Karate Classes And Kihon

 Karate Kihon

Kihon is a Japanese word meaning “basics” or “fundamentals.

So, what is karate kihon and why do we do it?

Kihon is the basic karate techniques of stances, blocking, punching, striking and kicking.

Repetition of basic Karate kihon holds all the secrets!

Basic karate moves, or simple combinations, is all that’s needed to achieve a very high understanding of karate. But I must emphasise, when it comes to repetition, correct form, both physical and mental is essential. Bad habits can develop quickly and can take years of correcting and can even cause injury and that’s just the physical side, if the state of mind and attitude is wrong, it can unleash a whole plethora of problems, some of which, can never be fixed.

This is why I always recommend joining a really good karate dojo, but if you are unable to train at a karate dojo, then take heed of the words in this article and get your mind, body and soul right for karate!

An incredible inner focus and determination can develop, when practicing very basic karate techniques, over and over again. Levels of understanding continually reveal themselves, as your karate practice continues.

Here’s a quote from the late and great Bruce Lee ~
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Master Masahiko Tanaka 8th Dan, was once asked what the secret to his success was, he replied, ‘basics, basics and more basics!’

Shotokan Karate Exercise Front Kick Belt Training

Mae Geri (front kick)

The karate front kick, or mae geri is the first karate kick that is practiced. One of the common mistakes with front kick (mae geri), is to let the kick travel in an upwards arc. The kick wants to be traveling in a straight line on impact, just like a bullet. The path of front kick is a straight line as can be seen in the video below, where we are using our obi (belt) for a really good kicking exercise, that makes sure the path of the front kick is correct. Try to get the kicking foot to lightly touch the belt as it travels to the target and back. Mae geri is one of the first karate moves taught in karate classes, so if you are trying to learn karate at home, take your time with this karate technique because if you master this and understand the basic kicking principles, the other kicks will come very easily.

Karate Moves Gyaku zuki 3 Karate Moves in 1

Gyaku tsuki or reverse punch is one of the basic karate moves, but contained within gyaku tsuki are two other powerful strikes, they are 1. ura tsuki (upper cut) and 2 tate tsuki (vertical punch). if you are practicing gyaku tsuki correctly, these two extra karate techniques will come easily.

Karate For Beginners - Learn Karate The Old Way?

Karate teaching currently is made up of kihon (basics), kata (forms) and kumite (sparring) and although the common karate moves were very much the same, the way karate was studied in the early 19th century, bears minor similarity to the karate that is taught these days. They simply practiced kata and kata applications. The karateka on Okinawa would attack with very strong techniques that would test their partner to the limits and test their kata defences.

Saying that, there are karate dojo, that still practice the 'old way', taking karate moves from the kata and putting them into a self defence application, with the karateka attacking and defending, as if their lives depend on the outcome.

Many people struggle when learning a new karate kata, but if it is taken slowly and one technique at a time, it really can be a painless experience. Try not to over analyze early on, get the order of each move in the kata. so at this stage try and understand where each step, jump, spin, angle and karate technique is and in what order.

So first, try and get the pattern of the kata and everything in the right place. By the way, this is where people who do not understand kata, say 'OK, I know that kata, show me another!'

Once you understand the order of the karate techniques within the kata, start putting groups of techniques together. If you have a kick, kick, grab, punch, it is probably a kata sequence. Take these four karate moves and practice them slowly, start trying to get the moves to flow, then start to speed things up, it is at this time you should start to learn the kata applications of each technique.

Every kata has it's own timing and rhythm, so check to make sure you have the combination of karate techniques right.

So now you should have the sequences down and understand the applications of each karate move, so speed up and really go for it!

When putting all the kata sequences together, try and get them to flow, start slowly then gradually speed up, remembering the timing of each sequence.

Make your karate kata strong, but try not to move in a robotic way and on the opposite side of things, try not to make your kata a floppy soft dance! Many karateka fall into one or the other to strong or to weak.

Attitude is everything in the martial arts, be sure to have a strong fighting spirit when practicing your kata.

I feel kata is the number one reason anyone should practice karate, if it isn't, then another martial art should be the order of the day.

Linden has been training and teaching karate for over 30 years and loves to share his knowledge and experiences from the karate dojo. Supplement your karate training with these free online videos, karate lessons for beginners.

Learn Karate Online - Gyaku zuki or Reverse Punch

This basic karate technique, starts from the back leg, if you are punching with the right arm, drive the right leg, back and into the floor, transferring the driving force through the back leg, to the hip. The hip then teams up with the back leg and they both drive the right side of the body around and forward. You should also use the right side of the body to push and the left side of the body to pull. Just before the rotation completes, the left arm (hikite), starts to pull back and the right arm starts to execute the punch. Everything should stop at the same time, as the punch completes, kime (focus) the mind and body on the point of contact. The whole body focuses for a split second, the obvious muscles to tighten are the arm and stomach muscles, but more important are the tightening of the muscles, thigh, inner thigh, back of the thigh and gluteus maximus (buttocks), because without these being strong the karate reverse punch, will be weak. More karate articles.

