Karate - the real deal

Karate is a self-defence martial art (mainly) that uses you whole body, elbows, arms, feet, shins and knees. It has a motto, "Never strike the first blow".

Karate is a martial art that doesn't use weapons much, (karate means "empty hand") and tries to turn the body into an effective weapon itself. It can be a sport, traditional focused art, self-defence system, form of exercise but mainly a mixture. It originated with lawful Buddhist monks developing a form of defence against bandits, who ignored a law against carrying weapons (this has parallels with knife crime today).

The picture on the left is a symbol for one particular type of karate. The dove represents a gentle person, using negotiation instead of violence. The fist...............Well, I'll let you guess!!

Anyway, now for some techniques. Karate focuses on close combat (unarmed, as I mentioned). It has striking and grappling techniques, and techniques with both!!

It has individual punches/kicks/grapples, but it also has katas. Here's a video of a kata.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csg3qL7rYuQ

Kick: Bend down into a low position with your legs wide apart, side on to your target. Keep your right elbow at around a right angle, bending up so that your fist is as high as your shoulder, and your left arm in front of your right shoulder

Place your left leg in front of your right, with both feet pointing towards your left (quite uncomfortable, but bear with me)

Bring your right leg up, quickly and with force

Lower your knee to your hip, foot on opposite knee

Return to wide posture, maintaining guard all the way.

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