Shotokan Karate Info Needed

mashtobi

Hi, im in a bit of a dilemma, ive started doin Karate but feel well outta my depth, i never get enough time to speak to my sensai. is there anyone who can give me advice as it would be greatly appreciated, thanks. And im gonna annoy ye with a list of questions LOL.

1) First of all my sensai makes me train without no equpment, hes 4th dan, and trained in Tokyo, we do not have any equipment, and train in a carpeted room, is this ok!, i find it hard to spot moves correctly at home, and what is the correct equipment.

2) How many hours before i train should i have food.

3) Do u get cramp in training and how do u avoid it, aswell as gettin hit, and ideal times to train.

4) How does Sparring & Grading work, theres a friend of mine who did Karate for 2 years, and she said she never went for belts or was never graded, yet was able to sparr, but what level of student could she have sparred with, and with her years could she sparr with blackbelt.

5) How do you hold back without injuring a person, aswell as avoiding exhaustion, aswell as taking breaks.

6) How does the refereeing work, and how old can you be for a black belt.

7) How do u improve stamina, strenght, and flexibility, Body conditioning and ideal times to train. being able to headkicks, etc

8) Refereeing, surrendering/being out of action, how injured can u get

9) Fighting with younger and older people, and females

10) Can you teach without having any belts.

I will look forward to hearing your responses, Patrick

FruitLover

What do you mean by equipment? Padding etc? It's nice to have, but you can make do without. I doubt the guys doing karate in Okinawa in the 19th century had focus mitts etc. Carpeted flooring could be a bit manky and likely to cause blisters, but I've trained on worse! (stone floors, grass, sand).

It's a bit early in your training to be worrying about belts etc. With regard to sparring, each club and instructor are different. Some clubs will have you doing basic sparring (e.g. five-step sparring) with black belts right from the beginning, some will keep the similar grades together.

Different people like different levels of contact, and you'll get to know which people you can go full-on with in sparring and which prefer not to be hit hard. Whether you're hitting hard or soft, control of the action is the important part. IMO regular short breaks (maybe 1-2 minutes every 20-30 minutes) is best. Get a little water into you and walk around a bit to keep the blood flowing. I don't think 'exhaustion' is something to be avoided as such. Of course, there's no point in knackering yourself out at the beginning of a 4-hour seminar, but make sure you're not just going through the motions either.

Thinks like stamina, flexibility etc will improve over time, but you can do a bit of research and training on your own to get quicker results. Also, bear in mind that everyone learns/improves at a different rate. Everybody feels out of their depth at the beginning.

Issues regarding teaching, competition, refereeing etc vary from club to club, organisation to organisation. Generally speaking, most clubs would have only black belts teaching and refereeing, sometimes with brown belts assisting.

yomchi

mashtobi wrote: »

Hi, im in a bit of a dilemma, ive started doin Karate but feel well outta my depth, i never get enough time to speak to my sensai.

Make the time. Some of your questions are bizarre tbh.

How do you hold back without injuring a person

JohnMc1

mashtobi wrote: »

1) First of all my sensai makes me train without no equpment, hes 4th dan, and trained in Tokyo, we do not have any equipment, and train in a carpeted room, is this ok!, i find it hard to spot moves correctly at home, and what is the correct equipment.

What kind of equipment are you talking about? You won't be getting punched in the head so a headguard isn't needed. If your shins aren't conditioned you might want to buy a pair of cloth shinguards in the mean time. Other than that all you need is you and your Gi.

2) How many hours before i train should i have food.

Definitely a couple of hours. Don't eat right before you run out the door to class.

3) Do u get cramp in training and how do u avoid it, aswell as gettin hit, and ideal times to train.

cramps from eating before class? See my previous response. From getting hit? This might sound sadistic but that's something your going to have to get used to. You can only do that by sparring. When your classes are on is the ideal time to train. If you're lucky and have a club that's full time you can go in when you like and get some extra bag work in. I don't know what your work/school routine is so I can't be more specific.

4) How does Sparring & Grading work, theres a friend of mine who did Karate for 2 years, and she said she never went for belts or was never graded, yet was able to sparr, but what level of student could she have sparred with, and with her years could she sparr with blackbelt.

Sparring works that you get used to hitting someone and being hit [this is the most important part. Learning to take a hit and get over your fear of being hit. This will stop you from freezing up if you get into a real fight]

Grading usually you have to show proficiency in your Kihon [basics techniques] and Katas [forms] and depending on your instructor and/or level your sparring. You don't have to "win" so you don't go looking to KO the guy/s.

What style did your friend do. Sounds more like Kickboxing.

5) How do you hold back without injuring a person, aswell as avoiding exhaustion, aswell as taking breaks.

Experience. That sums up this question. Training and Experience will teach you how to restrain yourself from trying blast someone.

6) How does the refereeing work, and how old can you be for a black belt.

They will score points based on power and clean technique. The only way you can be to old for a Black Belt is if you're dead.

7) How do u improve stamina, strenght, and flexibility, Body conditioning and ideal times to train. being able to headkicks, etc

This is a common sense one. Training. Jogging or running to improve stamina, weight training for strength and stretching for flexibility. The ideal time is whenever you can make time for them.

