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| Introduction to Karate |
Karate is a style of unarmed combat, or martial art, originating from the island of Okinawa, Japan. There are four main “traditional” karate styles; Shotokan, Shukokai, Gojo-ryu and wado-ryu. Each have a similar root, but the actual techniques used can vary widely.
Shotokan was formally created at the start of the 20th century by Gichin Funakoshi. He amalgamated the two Okinawan styles he had learnt, Shorei and Shorin, to form a style of karate he could launch upon an unsuspecting public. Shotokan was japanified to make it more accessible to the insular Japanese and many kata names and techniques were changed from Okinawan to Japanese.
Funakoshi even changed the way that “Karate” was written and in doing so changed the meaning behind the words; “Chinese hands” became “Empty hands”.
Following the successful introduction of karate to the Japan mainland the Japanese “masters” started to seed karate across the world, creating many different associations, rules and styles as they did so. What we have now is a diverse and broad church of karate, varying standards and systems.
There are three sides to Shotokan training; kihon, or basic technique training; kata, the performance art side of karate (there are 26 katas in the Shotokan system) and kumite, sparring drills and freestyle fighting. Each one complements and supplements the other – without learning your basic techniques you would never be able to learn katas, which contain application and ideas for kumite, which in turn strengthens basic techniques. Each must be practiced regularly and diligently however. Spending three months learning a single kata will not miraculously improve your freestyle.
The aim of Shotokan is to develop fast, effective and powerful techniques, highly refined to be used in a do or die situation. Techniques are thrown forwards with a powerful hip movement aiming to get as much body weight behind the technique as possible. At the same time the student tries to relax all unnecessary muscles with the aim of getting the technique as fast (while still controlled) as possible. These two fundamental principles are intended to get as much force behind the technique (and into your opponent) as possible.
The formal training can be very repetitive and rigorous as students try over and over again to better their techniques. While more advanced techniques exist the majority of students will just learn to become good and master a small repertoire before going on to learn any more – it is considered better to have a few effective techniques (as in boxing) than to have millions of half learnt and half practiced strikes. We think quality over quantity.
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