Karate For Beginners - Hit Them Hard!

I do not condone violence but if you are attacked, diffuse the situation if possible, but if it comes to it, hit hard! Doesn't matter if it's karate for beginners, same philosophy applies. The article below goes into a bit more detail.

Karateka! You Can't Restrain Them, Just Hit Them!

A lot people seem to forget that Karate is a striking art, they believe, that because you practice karate, you should be able to control and restrain an aggressor without hurting them. Rubbish!
Please remember, I am only talking physical, all martial artists should try and avoid confrontation, or diffuse a situation without fighting, karate practice, naturally develops (I believe) this skill, I have talked my way out of many situations, situations that could have easily turned very nasty.
If all else fails and the doodoo hits the fan, you're going to have to fight.
If someone attacks a karateka, then they should get both barrels, the karateka didn't ask to be mugged, attacked, picked on, or robbed.
If the situation gets to the point when the only way out is to fight for your life, then do what you do best, hit them hard and fast. Leave the restraining for the police, that is what they have been trained to do, controlling a situation without hurting anybody is what the police do and they're good at it. Karateka are good at avoiding confrontation and hitting things (or should be).
A quick story,
One of my best friends has a large karate dojo nearby, several years ago some parents came to him and said their son was getting severely bullied at school, both parents were in tears, it was really quite serious, anyway, my friend said he'll see what he can do.
Eighteen months later the parents came back, they were not happy. Their son had obviously got to the point where he could take no more bullying and he fought back.
He severely kicked the living daylights out of the bullies, the parents were called into the school because of what had happened. They approached my friend and said that they were not happy because their son should have used minimal force and restraint, instead of battering these bullies. My friend reminded them of the time they first came to him, they then just sat there quietly.
People do not understand reality, people will attack with no regard for life or outcome of their actions, if you get attacked by someone like this, you cannot use restraining techniques on these people, you have to use extreme violence, end of story.
Here's hoping you never end up in a nasty situation, but if you do, you must be ready to do, what you need to do, to survive.

For A Great Karate Resource Site That Has Hundreds Of Videos And Articles, Visit http://www.shotokanunleashed.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linden_Huckle

Black Belt is Not Important But it Means Everything!

Recently, we had two karateka pass 3rd kyu (brown belt) and I said to them,
'Congratulations on passing your brown belt, you are well on your way to black belt. Now your karate gets easier but it is harder and black belt is not important but it means everything!'
Many questions and emails later I decided to write this article, hopefully this will explain better, the point I was trying to get accross.
For a beginner to shotokan karate, it is all very confusing, both arms moving together as in gedan barai (downward block), one linear in movement and one circular, then both arms stopping at the same time, but one traveling more distance than the other, for someone new to karate, this alone, is a challenging exercise.
However, after several thousand repetitions and a few years of dojo practice, this exercise becomes second nature and is no longer a brain ache!
Ask a brown belt if performing gedan barai is difficult, they will look at you like you are trying to trick them, because to a brown belt, gedan barai is 'white belt stuff'. Ask a godan (5th dan) the same question and you will probably get a very different answer.
In the UK we have our football leagues, with the premier league being as good as it gets and everyone trying to enter that top league. Next comes the Championship league, then league 1, league 2, etc.
Now a premiership player may come into league 2 and find the football very physical, but technically no where near that of the premier league.
This is so true with karate also.
In my quote I was talking about going from purple/white belt to brown, but below I will talk about going from brown to black, it is the same, but on a higher level..
A brown belt trains very hard, their training is very physical and I totally agree with this type of training, but a black belts training is much more technical, the hard physical training is still there, but the technical side of karate now starts to kick in.
It is common to see a new black belts training change, before black belt the karateka was strength technique and spirit, but mainly strength and spirit. Once black belt, the same karateka steers a lot more effort to technique.
A new black or brown belt has trained for several years, their fitness levels are up and they are used to the hard physical training, compare this to a white belt who has just starting to learn karate and has not participated in any physical activity for several years. The white belt struggles in every class, not just with technique, but fitness also. Take the black and brown belts, they have gone through several years of physical and mental conditioning, so the physical side of karate is much easier for them to deal with.
Ossu
Linden Huckle

Linden Huckle lives in the UK and has been training and teaching karate for over 30 years. Watch some free karate for beginners videos now at learn karate online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linden_Huckle

How To Learn Karate

More and more people are wanting to learn karate online. Learning karate is fun and good for you, combining ancient fighting techniques and philosophy, karate will give you fitness, strength, self defense and piece of mind!
The free Karate moves for beginners video series, covers the fundamental karate moves that must be practiced before the more advanced karate techniques are attempted.