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?

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.

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.

There are many versions of Mawashi geri or roundhouse kick.

The original Karate has many different methods of delivering their roundhouse kick (Mawashi geri). The original method involved bringing up the knee, and then swiftly turning the hip over and snapping the leg outwards from the knee to deliver a strike with the ball of the foot.

As the years have gone by, some shotokan dojo also practice kicking roundhouse kick with the shin.

Another popular point of contact is with the instep, which, for safety reasons, is usually practised when sparring in the dojo.

There are now more and more karateka practicing the 'cutting roundhouse kick', this is where the karateka will lift their attacking leg higher than the intended target, they will then execute the kick in a downward cutting movement. A very effective attack against the thigh.

Ossu
Linden

Oizuki (basic stepping punch), looks so simple. But for Shotokan karateka who follow the karate way, it's an art form all on its own!

Indeed, lots of traditional Shotokan dojo place little importance on the intricate and detailed movement required to execute karate's basic stepping punch (oizuki). They see a step and a punch and as long as it resembles oizuki, that'll do! Now lets practice it like a bunch of crazed animals!

I'm embarrassed to say it, but it's only in the last few years that I have realised how important the small detail is, in karate. Before that, I had the, 'hit them as hard and fast as you can' mentality, now, that's not all bad, more Shotokan karateka should adopt that attitude, then they wouldn't be so weak.