About Us

• Karate can be described as a martial art, or fighting method, involving a variety of techniques, including blocks, strikes, evasions, throws, and joint manipulations. Karate practice is divided into three aspects: kihon (basics), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).
  
  One of the major reasons that people take up Karate is to get a little exercise. In our electronically-powered world where we do little other than clickity-click with a mouse in an email program only to return home and clickity-click on a mouse in a web browser for entertainment, most of us could stand to get a little more exercise. And Karate does provide a great resource to draw upon for exercise.
  
  One of the best reasons for taking up Karate for exercise purposes is that it is a group activity. Instead of drifting to a gym when you feel the urge, and often not drifting to the gym at all because you lack the motivation, we are able to find many workout buddies in a Karate club ready-made and waiting to both inspire us to show up and compete with them while training. As a group activity, Karate training provides more incentive to exercise, and that is probably the most important component of any exercise program. The thing that is wrong with most people?s exercise routines is that they are lonely experiences which eventually demotivate.
  Karate training also provides a disciplined environment where you can be pretty sure that the class will be a solid workout. In a Karate club with more than two or three members, usually the pressure to keep the training going has kept Karate classes silent and intense. This sort of motivation is hard to come by in a professional gym filled with treadmills and weights.
  The motivation that comes from a Karate club to exercise is hard to come by in a professional gym filled with treadmills and weights.The competitive aspect of Karate also provides a push to train. Once we are ready for interactions with other trainees, great exercise is had by pushing harder and harder to go faster and make that punch or kick get through their defenses.
  There are also self-defense techniques of Shotokan, which include punches, kicks and blocks.
  
  Competition drives people to a great workout, which is probably why pickup games of basketball or racquetball have become so popular in the big, impersonal exercise industry which tries to provide for both major types of exercise.
  
  There are two types of muscle training out there: anaerobic and aerobic. They are typically referred to by the more common jargon of strength training and cardio. Karate training is suited to both types, and a clever instructor can provide his class with low numbers of repetitions at high speeds as well as high numbers of repetitions with little rest at somewhat lower speeds to give his class whatever type of workout he might desire.
  
  Flexibility training in the form of static and dynamic stretching is also common to Karate training. Becoming more flexible over time can reduce the chance of injury and allow you to perform more and more interesting and fun physical feats of skill. A very flexible person can hop over a railing without any trouble at all, whereas a stiff person will almost kill themselves trying to go over or under it. Flexibility cannot be denied as a major benefit from any exercise program.