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A typical karate lesson at one of our
clubs weekly classes |
This page should give anyone who
hasn't been to one of our classes or lessons before, a
taste of what to expect if you actually turned up at
the
Aldershot,
Farnham
or
Haslemere clubs to train for the first time. Whilst
we are trying to give a general overview of what you
may encounter at a class, the list is neither
exhaustive or making out that the format of every
class is set in stone. No two lessons will be
exactly the same, although all of them will be based
on the
Wado syllabus, structure and ultimate goal of
putting those principles together when sparring. It
is important that every lesson is slightly
different, because you will never
take on board new information if you continually
repeat it in a parrot fashion, without explanation.
Repetition is of course perfectly ok, but you need to be told what you
are meant to be doing and more importantly why you
are meant to be doing it and how to improve it. The
following text should explain the various component
parts, which make up one of our martial arts karate
classes and any combination of these in any lesson,
would make up the bulk of any one session with us.
A typical Karate lesson will begin with a thorough
warm up, to gentle stretch and engage all parts of
the body.
Karate uses almost every muscle group and
therefore is a great all round exercise, but it does
mean that they all need warming up correctly. By
doing so, you will help to stop yourself getting an injury,
or becoming uncomfortable. In the long term, warming
up and stretching will make your whole body more
elastic and flexible and thus making your kicks and
punches quicker and more efficient. A warm up can
consist of a variety of different exercises and
again, no two warm ups will be identical. Some will
be slower than others, some will incorporate gentle
karate techniques, others will be cardio vascular
and gradually get your heart pumping and you may
find others involve deeper stretching and breathing
exercises.
When you learn
Karate, you
are first introduced to
individual techniques, such
as single blocks, kicks and
s trikes. If you compare
learning
Karate to learning
a new language, you can
think of these like the
letters of the alphabet.
Several techniques strung
together may form words. The
practice of basic techniques
is often simply called
“basics”, or kihon in
Japanese. To stay with this
analogy, sentences are thus
formed by stringing several
basic techniques together.
These basic techniques that
you are taught form a
foundation for progression
to more advanced techniques.
All
karate students from beginners to a high grade
instructor need to
continually work on their
basic technique, so they are
able to practise the
more advanced blocks and
kata correctly and properly.
The principles of body movement are also
vitally important in
Wado-Ryu Karate. Students are
therefore taught to remain relaxed and to use hip
twist and body shift to generate rapid movement to
create the power in their punching and kicking
techniques. So in summary, practising basics can be
either learning blocks, kicks or punches, or a
combination of all of them. Basics can also be about
learning to move the body correctly. The
Wado
principle is based on minimum effort, but maximum
force from a start to a end position.
Kata are a series of preset movements, incorporating
formal patterns of
defence and attacks. They will help any karate
student to learn to evade, counter and subdue
any number of imaginary opponents. There can be up
to 10 opponents coming at you from different angles,
namely the 8 (4+4) points of the compass and one
from above and one from below. The karate students kata can be compared to the boxer, who will run
along the road or in the gym and shadow-box against an
imaginary opponent.
When you practise kata, it must be performed with
the utmost realism and with a sense that you may
lose your life, so you must have a complete be lief
in it in it and you must therefore be prepared to
fight for your life. Whilst form, focus and
technique are obviously required and more easy to
show, expressing the urgency of life and death
through your kata is not easily done.
A first class martial-artist must face life and
death with a calm and resolute spirit, so be
confident and determined to survive and train with
this in mind and always try to keep your kata alive.
There are five basic Kata in
Wado-Ryu know as the Pinan Kata's: Shodan; Nidan;
Sandan; Yodan; and Godan. There is also a basic kata
that all students learn before the Pinans, called Kihon Kata.
The next four kata are Kushanku,
Naihanchi, Seishan and
Chinto.
