Karate is a system of mostly unarmed fighting, developed originally on Okinawa, then in Japan.
Karate teaches it's students to use all parts of the body to punch, kick, strike and block, but also to throw, grapple and immobilise opponents.
Whatever the style, Karate practice is usually divided into 3 main areas of practice, Kihon (Basics), Kata (Forms) and Kumite (Sparring).
KIHON
In Kihon practice, the basic Karate techniques are taught. This can vary according to the style being practiced, but is broadly similar across them all.
Beginning students initially concentrate on learning and practicing individual techniques, in order to learn the proper body mechanics required.
As the student progresses, more techniques are learned, existing techniques are refined and are practised in combination with others.
KATA
Kata are a series of formal, prearranged sets of moves that exist, in one form or another, in all Karate styles. Each different style has it's own tradition of how it's kata are performed or named, and kata do vary a lot across styles.
Kata are often taught to beginners as a method of teaching basic techniques and turns, or are said to be an example of how to use basic techniques in a fight against a number of imaginary opponents.
While this is fine, it's quite a shallow view. Though kata are a good way of teaching students how to move and perform techniques in a variety of stances, and in a variety of directions, a more sophisticated way of viewing them, is that Kata have techniques hidden, or encoded within them, that may be too dangerous to use in free practice.
This allows skilled practicioners to be creative and, using their own skill and knowledge of Karate, develop effective self defence techniques using Kata.
KUMITE
Again, Kumite is practised differently, according to the beliefs of each style. Basically, though, Kumite is where the student takes the theory imparted during practise of Kata and Kihon, and puts it into practise against a live opponent. There are a number of Kumite methods, including pre-arranged sparring, where one or both participants perform agreed techniques, sport or tournament sparring, where points are given for valid techniques scored and more dangerous techniques, such as open hand strikes, joint attacks etc, are banned, and free sparring, where more dangerous techniques may be allowed, if performed with control.
STYLES
There are 4 main styles of Japanese Karate, Shotokan, Shito Ryu, Wado Ryu and Goju Ryu.
Each one seems to have been created by someone who learned the original Japanese Karate style from Funakoshi, and disagreed with some way in which the style was being taught and thought he could do a better job.
SHOTOKAN
The style we at Kokusai practise.
Shotokan was developed in the 1920's by Gichin Funakoshi from already existing style of Okinawan Karate, Shorin Ryu.
It was adopted by Japanese Universities and the Military as valuable method of excercise and of imparting obedience, discipline and courage.
Shotokan as a system teaches it's students to use long, low stances and perform large, long techniques with speed and power.
High kicks and jumping techniques are more often than not shunned in favour of punches, mid level kicks and low sweeps to the legs and ankles. Strong, solid contact with the ground is also favoured, to help transfer power into techniques.
Shotokan practitioners believe in meeting opponents head on, using strong, direct blocks and counterattacks, or waiting for an opponent to reveal a weakness in his/her defence, then delivering 1 or 2 finishing blows.
Proponents of Shotokan believe in form over function when it comes to Karate techniques. Shotokan people are taught to value good form in a technique over everything else, and so they believe that a well executed technique is an effective technique.
To this end, many Shotokan schools emphasise Kihon training, consisting of many, many repetitions of basic techniques performed forward and back across the training hall floor.
Shotokan schools generally teach 26 Kata, which are as follows;
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