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?

There’s 8 million things to do!

So what do the majority of people do?

They do a bit of this and a bit of that, but not really a lot of anything.

So what do they get good at?

Well, they get quite good at this and quite good at that, but not really good at anything.

Not just in karate, but all martial arts, people will practice karate, enjoy it, but for some reason, stop.

There’s never a lack of excuses and stories as to why they had to stop, if you ask them, ‘did you enjoy karate?’ There normal reply (in my experience) is, ‘Oh yes, I really enjoyed karate’, they then go on to explain why they have had to stop, to busy with work, hurt my back, just no time, I have a bone in my leg! The following week, there they are, playing golf, tennis, soccer, football, etc, etc. On with the next thing.

Today’s society, is one of ‘instant gratification’, people want things NOW, not just food, everything. That includes karate, they want to be Bruce Lee TOMORROW!

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.

Master Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) was the founder of Shotokan karate, but one of the main people to regulate shotokan karate into a system, was Master Masatoshi Nakayama (1913–1987).

Master Nakayama was a senior student of Master Funakoshi and in 1949 they formed the Japan karate Association (JKA).

Master Nakayama helped form the JKA instructor training program (kenshusei), which I believe, was one of the reasons karate spread across the world at such an incredible rate.

The senior sensei that graduated from the JKA instructor training program are now legends in the world of shotokan karate. Phenomenal Sensei, like Hirokazu Kanazawa, Keinosuke Enoeda, Yoshiharu Osaka, Tetsohiko Asai, Hiroshi Shirai, Masahiko Tanaka, Mikio Yahara, Masao Kawazoe, Takauki Mikami, Yutaka Yaguchi, Shiro Asano, Hideo Ochi, Shigeru Takashina, Fujikiyo Omura and many more!

This shotokan kata, as can be seen from the name, is a very strong karate kata. This kata is an essential part of the shotokan karateka’s early development.

In many shotokan karate associations, Bassai dai is the first intermediate kata to be taught. Basai dai usually comes after the 5 Heian kata and Tekki Shodan have been practiced thoroughly and a certain level of expertise has been reached. Normally, brown belt (3rd Kyu) level, is the first time Basai dai is practiced thoroughly.

Between shotokan groups there are many, small technical differences in all the kata, but whichever shotokan association you belong to, 95% of the kata is the same and the basic fundamentals apply to all shotokan kata.