilities. Let’s make a list of things that have an impact on an execution, and the result of it. 

  • how high can a human jumpThe physical strength and stamina of the athlete.
  • The technique acquired by the athlete, for that particular discipline.
  • The technical aspects of material and equipment.
  • The psychological stability and focus of the athlete.
  • Other circumstances such as meteorological factors, spectators, height over sea level, etc.

As we are going to focus on high-jump, let’s start out with the highest jumper ever in the world, so far.

Javier Sotomayor

This extraordinary athlete holds the record in high-jump. On the sunny Friday in Salamanca, Spain, on July 23, 1993, the Cuban athlete sailed over 2,45 meters (8.054 feet). He already held the world record twice with 2,43 and 2,44. But now he became totally unbeatable. He is the only man who’s jumped over 8 feet. And he holds one of the oldest records in track and field. 

And this is the first clue to understanding how high a human can jump. Running records tend to be newer, suggesting they are easier to break than throwing- and jumping records. But let’s check the list point by point.

The physical strength and stamina of the athlete.

Without being too offensive I think it is common knowledge that the use of doping was much more widespread in the past than it is today. Even if we put the obnoxious GDR state-based systematic doping program aside, doping was much more available, and less illegitimate, all over the world 50 years ago. The World Anti-Doping Agency was formed in 1999 to prevent athletes in any field from being able to increase their performance by the use of drugs. Nowadays, the agency can test any athlete at any meeting, or away from the meeting, during training, or even at the athlete’s home, unannounced. 

how high can a human jump
Rosemarie Ackermann GDR – Gold medal 1976 Montrea.l
Courtesy of Deutsches Bundesarchiv.

We now have some very old records that sometimes are regarded as unbeatable. Many of which were surely achieved with the help of unallowed substances. As it is becoming increasingly difficult to use doping and get away with it, these results will probably remain for a very long time. 

It is not controversial to assume that the physical ability of a top athlete in the near future will not exceed that of the best performers of the 80s and the 90s. Having said this, it’s obvious that the training is getting better with time. We know more about how to maximize strength and stamina, and how training should be carried out. Maybe knowledge can compensate for the lack of performance-enhancing drugs. 

Javier Sotomayor was tested positive for doping twice. In 1999 for Cocaine and in 2001 for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. He was disqualified in his last World Championship in 2001. 

The technique acquired by the athlete, for that particular discipline.

In 1968, at the Olympic Summer Games in Mexico City, a young American by the name of Richard Douglas Fosbury made a whole world choke on their evening sandwich. Not only did he have the most ridiculous high jump technique they had ever seen, but he actually won the whole competition with a personal record of 2,24 meters.

These things happen very rarely, but when they do, they change the sport forever. 

  • It happened in triple-jump in 1995 when Jonathan Edwards, GB, won the World Championship. He broke the world record twice in the same meeting.  
  • It happened when Jan Železný, Czech Republic, in 1992 at the Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona changed the way the javelin was thrown. 

But the Fosbury-Flop changed high jump from one day to another. And from 1978 and onwards, all world records have been set with the Fosbury Flop. The only such revolutionary change in techniques I can come up with is when Jan Boklöv, Sweden, won the World Cup in Ski jumping, using the V-jump in 1989.

The Fosbury Flop

The curved approach, when done correctly, gives a high horizontal velocity. A part of that energy is then used by the jumping leg to create a vertical force. The curve should create a rotation that forces the athlete over the bar without him having to think about that. The horizontal movement through the air should come automatically. The jump-leg converts the horizontal speed to vertical movement. 

Vladimir Yashchenko – The last world record holder jumping with the straddle technique

More so, the curved approach allows the athlete to be in a low position at the end of the run-up which increases the vertical push. It also makes the athlete lean away from the bar at the time that the takeoff foot is planted, which generates angular momentum during the takeoff without having to lean into the bar by the end of the takeoff.

While in flight, the athlete progressively arch shoulders, back, and legs, keeping as much of the body as possible below the bar. This is another unique feature. It is possible for the Center of Mass to pass under the bar while the curved body is over the bar, one piece at a time.  

