Thursday Thirteen

1. It is good exercise.
2. It actually originated in China and then was taken to Japan. It has more Japanese influence however in terms of Japanese names and counting.
3. When you don’t go to training for a week or three it is very difficult to get back into the zone.
4. The white pyjama looking uniform is called a Gi with a hard “g”.
5. There are actually four stages of black belt.
6. Someone who does karate is called a Karate Ka.
7. To look realy sharp when doing karate moves you need to have focus. It doesn’t matter how good your arms and legs are if your eyes and attention are all over the place.
8. Karate should only be used on another person outside of class in self defence.
9. There are three main disciplines, or sections of a class/training. Basics – punches, kicks, blocks, stances. Kumite – sparring. Kata – routines using basics and other techiniques.
10. Kata is what makes karate a martial art as opposed to just a fighting style.
11. There are different styles of karate.
12. There are different karate clubs and some look down upon others – it’s not necessarily justifiable though.
13. The head of a karate club/style is the Kancho.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Eph2810 2. TNChick 3. mar 4. Matt 5. feedscott (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)