I think it is a huge mistake to limit karate to being a "stand-up" art. I also think it is a shame of what American Karate looks like and what passes at excellence.
That being said. We mostly don't know any better- as a whole. To the majority of people, karate is like a mystified version of kickboxing- which we understanding " 'cuz it's like boxing with kicks in there, so it's better."
There is so much more to karate than this. There is the individualistic, systematic, and focused study of distance, position and balance. Footwork comes later to the game. Grants, we want to study these and grow through them evenly, all at once, but it doesn't mean that we only pick one to be really good at. If my footwork is GREAT, but my balance is mediocre, I will be a mediocre fighter.
Karate has a certain ground game of its own. How often have you seen "grapplers" in the UFC kick while on their side or back to an opponent trying to get in. This isn't just "some trick, it's karate. Sometimes you see a scissors leg take down. The initial response is, yeah, but that's pure BJJ. No, it's not. For just as long as judo banned these kinds of techniques in tournament, karate encouraged them (along with the standing leg take-down, front, back, and double leg sweep, and the knee-mount). Flying Arm-bar: It's the step-over, kick, armbar upside down.
Despite all of this, there is one thing I want to be clear on: Karate does not do movement of body on body on the ground. Now, this isn't to say that it cannot, it simply doesn't. In the future it is my hope to take an analysis of grappling from a tangsudo-ist's standpoint, but for now I will let this suffice. Karate doesn't because it presumes to not want it. Right or wrong, the art has a built in presumption that if something goes to the ground, it better not be you, and if it is, you better be on top, in control and finishing it.
Train right. Train hard.
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