Karate

The order that kata is taught in is dependent on the school and the instructor. Some even tailor it to the individual.

In my style Kusanku Dai is the kata taught after Bassai Dai.

Color belts are used to quickly and easily distinguish ability levels in the class.

Students can easily see who to go to for help and the instructor can easy see what the skill spread is in a class and tailor his teaching accordingly.

It also helps the instructor to know which kata or drill to teach a student to be specific to his/her skill level.

And in some cases it is used as a reward system for the students, who don't have the patience to wait years for a change in belt color.

There are many different strikes in this defense. There is the chest or face thrust, front or side of the head strike, single hand grab, and both hands grab. There are actually more than 10,000 techniques.

A very wide, looping punch intended to throw as much bodyweight as possible behind a punch. Can cause a KO if it connects, but this depends on your own power, the ability of the man in front of you to take a punch, your accuracy (no use if you punch the cranium), and the structural integirty of the punch - i.e. if you make a bad fist and your wrist isn't straight, you're just going to hurt yourself.

The knowledge of pressure points in the Martial Art is a serious, and potentially dangerous skill. While the internet is filled with sources of data, void of any personal direction, guidance, or integrity, any responsible expert in this field knows that this kind of information should not be imparted without proper instruction, and safety guidelines. Sometimes, the best information anyone on the internet can offer is not the answer to the question, but where to seek qualified training on a subject that will result in an improved understanding of the art and skill.

Find a certified teacher in your area who has this knowledge, and get personal instructions to avoid potential serious injury through misuses, or misunderstanding.

We refer to it as the way. While it is about fighting, it is mostly about being Karate not doing karate.

To 'do' can be temporary, but to 'be' is eternal.

To be karate, is to be an example of the way in all that you do.

You can be a 3rd degree black-belt and 'do Karate', or be a green-belt and 'be karate', vice versa.

It is up to no one to decide if you are, it is up to you to be.

Although, if you have dedicated enough of yourself to make it to 4th dan or higher it is an idea that you are Karate since to get to these levels require great love, discipline, and dedication to achieve.

It comes from Japanese, kara, meaning empty and te, meaning hand.Technically it should be karate-do, do means way so it becomes the way of the empty hand. By empty hand here they mean without weapons.

Generally not unless it's at the beginning of a sentence.

First of all in actual Japanese it would be called keikogi, dogi or karategi not just gi.

Second in actual Japanese there are no such things as capitals.

Third in English usage gi does not fall in to any of the capitalization categories (proper name etc.)

It depends on the style of karate, and most styles have more then one. For example, Tang Soo Do has only the parry block (the rest of the "blocks" are actually strikes), yet tae kwon jitsu has low x-block, high block, reverse outside block etc.

Kata are considered to be the living 'densho' of Karate. From Okinawan 'Toudi' through it's transplantation to mainland Japan, all styles of Karate maintained their own style-specific Kata. Kata is more than a mnemonic training devise for muscle memory. The student can become immersed in the kata and live the experiences of being attacked by multiple attackers, even with weapons. They can go full out in their defense, holding nothing back as they would have to do in a competition format. For disciple of Karate, there is no substitute for Kata or makiwara training.

Some styles, like Sakiyama Sensei's Shoreiji Ryu Toudi Jutsu, have five levels of applications for each Kata, taught at different levels of understanding. The first level includes tai sabaki (body movement) as well as receiving techniques, off balancing and counter punching, The next level includes throws and sweeps and skeletal manipulation. the third level included multiple attackers with weapons, The forth level included multiple simultaneous attackers with weapons and include the use of Kyusho Mato. The fifth level teaches to heal the attacker after disabling them. There are 128 recorded classical Okinawan karate Kata even though most schools use a very small amount.

The color black is gamjang 검정 (pronounced "gahm - jahng")

The Korean word for belt is ddi 띠 (pronounced "dhee")

Therefore, a Black Belt itself is called gamjang ddi 검정띠

"Degree" or grade level of the adult Black Belt is dan 단 (pronounced "dahn")

A person who holds the Black Belt rank is called a

yudanja 유단자 (pronounced "you - dahn - jah")

A teacher of karate is called Sensei. A really high ranked instructor who has earned the respect of their students may be referred to as Hanshi. A traditional martial artist is humble and will never ask to be called by their title, it is up to the other students to teach them the proper terminology. We call our Grandmaster (10th Dan) Sensei when talking with him, but refer to him as Hanshi or Grandmaster when we are talking to others.

