Karate

Karate first came to America through immigrants from Japan and Okinawa. The first recorded exhibition was in 1932 in Hawaii. Servicemen coming back after World War 2 brought knowledge of the art and helped spread the art.

The place to learn karate is called the dojo.

No, the Olympics do not have a category for Karate. There is a category for Tae Kwon Do and one for Judo.

Balance, balance, balance. And that requires practice, practice, practice. Make sure you are pivoting on the ball of your forward foot.

That varies widely. Some teachers don't charge and teach in their home or a public facility. Others charge a great deal and have to deal with overhead such as dojo rental, phones, advertising, etc. Most instructors have other businesses that provide them income and do the martial art for the love of the activity.

On a good day of teaching, I can make $50 - $60 dollars, my best was $132. On other days I make $8.

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Not much. A lot of martial arts instructors teach in addition to having a full time job. It isn't a career to make money in.

Most martial arts schools only teach a few hours a day, if that. The places I know only have 20 to 25 hours of classes a week. Even if you get in a full sized class, that can be limiting.

The average cost per month varies greatly, from around a low of $75 to as much as $165. 100 Students at $165 a person a month is $16,500 per month over a years time that's $198,000. Take out your costs for the dojo, utilities, liability insurance, advertising, equipment costs, insurance for staff (if you have any staff to pay) and taxes. Being the owner is the benefit, an instructor paid by the owner will struggle with about $25,000 per year (and that is on the higher end scale).

That's if you can get 100 students! And you sure aren't going to do that day one. It will take 20 to 30 students just to cover the overhead.

In most martial arts, a white belt means a beginner. You receive your white belt on your very first day of class. You have committed to learn something, but you haven't learned anything yet.

Many westerners are under the false impression that a black belt is an expert. That may be true in some martial arts, but in most martial arts a black belt is merely a graduate. She has learned the basic skills of the martial art and performed them competently during classes and during testing. It may take approximately three years to earn a black belt, but this varies widely from art to art and from school to school.

There are more ranks to achieve after black belt. The title of master is conferred at one of those ranks. In WTF Taekwondo, the title of master is conferred upon achieving a fourth degree black belt. It takes approximately 10-12 years to earn a fourth degree black belt in WTF taekwondo. The title of grandmaster is conferred upon achieving the rank of 7th degree black belt. It takes approximately 30 years of dedicated study to earn a 7th degree black belt.

White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Brown, Red, Black. There are also senior levels of all the belts (except white), which is that specific color with a black stripe through the middle.

10 degrees of black belt exist in Karate. But each belt has a meaning. The meaning of the 10th degree is "perfection", not in those exact words. Because some people rightly believe that no one can be perfect, some Karate programs have eliminanted the 10th degree. An example of this is the ATA program, they only have 9 degrees of black belt.

There is no such thing as the "deadliest" form of any fighting system. The word "deadly" can not be quantified in terms of degree of death. You are either dead, or you are not. A trained or skilled fighter is either capable of inflicting a mortal blow or deadly technique which will result in the ending of an opponent's life or they are not thusly capable. Any fighting system that contains even one application of a deadly technique is, by definition, deadly. That one technique could be applied with skillful speed, accuracy, and timing and used frequently to make the fighter repeatedly successful at application of a deadly skill. Many fighting arts and Martial Art systems contain a significant number of deadly techniques which are capable of killing an opponent, thus each are equal in their degree of being "deadly" and not one can be truthfully ranked as more deadly than others or the "deadliest" - - personal opinions and individual preferences aside.

Some schools teach karate as a sport.

Some schools teach karate as a martial art.

Schools of both types may allow full contact, however, most will not as the insurance requirements and liability are too high to allow it. As such pads and protective gear will be required.

white

There is a old story to the history of the Karate belt orders: when Japan was in poverty they couldn't afford getting a new belt every belt test so they would start out with white, dye the white yellow, dye the yellow orange, and so on until the belt was completely black of dying.

Karate has a number of Branches (like Shotokan, Goju-ryu, etc.) and eack style branch may have even more sub-branches (for e.g. Shito-ryu alone has around 25 sub-branches).

Traditionally each style has a single 10th dan at the top of the organization. There are many individuals that are not happy with being unable to raise to that level, so they create their own style, so that they can promote themselves to that rank. I have met and trained with three individuals that have reached the rank of 10th dan through the organizations they have been members of for over 50 years.

It does not serve a purpose in the learning of karate. Anyone can learn to break a board with a few minutes of training and explanation. And as Bruce Lee said, "Boards don't fight back."

I wouldn't. Karate gi's tend to be lighter weight then a judo gi. It would likely be ripped to shreds within a class or two. The Judo gi is heavy cotton and is usually quilted with reinforced seams for a lot of grappling.

Karate-do originated in Okinawa, which is now a part of Japan, but is a fusion of both Okinawan and Chinese Martial arts techniques. The word Karate literally translates as "Empty Hand" - however, it's origins also translate to "China Hand". Karate, or Karate-do, is one of several Japanese Budo (Martial Way) arts that has many styles. Other Do arts are:

Aikido

Kendo (Sword)

Judo

Kyudo (Bow/Mounted Archery)

There are many styles of Japanese Karate, as there are many other styles of Korean Karate and the styles of other countries. However, Karate is historically traced to Okinawa and China. Some different styles of Japanese Karate are:

Shotokan

Shorin-Ryu

Isshin-Ryu

Goju-Ryu

The term "Ryu" comes from "Ryuku", which is the name of the islands of which Okinawa is a part. These are a few of many different Japanese Karate styles, but all are descendants or variations on the original ancient styles. Differences can be in technique, stance, etc., but most Karate forms are similar in nature.

Like anything else in life, there are many answers to this question. Some might say, "You get what you paid for." Others aren't sure and want a minimal output until they see that their child will "stick with it."

There is gear that is extremely economical and sparring gear that is like a Mercedes Benz.

In general, many people will pay in the neighborhood of $50-$150 for their sparring gear, but it really depends on the requirements of the place where a student trains.

There is not a specific meaning behind each of the belts. It is simply a way of marking the location of a person in their martial art journey. In most schools it makes it easy for an instructor to determine what the individual knows and what new things they are working on.

Research has shown that the green belt is 7th belt that can be achieved in Karate. One must achieve each level in karate in order to move up to the next level. Prior to achieving the green belt one would have to earn a blue, then a yellow belt, orange belt, blue belt, purple belt, green with white stripes belt and the next step would be the green belt.

It is pretty hard to teach yourself something you don't know. And it is very difficult to learn something without a good teacher. There is no substitute for working with a qualified instructor. While you can learn some of the positions and some techniques from books and video, you are only learning some martial skills, not a martial art.

No, the language is simply Japanese. It was heavily influenced by the Chinese and the words are written the same way, but often pronounced differently depending on whether you are on Okinawa, Japan or China.

Originally there were no colored belts. That system is relatively new, less than 100 years.

The karate-ka borrowed the system of Judo, which was light blue, white, brown, black, red and white and red.

Each school, style and organization have developed their own systems and they vary a great deal.

There are a limited number of true 10th Dans in the world. Many of the Japanese styles do not even go that high. They feel that 10th Dan should only be awarded to the originator of the art. The Okinawa karate styles have a single 10th Dan in each style. To meet and train with one is an honor.

Lots of them. Each school and/or style creates their own ranking scheme.