These make up the nine core kata of
Wado karate. They are also fairly exclusively
the ones practised at the training halls of the
clubs. We much prefer that you learn fewer kata well
and develop a real understanding of some of them,
than learn many more and have little knowledge of
the principles behind them. The students will
regularly practise not just the movements within
each kata, but the breakdown and applications of the
moves, which are critical to making progress.
Sensei Shiomitsu is in a class of his own when
it comes to showing practical and efficient drills
around the movements within the Wado
kata!
To summarise, kata should be a excellent tool to
help you learn and improve your techniques and once
you have a good understanding of the nine Wado kata,
then this will provide you with a knowledge base of
karate applications that you should be able to call
upon and use at any time.
Wado karate is steeped in rich traditional Japanese
Jujitsu movement and applications, which supplement
the more well known karate syllabus . The Wado
Academy has therefore incorporated something called
Goshin-Ho,
which allow the students to think freely, without a
set syllabus, to escape and subdue and opponent
whilst using locks, holds, grabs and takedowns that
form the Jujitsu element of
Wado karate. Essentially there are no rules,
apart from a grab, to which then a defender has to
distract, escape and control his attacker. This
form of self defence is based on the Jujitsu
techniques that the
1st
Grandmaster Ohtsuka originally blended into his students
normal karate practice. These movements are very
practical and are practised as often as time allows
us to do so.
The series of pre-arranged attacks and blocks within
the Wado syllabus, provide a comprehensive way of
conditioning your body and mind to be able to move
efficiently and with power. The pair work has to be
studied by students who have the correct minds et
as to what they are doing and what they are trying
to achieve. Simplistically, the various pair work
helps us understand timing, distance, evasion and
body movement. The various blocks are staged, so
that you begin with a more basic set of moves with
the Ippon Kumite and then end after many years
practise studying the more advanced
Kihon
Kumite. The
Kumite
Gata is perhaps the link between the previously
mentioned series of blocks. We don't have time here
to go into the detail of what makes them unique or
so valuable to Wado karate, but suffice to say, it
is absolutely fundamental to any practitioner that
they understand not just how to do the movements to
look aesthetically pleasing, but that they actually
know what they are doing and why. Without this
knowledge, the blocks may become meaningless and
impractical for any useful purpose!
Idori is
kneeling defence.
Tanto Dori is the Japanese meaning for
knife defence and we practise five drills as
part of the syllabus, although there are others that
are practised and will be well known by many long
standing Wado practitioners.
Grappling is basically applying your training to
fighting on the floor. The Wado principles of being
in complete control of your body, relaxation and the
Jujitsu elements, means that the students can learn
and pick up groundwork fairly quickly.
Grappling may be practised fairly regularly at
the clubs, but not exclusively at every lesson.
Being able to fight well is really the Holy Grail of
any decent karate student, although not the be all
and end all for everyone. Fighting essentially allows
a student to practice
all of the basics, evasion and counter attacking
techniques in a situation which is not pre planned,
but totally
realistic. This element of a class is normally done
towards the end of a lesson, although it can be done
at other times, such as part of a vigorous warm up.
Jiyu kumite
(free fighting) is very different to
competition fighting. Sport karate has rules,
free fighting does not and therefore our clubs
practise both. No student will be thrown in at the
deep end when they start and they will never be
asked to take a beating from a higher grade, this
simply does not happen! We want all students, of all
abilities to be able to start to learn and progress
with their own worries, so students are encouraged
to learn basic fighting first and then progress
gently at their own pace to a level they wish to
aspire to.
Clearly the practical aspects of fighting have
to be well controlled, so any techniques such as
groin kicks, elbow strikes or attacks to the eyes
and throat are only inferred! The
sparring is always
done under strict supervision with your safety in
mind and is done with minimal contact. For those
that like to train with a higher degree of contact,
then monthly sessions are held to allow you to do
so. They are by no means compulsory.
Competitions are always available to those that want
to enter and we are privileged to have some of the
finest authorities on both
competition
and free
fighting teach us on a regular basis.
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