Everybody’s different, some karate-ka like high kicks, some like low kicks, but which one is better?

Tae kwon do, perform very high kicks, that are fast and powerful, some karate groups only practice kicking below the belt and some practice both high and low kicking.

I believe it’s all down to the individual involved. I personally wouldn’t recommend high kicks in self defence, but then again, I’m sure there are people who do recommend high kicks.

Really, it doesn’t matter what someone says or doesn’t say, because when it comes to self defence, you will do, whatever you practice! So if you practice head kicks, day in day out, there’s a high chance, that if you kicked whilst defending yourself, in a self defence situation, the kick will probably target the head.

I have just uploaded to a shotokan training video for gyakutsuki (reverse punch), I have included some very basic training exercises we use in our dojo, with a technical explanation below. These are just my thoughts on reverse punch and I would love to here your own training methods for reverse punch. I have many other gyaku zuki exercises, these are the basic ones we use in our karate practice.

Shotokan karate’s Gyakuzuki from hidari ju kamae hanmi (left side freestyle stance, body side on).

A basic gyaku zuki or reverse punch, starts from the back leg, if you are punching with the right arm, drive the right leg, back and into the floor, transferring the driving force through the back leg, to the hip.

A powerful kick that was made famous by Bruce Lee, he used to call side thrust kick, 'the stop kick'.
In the film, Enter The Dragon, there is an excellent example of Bruce Lee combining the thrust kick with his 'Bruce Lee Burst', he could cover 8 feet in three quarters of a second! The famous kick is delivered during the fight with O'hara (Bob Wall), if you get a chance, check it out.

Executing Yoko Geri Kekomi (Side Thrust Kick)

Here's just one, of the several variations out there.

There are many reasons why people start karate, they may want to keep fit, they may be looking for a hobby, self defense, socialising, or they have simply been fascinated by the whole history and mysticism surrounding karate and the martial arts.

Most people, in my experience, are not very fit when they start karate, fitness seems to be one of the main attractions, for a lot of people.

When a karate-ka (a karate practitioner) has been training for a certain amount of time, they will sometimes, naturally, supplement their karate practice, it may be running, swimming, cycling, weight training, etc, etc. Of course, there will be senior karate-ka who only practice karate and nothing else. But these karate-ka are normally very serious and are practicing five and more classes each week. But what of the person who only trains once or twice each week?

What to look for and how to prepare yourself, so you can confidently walk into a karate school and not only know what to expect, but know what everybody's doing!

People have practiced martial arts for thousands of years. There are many reasons why people practice martial arts and the reasons have changed and evolved over the years.

In times of war, it was the fighting skills learned from karate that were the main reason to train, in times of peace, health and character development took precedence and now we have the competition side of karate, which is huge!