The Fosbury Flop is a perfect technique for high jump. Even with modern computer-based analytisìcs, it is impossible to calculate a radically different way to perform a high jump that is more effective. What scientists and coaches do and have done for the last centuries, is to make it even more perfect by minimizing the variables. They analyze speed, angle, and approach-curve to get as close as possible to the perfect jump. 

But it is reasonable to imagine that the Fosbury Flop will never be surpassed by some other jump style. How high a human can jump, will not depend on some completely new variant but if the very small margins of errors in the Fosbury Flop can be perfectioned.

The technical aspects of material and equipment.

athletes equipment

A few things to consider:

  • High-jump doesn’t have any additional equipment like a javelin, a discus, or a pole. The improvement can only be applied to personal shoes and clothes, and the track surface. 
  • The importance of a soft landing space has been crucial to the development of new techniques. The straddle technique became possible from the fifties, as more stadiums abandoned the sand pitch for the softer landing mats. A smooth landing was crucial for the development of the Fosbury flop. In a sand pitch, one would likely break one’s neck with the Flop.
  • Personal equipment has a relatively small impact on the jump. Compared to running and long jump, the high-jumper typically uses fewer strides (very much fewer than long-distance running), and the speed is lower. It is true however that a better surface could improve the bounce of the jump-leg.

The conclusion must be that improvements in the material have a smaller effect on high jump than on running and long jump. And compared to pole vault it’s definitely so.   

The psychological stability and focus of the athlete.

Somewhere around 1980, sports psychologists started to show up around the training facilities. The idea that psychological preparation is almost as important as the physical one, opened a whole new world of opportunities. After some time, everybody had their own psychological experts. Hypnosis and small internal happy-rooms became everyday, mainstream knowledge. 

how high can a human jump
Coleman Griffith – The Father of Sports psychology.

Some of the instructions were closely connected to the physical training… Such as techniques to avoid conflicting muscle activity. While other aspects of the coaching included increasing the winner-instinct and leveling the results. To get better you can either increase your best performance or increase your worst. If you have jumped 2,45 once but often only reach 2,20, then raising the lower performance to, let’s say, 2,30 could mean winning much more often. 

All these techniques made a huge difference when they started out. But now, after 40 years, we have a very good idea of how to blend psychological training with the physical. And there isn’t all that much to improve from it anymore, from a record point of view. 

Other circumstances.

  • Wind. In high-jump the wind has a much lesser impact than on, let’s say, long-jump. High-jump consequently doesn’t have any limits for wind assistance.
  • Other weather phenomena. These can only worsen compared to the conditions at world record occasions. 
  • Height over sea level. When Dick Fosbury won in Mexico City, the height was 2200 meters AMSL. Another famous record was Bob Beamon’s fantastic 8,90 meters in the long-jump final. That record lived on for 23 years and still is the Olympic record today, after 52 years. The high altitude was definitely a contributing factor. Sotomayor’s world record of 2,45 was set at 800 meters AMSL

So, how high can a human jump?

Let’s check the development of the winners in the major events:

Olympics Gold Medals Men: 

  • 1948   1,98  
  • 1952   2,04  
  • 1956   2,12   straddle
  • 1960   2,16  straddle
  • 1964   2,18   straddle
  • 1968      2,24  Fosbury flop
  • 1972   2,23   straddle
  • 1976  2,25    Fosbury flop
  • 1980   2,36    Fosbury flop
  • 1984  2,35
  • 1988  2,38
  • 1992  2,34 – five athletes on the same level
  • 1996  2,39
  • 2000   2,35
  • 2004   2,36
  • 2008  2,36
  • 2012   2,33
  • 2016   2,38

World Championship Gold Medals Men:

  • 1983   2,32
  • 1987   2,38
  • 1991   2,38
  • 1993   2,40
  • 1995   2,37
  • 1997   2,37
  • 1999   2,37
  • 2001   2,36
  • 2003   2,35
  • 2005   2,32
  • 2007   2,35
  • 2009   2,32
  • 2011   2,35
  • 2013   2,41
  • 2015   2,34
  • 2017   2,35
  • 2019   2,37

How often is a new World record set?

