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Things to know before you train...
The object of karate is to transmit muscular power
of the whole body into a striking limb (used like a weapon) thats will be moved at speed to focus on a specific target area
or object. To increase the effectiveness and efficiency you must use the correct stance, breathing and timing.
The whole body can be used as a weapon in karate.
Striking with one finger can be just as effective as a full blow kick if focused at the correct target.
Good Form:
- Attitude-karate is not for
over-eager and aggresive attitudes. You should hold a non-malicious, kind, focussed attitude. This will allow you to take
care not to harm your opponent. A certain
'controlled' level of aggression is good in fighting competition.
- Vigorous application-defines
speed and power of technique, and desire to succeed with a given technique.
- Total state of awareness(zanshin)-your
should be aware at allatages of a technique, including afterwards, this is when you should be aware of counter techniques.
- Timing-it is important to
time your techique to make it as effective as possible. Distance is also an important factor in this.
Basic Training
Training basically consists of blocks, strikes and kicks, stances, balance, breathing, and focus.
The name given to the practice of these components is kihon. You can practice on your own or with partners/groups.
Stances
Various stances are designed for different purposes.
Those with low centre of gravity are ideal for balance
and powerful punching. Where as others are designed for ease of mobility and speed. you should learn and master several stances,
don't just rely on the one.
&; ...more info. on
stances coming soon
Generating power
Power is
generated using the whole of the body. Performing rotary movement helps you to transmit velocity and power to the striking
limb. For example twisting the hips will add more power to a roundhouse kick (mawashigeri)
Breathing
Breathing makes
up part of the mental preparation for a karate-ka. The ability to breath properly comes from some of the Zen principles.
Breathing patterns can bring about a mental calm immediately prior to exploding
into action (like in the kata seishan).
There are 4 Distinct phases to each pattern.
- Inhale through the nose until the lungs are full of air.
- Force the air down towards your diaphragm, as you do this in time you will improve
your technique and it will strengthen the muscles of the abdomen at the same time. The ability to breath in the area of the
abdomen and the use of the kiai helps generate power.
- Exhale quietly through the nose.
- Force the last remaining air out of your lungs.
Warm up
Before
you begin your main training session it is important that you carry out a good, effective warm up.
A good warm up prepares your body for the more strenuous
exercises you are about to carry out, and protects against the risk of injury. This works as the gentle exercises you carry
out raise the body'score temperature and the general muscle temperature. Increasing the muscle temperature loosens them, makes
tem more supple and pliable.
It also prepares your heart and respiratory rate. This increases the blood flow,
which in turn increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles. All this helps to prepare the muscles
tendons and joints also.
Another advantage is that it helps you to prepare and
focus your mind on the training you are about to do. It brings your attention away from the outside world, whatever you may
have been doing earlier on in the day, or whatever is happening outside the dojo, so that you have full concentration for
what you are about to learn/practice.
You should obviously start off with steady exercises and build
these up gradually to more energetic exercises. You should place emphasis on streching exercises to protect your muscles and
improve their suppleness. Without a 'reasonable' level of suppleness many kicks are impossible to carry out.
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5-10 mins light execercise
to increase the heart rate..gradually increasing in pace.
example exercises:
- Running
- Skipping
- Star jumps
- Squat thrusts
- Press ups
- Sit ups / crunches
You could do a combination of these exercise to make the warm up more interesting.
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Stretch all major muscle groups.
posstion youself so that the muscle or group of muscles
is stretched under tension. As this postion is held it allows the muscles, and the tendons to lengthen, giving them a
greater range of movement and reducing the risk of injury.
example exercises:
- standing legs apart-pulling down to the left
anckle and the right, then down to the middle.
- standing upright and then reaching down towards
your toes as far as you can-getting your hands flat on the floor if possible.
- box and side split positions.
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Exercises in this section of the warm up should resemble
movements that will be used during the karate training session.
example exercises:
- Circling whrists
- Twisting the waist (upright or bent over position)
- Gentle front and back kicks
- Gentle kata training
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This involves a controlled, soft bounce or swinging
motion to force a particular body part past its usual range of movement. You should gradually increase the force of the bounce
or swing is but don't let it become radical or uncontrolled. These exercises should also resemble the movement carried out
in karate training.
example exercises:
- Swinging the leg straight up and down (axe kick movement) using the muscles
to swing the leg as high as possible.
- Circling the leg in a crescent kick movemnet (as above).
- Punches, and rotating arms from the shoulder.
