In class we ask ourselves the following:
What if somebody were to strike at you, or grab you, and you weren’t carrying a weapon?
How could you protect yourself in that situation?
We use the imagined attack as a context to develop the mind and body on many levels:
While these would help us in a fight, they more importantly help us avoid that fight in the first place.
Almost all of your work is individual, though we’re often all moving together in unison.
You'll be trying things out almost immediately, starting with very basic movements and even standing still. (Yes, there's a lot to learn about how to stand still!) Beginners, advanced students, and even the instructors practice the basics together every class, each at their own pace. We then build the basics into more complicated combinations and forms. There's also a wide variety of drills to emphasize different aspects of the techniques.
We take it seriously, but not too seriously. It’s a good, hard workout, but it’s not boot camp. There’s no full-contact fighting or brick-smashing. We don’t stress tournaments or other contests. You are your own competition.
The teaching style is geared toward adults, but kids are always welcome to participate.
Some comfortable clothing, like a T-shirt and sweat pants. That’s all.
Okay, an open mind helps too.
This, unfortunately, is one of the most common misconceptions we encounter.
Karate-do is not a typical sport, so people who are not typical athletes can and do succeed at it.
Karate-do is also not a typical class. A "hear the answer, understand the answer, reproduce the answer" approach is impossible.
You'll be training your body to react to danger in an instinctive yet controlled way. The techniques are finely specified, but since everyone's body is different, everyone looks a little different doing them. Only you can teach yourself, through determined practice, to move smartly without conscious thought.
Expect to struggle with it now, because in an attack there's no time to prepare. While you'll find some things difficult for a long time, you'll also see lots of progress along the way.
Over the years, many of our best students have been the most skeptical about getting started. Fortunately, they gave it a shot and it changed their (and our) lives!
One person who tried karate despite his reservations put it this way:
I was rather a sickly baby and a frail child; accordingly, it was suggested when I was still quite young that to overcome these handicaps I ought to begin the study of karate. This I did, but with little interest at the very first. However, during the latter half of my years at primary school, after my health began to improve noticably, my interest in karate began to grow. Soon, I found, it had cast a spell over me. Into the task of mastering it I threw myself mind and body, heart and soul. I had been a frail, irresolute, introverted child; by the time I reached manhood I found myself to be strong, vigorous, and outgoing.
This was not one of our students, but rather Osensei Funakoshi Gichin, one of the great masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the man widely credited with introducing karate to mainland Japan over the course of forty years. Yet even he wasn't so sure about it at first!
Funakoshi-Osensei also said,
Karate may be engaged in by anybody, young or old, strong or weak, male or female.
Not a problem. The class will get you there over time.
It's unusual for anyone, even the most athletic dancers or weightlifters, to be in ideal shape for karate when they start. Everyone comes to karate with unique strengths and weaknesses, even those who've never worked out before in their lives!
You'll be taught at a pace that works for you, not one that demands you keep up with anyone else.
The word karate combines kara, meaning “empty”, and te, meaning “hand” in Japanese. It typically refers to the styles of martial arts that spread from the island of Okinawa to mainland Japan and beyond.
Karate-dō, literally translated as “the way of karate”, emphasizes the traditional practice of self-improvement over sport or combat applications. The kata (prearranged patterns of offense and defense) at the core of karate-do have been passed down over many centuries.
Isshinryu is the particular style of karate that we study. The word breaks down into three parts:
| i | one, single |
| shin | heart, mind, spirit |
| ryu | way, method |
The Isshinryu style was founded in Okinawa in 1956 by Osensei Shimabuku Tatsuo (1908-1975), who combined seemingly contrary aspects of the Shorin-ryu and Goju-ryu styles.
Isshinryu comprises a set of simple, versatile techniques, allowing a person of any size and age to find combinations that are effective in an unpredictable situation. The “One Heart Way”, as it’s often called, does not mean "only one way is right", but rather that each person must train all aspects of the mind and body to work together as one.
If all you want out of karate is a black belt, you will find Isshinryu very frustrating. It takes many years and a great deal of hard work to get to the black belt level.
If you are interested in learning and working at something that will benefit you for the rest of your life, you can make great strides in Isshinryu. You will experience this as you progress up the ranks:
You will test for rank promotions a few times a year, depending on how often and how seriously you work out. This may not seem like very often, but when you earn each rank, you will truly appreciate how meaningful it is! There is no set time frame for tests, and no deadlines for promotions. It depends only on what you want to put into it.
That's fine.
While one obviously makes faster progress working out three days a week, people have a lot of success training twice or even once a week.