Everything That You Will Learn In Adults & Kids Karate Classes

All of the points in this article apply to both adults and kids when first starting karate class. Of course, it may be that some of these points are far more appropriate to specific age groups. For example, it is likely far more important for a misbehaving kid to learn both discipline and respect than an adult. On the other hand, it is likely a lot more important for a 32 year old accountant to get their body into good physical condition, rather than a kid who is running around all day anyway.

Although everyone can benefit from learning karate, your own goals, age group and point in life will determine just what you get out of martial arts.

It should also be added that each type of karate school will teach a different curriculum and have different attitudes towards both katas and sparring. In American Kenpo karate for example, you will likely not be performing any katas at all and will be mostly swayed toward self defense and sparring. This is different from Shito-Ryu karate which will place a firm emphasis on kata and not do much sparring.

In summary, it doesn’t really matter which gym you send a child to. As long as the atmosphere is pleasant enough with supportive coaches, your child will get a lot out of it. If you are an adult, it may be worth figuring out exactly what you want and trying out a variety of gyms before making a permanent decision about where to train.

Discipline

Discipline is a fundamental attribute of karate and will likely spill over to your personal life if you train well. You will be put in some difficult physical situations whilst training karate and must keep your composure about you at all times.

If you have an unruly child who has had a bad start in life, karate is ideal. Karate instructors will not tolerate any misbehavior during class and this will teach your child to respect authority figures rather than do whatever they want. This is one of the key reasons why we see so many children begin karate classes and then thrive in others areas of life after many months of hard work.

Physical Conditioning

Karate is an old-school martial art and places a heavy emphasis on conditioning the body. With strength and conditioning training, there are no real downsides. Being able to do 100 situps, pull ups and push ups has no disadvantage whatsoever and is only a positive thing for your body. Even if you decide to quit karate after 2 years and got nothing else out of it, your body will thank you for looking after it, as well as making it stronger.

The benefit to learning karate is that it really is a full body workout. You will condition your arms, legs, core, shoulders, neck and even your fists. If you haven’t done any kind of intense core workout before, you may be quite surprised when you first come to karate class at just how intense it can be. Even something as gentle as training kata can be quite intense if you are not familiar with this type of exercise.

Reflexes

Reflexes are something that can only be trained by working on them. If you think of reflexes like an invisible muscle, they will likely be very slow until you begin to work out. By training over time, they will gradually improve and then like anything else in life, fade when you begin to age.

Karate is good at improving your reflexes since it is a striking martial art. To be able to hit your opponent you will need to be quick. At the same time, in order to block and parry the strikes of your opponent, you must be quicker than them. Each time an opponent hits you in the head or body, this is a message telling your brain it must become faster. Through practice and hard training, you will get to a point where you are significantly faster at reacting to the unexpected than you once were.

Self Defense (Striking & Blocking)

One major reason why people take up karate in the first place is for an entry into the world of self defense. Whilst it’s clear that no single martial art can equip you 100% for self defense, combat-based karate can get you at least 80-90% of the way there.

The fundamental reasoning behind this is that karate is a striking martial art. If you are learning karate to be able to go toe-to-toe with an attacker, you are best suited to learn kenpo, kyokoshin or shotokan karate since these are the most physical and should have regular sparring in their classes. Whilst you may prefer to learn a kata style of karate with no physical sparring, this will not help you past a certain level with self defense. It is best to be primed by being well versed in punching, kicking, blocking and evading – the only way to learn all of these is through experience.

In short, karate is a great option for self defense, provided that the gym you learn from teaches it in this way.

Respect

A concept that is far more Japanese than western. Of course, we all have respect for our teachers, parents and other people of authority, but the Japanese take this a step further. Due to karate being a Japanese martial art, respect is a core value embedded within the nature of the fighting way.

You will regularly bow to your instructor and training partners, as well as being bowed back to. This is a sign of mutual respect, as well as a thank you to those who are teaching you. If you haven’t trained before, all of this could seem a little over the top but will become second nature after not too long.

Reality

Some people walk into a karate gym thinking they are one of life’s tough guys. This soon changes if your gym is traditional and has hard sparring as attitudes change very quickly when the strikes start flying.

Overall this is a very positive thing to happen. If you were someone who thought that they were tough, in a karate gym you can learn the harsh realities of fighting and understand it is something that should generally be avoided. A karate gym should change any bad attitudes and will give you a sense of what reality is really like.

Self-Confidence

If you haven’t trained martial arts before, it’s possible that you have not reached the upper bounds of your own self confidence. Much like anything in life, if you haven’t yet experienced it, it’s very difficult to know what it’s like.

Karate is no different in that it has a great impact on some people, specifically children. The reasoning for this is because it alerts you to the physical realities of the world and gives you skills about how to deal with them.

The most obvious benefit of having self confidence is that it gives you a greater skill set to stand up to a bully and defend yourself verbally. Not only this, but if you have more self confidence, you likely will not need to use your fighting skills learned from karate in the first place. The reasoning for this is that due to your new found confidence, you will be less likely to get picked on in the first place.

Katas

Learning and memorizing katas will help both your own or a child’s memorization skills. In the modern world, it is very easy just to look things up on the internet, have your work checked for spelling and never have the need to remember anyone’s phone number. However, if you are performing a kata, you have no other option but to get everything into your head. This will often take hours of dedicated practice to both get the correct moves in the right order, as well as keeping good form throughout.

Thinking of getting your kids into karate? Then check out this specific book that is all about getting kids to learn karate in a fun manner.