After WW2 the High-jump world record for men was broken in

  • 1953
  • 1956
  • 1957
  • 1960 (3 times)
  • 1961 (3 times)
  • 1962 (twice)
  • 1963
  • 1971
  • 1973
  • 1976 (twice)
  • 1977
  • 1978 (the last record with straddle technique)
  • 1980 (3 times)
  • 1983 (twice)
  • 1984
  • 1985 (twice)
  • 1987
  • 1988
  • 1989
  • 1993. 

After 1993, the world record hasn’t been broken. That’s 28 years.

how high can a human jump

It is very obvious that the heights more or less stopped develop after the 1980s. In the 80s the world record went from 2.35 to 2.44. But then the progression died, like a punctured balloon. 

I have been focusing on Men’s high-jump simply because they jump higher. The question is: How high can a human jump, and men jump higher in absolute numbers. However, all that’s been said here is applicable to Women’s high-jump as well. Stefka Kostadinova, Bulgaria still holds the world record with 2.09 meters. And that is even older than that of Sotomayor… Dating from 1987. The same plateau as with men can be observed in women’s high-jump. After the 1980s, improvement stopped.

Conclusion

Yes, I know, we can’t look into the future. We cannot be sure about what high-jumping will be like in a hundred years. But so far, I think the tendency is quite obvious. To me, it is very clear that the world record in high-jump will remain as it is for a considerable time. That Friday in Salamanca in 1993 was magical, and maybe just maybe, it will remain magical forever. 

I will list a few arguments. 

  • It is indisputable that improvements in material and equipment have a relatively small impact on high-jump. The only jump- or throw world record set after 2000 is in pole vault. And pole vault depends heavily on the equipment, i.e. the pole.
  • The technique used to jump, the Fosbury Flop, is very close to perfection. It is highly unlikely that some new, yet undiscovered, way to perform the jump could come forth.
  • Physical strength is penalized by rigorous controls by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The glorious days of doping that we experienced in the seventies and the eighties are fortunately over.
  • The winning strike at major competitions confirms a plateau in improved results from the beginning of the 1980s. The men’s world record also abruptly plateaued in 1993. 


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It’s difficult to say, but if 2.45 meters isn’t an absolute limit, then it’s darn close. Everything points to stabilized high-jump results. And without performance-enhancing pills, there just isn’t enough margins to beat it… Or even reach it. I think Sotomayor’s 2.45, will live on for a very long time. 

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… I throw in a few other jumping records here… just for fun.

Standing high jump. Former a part of the Olympic program but was abandoned after the 1912 Olympics.

World record – Rune Almèn (Sweden) 1,90 meters

THE VIDEO IS NOT OF RUNE ALME’N. Sorry, but I don’t have footage of him.

Standing jump (box jump). You have to jump up and place your feet on a horizontal plan, and remain there without falling off. 

Guinness world record – Brett Williams (USA) 5 feet and 5.0 inches (1.651 meters)

THE VIDEO IS OF THE PREVIOUS RECORD BY EVEN UNGAR (Canada). Sorry, but I don’t have footage of Brett Williams either. 

How high do the basket players jump?

Wilt Chamberlain is credited with the highest jump ever of 48 inches. This is how high he should have jumped his whole body, read the head, from a running approach. When slamming the hand up on a board the jump is lower. This record is sometimes contested as it’s old and practically based on anecdotal evidence. Wilt Chamberlain was a supernatural jumper though, no doubt about that.https://youtu.be/ZmBc8NX_oL8

… And last a video from Kenya. Check out these guys and my conclusion about the impossibility to break the 2.45 meters world record, suddenly seems very uncertain. The human body can do amazing things…

Was Football/Soccer born when a group of soldiers kicked an enemy’s cut-off head between them?

Was Football/Soccer born when a group of soldiers kicked an enemy’s cut-off head between them?

First of all, we’re talking about football/soccer… A game you play with your feet. And of course, the name indicates just that… Foot and Ball. But if you follow me back into the fog of the early football history, you will see that the distinction between Football, American football, and Rugby isn’t all that easy to grasp. Because they are all neatly tied together back there in the distant past.