8) Refereeing, surrendering/being out of action, how injured can u get

Depends on what your style is. Shotokan you won't get to roughed up in. Kyokushin and its off shoots thats where some injuries will happen. Just know if you're hurt stay out of class until its better.

9) Fighting with younger and older people, and females

Fighting teenagers I try to stay patient. They can be erratic. Fighting older people. If you're talking about pensionrs. Be Careful. You don't want to injure them. And don't underestimate Old Man strength.

Females. I tend to play more defensively. Let them hit me. And when i do go to attack I make sure its in safe places.

Again it all comes down to experience.

10) Can you teach without having any belts.

Depends on how much you know. Preferably it would be in your best interests to have a Black Belt if you want to teach. Depending on your Club you might start doing assistant instructing to prepare you for Black Belt.

I will look forward to hearing your responses, Patrick

Well hopefully I was able to help out.

Damo W

FruitLover wrote: »

What do you mean by equipment? Padding etc? It's nice to have, but you can make do without. I doubt the guys doing karate in Okinawa in the 19th century had focus mitts etc.

Bogu Kumite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogu_Kumite

The origin of this unique training approach is credited to Shigeru Nakamura (Okinawan).

Equipment
[Often referred to as Hojo Undo, supplementary training]
Commonly (?!) used in Okinawa.

http://www.karateblogger.com/stari/articles/Hojo%20undo.htm

getz

mashtobi wrote: »

Hi, im in a bit of a dilemma, ive started doin Karate but feel well outta my depth, i never get enough time to speak to my sensai. is there anyone who can give me advice as it would be greatly appreciated, thanks. And im gonna annoy ye with a list of questions LOL.

1) First of all my sensai makes me train without no equpment, hes 4th dan, and trained in Tokyo, we do not have any equipment, and train in a carpeted room, is this ok!, i find it hard to spot moves correctly at home, and what is the correct equipment.

2) How many hours before i train should i have food.

3) Do u get cramp in training and how do u avoid it, aswell as gettin hit, and ideal times to train.

4) How does Sparring & Grading work, theres a friend of mine who did Karate for 2 years, and she said she never went for belts or was never graded, yet was able to sparr, but what level of student could she have sparred with, and with her years could she sparr with blackbelt.

5) How do you hold back without injuring a person, aswell as avoiding exhaustion, aswell as taking breaks.

6) How does the refereeing work, and how old can you be for a black belt.

7) How do u improve stamina, strenght, and flexibility, Body conditioning and ideal times to train. being able to headkicks, etc

8) Refereeing, surrendering/being out of action, how injured can u get

9) Fighting with younger and older people, and females

10) Can you teach without having any belts.

I will look forward to hearing your responses, Patrick

[1]you do not need equipment to train in shotokan karate.[2]do not worry to much about that[3] i have never got cramp in my 40+ years of training[4] learn the basics ie blocking /kicking/punching and at least one kata before sparring,[5] i always found pulling my punches and kicks easy,mind you that was because i was taught shotokan in the 60s when mitts were uknown.also if you have mastered your blocking well enough you could be hard to hit.[6] there is no age limit to receiving a black belt,refereeing works on a points system in shotokan, [7] stretching [important] and training,[8]accidents will happen,but as you condition your body,you heal faster,[9] the big part of the fun is to spar with all grades,in a well run club you will find no one ever tries to hurt anybody,i still at the age of 69, spar and encourage people of all ages and grades. [10] the sad thing to day is that there is very little control of who can and who cannot teach karate,many who run clubs today have very little karate training,one of early teachers would always say the teachers who know little ,will allways try to fill up the lessons with and over do the warm ups, its good you have a japanese trained sensai,all my early teachers were japanese and i learned strong basics.

mashtobi

I didnt think i would have gotten the advice ive gotten, if i ever meet ye all ill be ye all a round.

Much appreciated, and thanks ever so much

mashtobi

Im having trouble actually getting psyched up and getting into the frame of mind for karate, what exactly should i do, whether getting hit or not, how do u overcome ur fears & emotions,

I have seen special boxing gloves for karate, why is this?

JohnMc1

mashtobi wrote: »

Im having trouble actually getting psyched up and getting into the frame of mind for karate, what exactly should i do, whether getting hit or not, how do u overcome ur fears & emotions,

This might sound sadistic or I might sound like a jerk [don't mean to] but the best way to overcome your fear of being hit is to just be hit. There is no magic formula to it. Time and experience and sparring as much as you can will help you overcome your fears [confronting them is the only way way to overcome them] and control your emotions.

I have seen special boxing gloves for karate, why is this?

For competitions mostly and occassionally for sparring.

getz

mashtobi wrote: »

Im having trouble actually getting psyched up and getting into the frame of mind for karate, what exactly should i do, whether getting hit or not, how do u overcome ur fears & emotions,

I have seen special boxing gloves for karate, why is this?

by now you should have been taught breathing exercises in your club,a couple of deap breaths,will pump oxygen into your system,this will make you move and block/ strike that little bit faster,the reason for the boxing gloves is that more and more clubs seem to be moving to a kickboxing system,[not my idea of katate] i myself believe in a more non contact system,timid children will never move on ,or try more complex moves,if some bully hits them to hard,but as i say mitts or no contact is the best way