A typical karate class incorporates a complete body workout, joint mobility and stretching exercises, strengthening exercises and martial exercise.
The foundations of what became karate began in the 6th Century as a series of exercises for health and well-being.
What evolved over the centuries was a complete system of both self-defence and personal development focusing on the mind, body and spirit of its exponents.
A typical Yoshukai Karate class...
A typical class involves a structure for starting and finishing. The bits between starting and finishing are always changing and always varied. This keeps the classes interesting and avoids the boredom many associate with exercise.
It's all about the Basics
Learning Karate begins with the most basic of moves. These moves are foreign to the new student who will often look and feel awkward, just as we all did when we took our first steps learning to walk.
The more we practise these basics, the more natural they become in both look and feel. Given enough practise we begin to form muscle memory to the point we we no longer think to control the action, it simply occurs.
The basics we learn are combined into sequences that form more and more complex combinations. These combinations are our kata. Without enough practise of basics and enough attention to their detail, kata can never be performed well.
There is no point in learning more and more kata without sufficient practise of the kata you know and sufficient practise of the basics. The true nature of a kata is only revealed after much practise, much thought and much discussion.
This is why each time we test for a higher grade, all of the techniques and the kata we know should be better than the last time we tested.