What's the deal with Karate anyway?

Anyone else have a thousand mile stare as they daydream about Karate?

There is a question that everyone will ask who encounters Karate. From the person who found out their colleague regularly practices it, the student taking that first step on the mat, and even the bruised and battered seasoned black belt.

Is Karate actually any good?

Sometimes this leads to doubt, which can end up with the student taking up any other number of options for training, or they continue, but change their thinking to be one based on faith, rather than trust.

First off, i’m not here to fire up any more of a debate about the efficacy of one style over another. I’m just going to state everything I have observed so far about Karate.

After that, you can make your mind up.

“True Martial Arts is universal, simple and practical. Anything else is too complex to be used in combat.”
― Soke Behzad Ahmadi, Advanced Ryukyu Karate

Confidence building: Like most sports, the more you practice, the better you get, the better (I hope) your personal view of yourself will get. Seeing positive outcomes from your efforts will help to establish a healthy mindset of acheiving what you set yourself to do. Karate can be very confusing at first but generally speaking most people pick it up reletively quickly and with the right encouregment and feedback they will improve continually.

At each step of the way there is always somethng to experience and learn for the first time, which then builds upon previous experience, bringing an ever increasing sense of knowing.

Intriguing: There is just so much to uncover in Karate it can take an entire lifetime of dedication to master only some of the elements, and even then there will always be work to be done to improve. With ever increasing skills and insight also bring about new opportunities to relearn previous lessons as your whole thought process and ability can change in an instant.

It is not merely a game of making ones body faster or stronger. It is a moving chess board of your own making, and you are the only player.

Self defence: Any situation your faced with Karate has given you something to use. Be it simply a calm frame of mind, being alert and present in a place, or locking someones shoulder up their back before throwing them. How about pinching an attacker and have them squirm in agony, or throw a swift strike and gently place them to the ground. If you know what it is you are learning and how to use it, and you have practiced it enough, Karate has a very open playbook to chose from.

Maybe you want to fight from a distance, only deal with fists and kicks, or you want to get close and use throttling techniques, the choice is yours.

Physique building: All karate schools have some form of actual physical training involved to build your body. To make it strong, fast, nimble, flexible and quick to move. There will always be students who struggle with this element, but they will always improve in some way, and even just enough that Karate becomes more effective. Some schools will develop students who are built like battleships, and other schools will develop students who can skate around an opponent in a second.

Depending on how you start off and what you desire you can train for it.

Artistic: Let’s face it, Karate has one of the most interesting methods of introspecitve and expressive methods out there. Your Kata can be this plain and simple lesson in fighting dynamics, or it can be a piece of poetry imbued with emotion and story telling. It is also one of the best methods of practicing self awareness as you go from learning, to honing, to developing each kata you encounter.

It is just so sophisticated in it’s methods due to it’s simplicity (especially compared to Chinese Kung Fu) that it allows the imagination of the practitioner to work out what is being expressed and how to use it.

Sure as a Karateka you’d likely lose against a boxer, or a juijutsuka, or a gang weliding knives, or memebrs of the armed special forces. But if you’re in a situation where those are the types of people you are up against then you probably have to reevaluate your life choices. Which is exactly the last aspect that I feel is special about Karate. It has lessons in the way it is taught and transmitted that help build character of the Karateka.

Building a person who would rather make the right choices, willing to learn from mistakes, and desiring to help others who seek it.