Traditional Pragmatic Karate
Karate-Do means ‘Way of the Empty hand' and is the modern Japanese name given to the art derived from ‘Te', the native fighting system of Okinawa. The original translation of ‘karate' meant ‘Chinese hand' (The character ‘kara' meaning both ‘Chinese' and ‘Empty'), which indicates the large historical influence on this art from ancient Southern Chinese fighting systems.
Karate came to Japan from Okinawa in the early part of the 20th Century and quickly became accepted as a Japanese martial way. Karate-Do is an art covering all aspects of physical self-defence and mental cultivation. There are many benefits from studying Karate-Do, including: an increase in fitness and strength, improving confidence and self-control, improving discipline, mental focus and of course developing the body and mind together to become more efficient/effective in self protection.
What makes Karate-Do really special is the effect it has on your overall lifestyle. The art offers you a chance to really look deep within yourself and analyse the elements that make you function as an individual. Many of the principles and concepts learned through the regular practice of Karate-Do can be adapted and used within everyday life to become a better person, to both yourself and others around you.
Karate came to Japan from Okinawa in the early part of the 20th Century and quickly became accepted as a Japanese martial way. Karate-Do is an art covering all aspects of physical self-defence and mental cultivation. There are many benefits from studying Karate-Do, including: an increase in fitness and strength, improving confidence and self-control, improving discipline, mental focus and of course developing the body and mind together to become more efficient/effective in self protection.
What makes Karate-Do really special is the effect it has on your overall lifestyle. The art offers you a chance to really look deep within yourself and analyse the elements that make you function as an individual. Many of the principles and concepts learned through the regular practice of Karate-Do can be adapted and used within everyday life to become a better person, to both yourself and others around you.
Karate for Self-Protection
Out of all the benefits karate has to offer, it is first and foremost a method of skills designed to effectively overcome physical adversity in the realms of civilian self-protection. However, many of the modern factions tend not to focus on this quality and instead, align their practice to longer range sporting aims and more emphasis on aesthetic development as a primary objective, which is often in sharp contrast to practical functionality. As ironic as it may seem, when the traditional forms (kata) are studied and analysed thoroughly, a complete and devastating system of close range ballistic self-protection can be found hiding under the surface of techniques that are seen by those looking from the outside as being impractical and functionally useless.