The History of Football

In ancient China, as well as Japan and other eastern countries, they played football. Cuju (蹴鞠) is recognized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) as the oldest documented football-style game. It was played as far back as 200 BC in China, and it included many different styles. Often it was played as an exhibitionistic game with only one team. The idea was to pass the ball within the team and a single winner was declared at the end.

cuju

The ancient Greeks also played football, as well as the Romans… And probably every other group of people in the whole wide world. From Greenland to Australia, from America to Africa. We do not know exactly in what way these games were played, how the winner was determined, how the “ball” was made, and if they were allowed to use their hands or only kick the ball with their feet.

The reason for Cuju being declared the oldest documented football game in the world is obviously because it was documented. In China, writing was common knowledge and the Emperor kept logs of the various events. And so we have an idea about the game and the rules. 

From many other parts of the world, documentation started when people started writing about it. But we can not know for sure when football was born. There are findings older than those from China, for example in South America, but the problem is the same… The documentation. Without properly written descriptions, it’s hard to determine if a game is this or that, football or something else.

The Medieval game

It’s evident though, that different games involving a ball-ish thingy and a lot of youngsters running around have been around for a long time. But to distinguish true football from other ball games we need to determine a few attributes. 

  • It has to include a ball.
  • It has to be a reasonably big “ball”. One that is played with parts of your body, not with a racket or a stick.
  • It has to be competitive. And there should be lots of people in the field, teams, possibly more than one.
  • You should play it with your feet, kicking the ball… Wait, What?

And here’s where football shows its common origins with Rugby and American Football. 

Because the history of football shows that the vast majority of the different styles used hands and feet to move the ball… And many were exaggeratingly violent. If you want to have an idea of how it could have looked like back in the day, there actually is a medieval football game still played today… A game that has undergone few changes during the ages. 

The Florentine Football – Calcio Fiorentino 

Every year in June you have the possibility to see four teams of young hooligans play a tournament of two semifinals and one final. And what you witness is more of a group-MMA than actual football. It’s extremely brutal. Although modern rules are modified to avoid serious damage to the players, it’s still very different from a normal football match. 

This Italian football game was the first with rules written on paper, dating from 1580. Rules that involve 27 players in each team. A Strange feature is that the defenders are allowed to use any means to stop an attacker from reaching the home net and scoring. That includes tackling, throwing, hitting, but also fist-fighting.  

The game is very interesting not only because it’s an interesting game in itself, but also because it gives you an idea of what football could have been like in Europe in the middle ages. Because these games were widespread all over the continent… That is, in times when they were not prohibited. 

Because the violent nature of football made it a target for legislation. After a match, there could be players and spectators injured and also damage to property. Football suffered a ban or an intended ban in England in 1314, 1349, 1363, 1389, 1401, 1477, and 1540… And that’s just England.

Another interesting fact is that women’s football was not allowed in the English Football Association’s (FA) pits until 1971. The reason was that “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”.

the ball of American and European football
These two balls are from the second part of the 19th century. Soccer/Football – Top American Football – Bottom They more or less have the same form and size.

The Ball

We don’t have good descriptions of the ball back in the earliest days of the history of football. There’s a note from China when they started using an animal bladder as the inner air-filled chamber. It replaced a feather-filled ball.

We can assume that the early balls were very different and that they took what they had close at hand to create it.

In the middle ages, the normal way to play was with a pig’s bladder… Or some other big animal’s. 

The task of inflating the ball was not for the squeamish. The pig’s bladder would be blown up while still in its very smelly state, solely by lung power down the snapped stem of a clay pipe inserted into the opening of the bladder.

With time the bladder was covered with pieces of leather stitched together to make the ball more uniform and less gross. Then came the development towards round balls. Something that was trickier to achieve. 

A non-spherical animal bladder can’t be managed very well with the feet, you can’t dribble, and you can’t control it. And just like in so many other fields, it could have been the technical progress that finally bridged over to banning holding the ball with the hands. It wasn’t until 1872, when the spherical ball became mandatory, that 100% foot-based football became at all possible. 

The hand-held ball games didn’t rely on bouncing and dribbling, and in 1892, Rugby got similar standards for their ball… But instead of a round ball, Rugby and American football use an oval one. 

Mob Football in Britain

From England, there are numerous articles and writings about football and football-type games played on fields or even in the streets in the middle ages. Often the teams were made up of schools or workers’ guilds, and just like the Fiorentine game, these mob football games were violent exhibitions. 