The number of belts varies from school to school and style to style. They are usually divided into two categories, those before blackbelt and those after. In karate there are 10 ranks of blackbelt. The kyu levels vary from four to 12 or even 15.
White, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black. In black they than divide the levels by degree like if your first degree black belt you would be lower than a second degree black belt. At least that's how they do it in my dojo. They may also have strips from each belt color. A yellow belt with 2 strips would be higher than a yellow belt with 1 strip.

There is no known kata of such a name that i know of

There is a kata by that name but it is not traditional Karate, I am in a class that is actually considered mixed martial arts. The real thing, meaning we use multiple disciplines on top of Karate. So what you need to do is find out what style that form is. For that form for me it is broke up into 3 different kata's. I went thru this with do-san, it really is tkd, but my Master has adapted it as a karate form.

yes.....

You can learn it very quickly, however, to become proficient it will take years of practice. The basic moves can be learned in a few weeks, but they will not allow one to be good enough to prevail in a fight.

The purple belt is higher in rank than the blue belt, but of course some schools don't have a purple belt, so there you advance straight from blue to red. Just as a key of advice for differing between belt ranks the darker the belt most likely the higher the rank.

That depends on the school and style in question. My style does not have purple or blue belts. In some schools, blue is the highest rank (instead of black).

I would say that Michigan State University is one of the best. They have classes on campus led by 8th degree black belts. And the hombu is a mile down the street where the 10th Dan teaches.

GoJu Ryu means hard and soft. A person must have a balance of both to get it right.

Chojun Miyagi created the system based on what he learned from his master, Kanryo Higaonna. Higaonna studied under two Chinese masters as well as a native Okinawan (Seisho Aragaki). The style teaches circular blocks, proper breathing, strength, and fighting in close. Goju-ryu is traditionally characterized by shorter stances, the circular blocks, and audible breathing.

World Karate Union Hall of Fame was created in 1996.

Karate is based on older martial arts. The art comes to the world from Japan, but its origin is in Okinawa. Okinawa was a tribute state of China and therefore the people traded goods. Martial arts made their way from China into Okinawa and developed with some differences in the different regions - Shuri and Naha. Kushanku (died 1762?) was a Ch'uan Fa kung fu master and taught Kanga Sakugawa (1733-1815). His "karate" was called "Te." He in turn taught Sokon Matsumura (1797-1889) who is credited with being the master of Shuri-Te. It was from him that Yasutsune "Anko" Itosu (1830-1916) learned Shuri-Te and became one of the most prominent masters in Okinawa. Wai XinXian (dates and style unknown) taught Seisho Aragaki (1840-1918) whose style became known as "Tode." Wei Shinzan was a Fukien kung fu master and contemporarty to Wai XinXian. It was under both of these Chinese instructors and under Aragaki that Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915) studied and became recognized as the "Naha-Te" master.

Once Japan invaded Okinawa, they became a tribute state of Japan as well. In the early 1900's Okinawan masters began to travel to Japan to share karate. Okinawans had used several names for the art. Originally it was called "Te" "Tode" "Uchinade" or "Ryukyu Kempo." It later became more universally known as "karate." The characters used to write the word meant "Chinese hand." In 1905 Hanashiro Chomo wrote a book called "Karate Kumite" and was the first person to use the characters for karate meaning "empty hand." As the Okinawans began to teach in Japan, they used the characters meaning "empty hand" to get the Japanese public to accept the art. (The Japanese hated all things Chinese.) In 1930, Chojun Miyagi registered his style, Goju-Ryu, the first official style of karate with the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai - the governing body for martial arts in Japan.

The 1st belt is white then yellow

orange

purple

blue

green

brown

black

Many Karateka practice the world over, in order from least advanced (the Kihon kata) to most advanced. The Heian forms, as you move up, and the Katas become more and more advanced. The entire striking curriculum of Karate, and some of the grappling, can be found in those Katas. However the Katas are not the whole of Karate; there are many grappling techniques, not included in the Kata Bunkai. Bunkai means "application."

Also, the grappling in the authentic style of Shotokan, is all standup, there is absolutely no ground work outside hitting someone once you get them down. Moreover, the grappling techniques Gichin Funakoshi specifically requested from Dr. Kano, when the latter offered to teach him some Judo in exchange for some Karate, are all strictly defensive. Offensively, Shotokan's grappling is worthless, it can not be used in a sports competition. The reasons for that have to do with the fact that it is not designed for scoring points, or merely submitting, grappling in Karate is designed to incapacitate and prevent further attacks. The second reason has to do with the fact that applying Karate grappling is very difficult, it requires a lot of precise movement.

10 years.