Karate – A Great Activity For Children and Adults

Karate is a martial art that focuses on unarmed combat. It teaches students how to protect themselves and others with compassion, strength and restraint. It is also a great cardiovascular workout and helps build strength in the body. In addition, karate is a mental discipline and teaches students to persevere through adversity. It is a great activity for children and adults alike!

Karate first became popular in America after World War 2. It was largely thanks to Bruce Lee that this happened. He was responsible for bringing martial arts to the public’s attention with some of his big blockbuster movies in the 1970’s. During this time, the martial art of Judo was compulsory for American soldiers to learn. Many soldiers would go on to teach it back in their home country. Gichin Funakoshi is often considered to be the father of modern karate. He moved to Japan in 1922 where he began teaching karate to students. He created his own karate style called Shotokan. The name comes from the Japanese words’shoto’ meaning wave or billowing pine and ‘kan’ meaning hall. Funakoshi later incorporated elements of kendo, judo and aikido into his own style.

Generally, karate is practised on 8×8 mats with 1m extra on each side (known as the safety zone). Some kata are practiced in pairs and some are fought against imaginary opponents. Sparring in karate is known as Kumite and is scored by the referee and judges.

In sporting karate, blows are not allowed to come close to the face or neck, or the legs. This is to prevent serious injury. The winning competitor is the one who scores more points than their opponent.