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Etiquette
A very important aspect of training in karate
is to learn and perform the etiquette, this is the show your discipline and respect for the dojo in which you train, fellow
students, and your Sensei.
Students should be clean and tidy at all times, this shows respect to the art,
and also to the Sensei and fellow students. The instructor is always address
by the studetns as Sensei whilst in the training dojo. Sensei is a word simply meaning 'teacher', and more indepthly meaning
'he who has gone before'. This mean that whatever your Sensei is teaching you, he has done before and understood. Before entering the dojo everybody must remove their foorwear and pause to bow (rei) as
they enter and leave.
Types of bow:
- Shomen ni rei sign
of repect to training area
- Sensei ni rei bow to instructor
- Otagani rei bow
to the dojo and all assembled
- Shihan rei used
by both teachers and students
Equipment
Belts
The belt (obi) is the only thing that distinguishes one student
from another. It represents a students experience.See more about the karate belt in KarateHistory
|White
10th Kyu
|Red 9th Kyu
|Yellow 8th Kyu
|Orange 7th
Kyu
|Green 6th
Kyu
|Blue
5th Kyu
|Purple
4th Kyu
|Brown
3rd Kyu
|Brown
2nd Kyu
|Brown
1st Kyu
|Black
1st Dan...
|....Black 10th
Dan
Clothing
A light
of medium weight suit is usually worn to train in, but the karate-ke by their individual preference may choose to wear a heavier
suit for competition. A tradidtional karate suit is white with the style badges shown on the left side of the jacket and draw
string trousers. No matter the weight, the suit is light-fitting-like a judo suit.
The jacket should be long enough in length to finish below the hip,
maybe half way down the thigh.Women may wear a plainn white t-shirt under there
jakcet, men shoud not wear anything under their jacket. Sleeves must comeat least half way down the forearm, they must not
be rolled up. The jacket is tied using the appropriate belt donoting the karate-kas' grade.
Trouser legs must come a tleast two-thirds of the way down the shin,
they must not be rolled up.
You can expect a karate suit (gi) to cost generally between £20 and
£50.
A sport karate suit is usually made up of several colours, and possibly
a pattern, with the club and/or style badge shown somewhere on the suit (left collar, back of jacket, leg of trouser), and
maybe the students name, or team name.
You can expect to spend from £20 to £150 on this type of gi.
Shoes are not worn.
A Hachimaki (head band) can be worn intraining, but not competition.
Suits smust be clean and ironed.
It is important to only purchase a karate-gi that you will be comfortable
to train in.
Protection
Most karate-ka only wear safety/protective equipment when they are sparring in the club(dojo), or fighting
in competition (it is compulsary here). For example:
- Gloves
- Foot pads
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Groin guard (Jockstrap)
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Head Guard
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Mouth guard (Gum shield)
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Shin pads
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Breast protector
Dojo A
dojo with a wooden floor is ideal karate training, a matted area within the dojo is even better. As most of karate practice
does not involvethrowing,amatted area such as the ones used in judo is not necessary, it would slow down the movement of the
karate-ka. Mats used should be non-slip and low-friction. Padded mats are sometimes used Makiwara.
Training aids:
- Heavy bags/angled bags
- punch/kick bags vinyl/leather
- free standing kick bags/men (bob)
- kick shields/thai pads
- focus mitts/double sided hand targets
- speed balls(paltform or floor-ceiling)/hook and jab bags
- bag gloves
- leg stretch machines
- medicine balls
- eagle grippers/tension hand exercisers
- break boards
- skipping ropes
- weights
Fees Three types of fees are membership,
lesson, and licence:
- Membership: fees vary from club to club some memberships may have to be paid annually
and some are just a one-offpayment when you first join.
- lesson prices also vary. For a 1-2hour lesson you will look to pay from £2.50
to £5. One-to-one lesson prices may vary depending on which aspect of karate you wish to be trained in on that particular day. pricesmay very from £15 to £30 for an hour.
- Licencing fees: These vary depending on who you buy your insurance from and cover
you for varying amount also.
Summary-an effective training programme
- training should be systematic, progressive, and hard-both
technically and physically
- 'warm up' before training and 'cool down' after training
- constantly check and adjust actions of ingividual techniques
and stances
- check coordination and your breathing for each technique
- practice techniques in both stances (both sides of
your body) eaqually
- be attentive to your partner or opponent
- use a mirror to monitor your movements during training
- use punch bags and pads etc as aids to perfect your
technique
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