One of the earliest documentation from Ireland is from a protocol that tells of how Mr. John McCrocan was accused and charged of having Accidently stabbed Mr. William Bernard at a football game in 1308 in the city of Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland. 

I would like to see exactly how you do when you accidentally stab somebody…

The history of Modern Football. 

The history of modern football is intimately connected to Britain. We’ve already established that the game was played more or less everywhere, but it wasn’t until the 19th century in England that we started to have common rules. And common rules are needed if you would like to start playing matches, tournaments, and league football. 

In 1800, football was closely tied to schools and universities. Students all over Britain played football between themselves and together with their teachers. As the school system, back then, was mostly for upper-class children, they tried to limit the negative physical effects it had. Parents weren’t happy when their kid came home for Christmas leave with a broken jaw. 

Another important factor was the prospect to play with other teams from other schools. 

the history of footballThe first football rules and the path to the modern game.

In 1845 the Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, came up with a set of rules. It was the first attempt to unify and organize football as a standard game. Not surprisingly these rules included throwing and holding the ball. 

In 1848 another set of rules was concluded in Cambridge. These were decided among representatives from the different schools, including Rugby, and were more similar to modern football/soccer. The Cambridge rules weren’t accepted everywhere and there was quite a bit of confusion when different clubs met. Even to a point that sometimes the rules had to be drawn up for that particular match and agreed upon by the two teams. 

The biggest issues were not so much the duration of the match, the number of players, and how to score. But the disagreements were mainly two:

  1. Limit or not, the amount of violence allowed between players. Some promoters were determined to make football a non-violent game.
  2. Running while holding the ball. Rugby- and Harrow-players promoted this, while the others did not.
The foundation of Football Association
Some of the Gentlemen who wrote the Cambridge rules.

The history of the English Football Association

FA (the Football Association) was founded in 1863, and they needed a set of rules that could be agreed upon by everybody. In autumn of that year, professors from the various schools met in a series of sessions to, once and for all, resolve the issues with the rules of the game. It didn’t work out perfectly, but at the end of the year, there was a new Association for the game and a set of rules to which at least most of the clubs could agree. 

Distinctive new laws were: 

  • Hacking – kicking the shins of the opponents – was banned.  
  • Running with the ball was disallowed.

They also decided how the goal should be, with two lateral poles and a string between them.

In 1871 the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was formed promoting what is today referred to as Rugby. Interestingly, the Rugby School football club didn’t join the RFU until 1890, as they refused to abandon the Hacking-tactic. 

football in a fieldThe history of American Football

On November 6, 1869, the first-ever American Football match was played. The game was played according to the English rules, which were somewhat confusing at the time. Obviously, the American style developed more into the Rugby-game than into the foot-based Cambridge game. And in 1880 the American football player Walter Camp invented a set of new rules and ideas, that started a line of evolution distinctly different from both Rugby and European football or Association football, as it’s also called.

So by the end of 1800, we have the three different branches, Football/Soccer, Rugby, and American Football. Of these the Football/Soccer branch is by far the biggest. In fact, it’s the most popular sport in the world, with the most players and the biggest audience.

father of american football
Walter Camp – The father of American Football

But what about the kicking of the head?

Well, this is a legend firmly rooted in the beliefs of more than one football fan in every corner of the world. But it is a legend, and as such, we can’t really tell how much accuracy there is to it. 

The tale goes something like this: 

During the times of the Viking invasions in the 11th century, some English peasants found (…or cut off) a head of a Danish soldier. They then kicked it between them, probably as a sign of defiance against the Danish oppressors. A group of kids saw them and as it looked like a funny thing to do, they copied them and the game of Football was invented.

Just the fact that the event has been dated from 300 AD. up until the French revolution, as well as in almost every corner of the British islands, should encourage reasonable doubt. 

I can’t say what happened a thousand years ago in Britain, but I can say that it wouldn’t have been the first time angry peasants cut off the heads of the invaders. I don’t think it was the origin of football though.

 


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Conclusion

No, Football wasn’t first invented in Britain and its origins are not from a Danish head. What the British did, was to put up a standard of rules, from which modern Football evolved. And those same rules became the backbone for both Rugby and American Football

Courtesy of Sjöhistoriska museet, Stockholm

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