A Typical Karate Class.
What I intend to do here is give an idea of what to expect during a karate class. This is by no means what WILL happen. Your school may be and probably is different. If your classes do not follow this outline, please don’t yell at me. I already know they don’t. Anyway…
Your basic class would usually consist of the following:
- Some stretching and warm-up exercises
- A bow in to begin the class (this may be prior to the stretching)
- Basics training, including blocks, strikes, kicks, etc. May be done from a static stance (hachi-dachi or kiba-dachi) or moving. This would probably be the longest part of the class.
- Advanced or new techniques
- Kata training
- Sparring training
- A bow out to end the class
As I said, this would be a basic class. It is also possible and probable that you may have advanced classes. These classes may only be open to advanced students. The benefit of advanced classes is that there are no lower ranking students to contend. I don’t mean that nasty as it sounds. When in a class of all ranks, quite often the class must be taught to lowest common denominator, which would be the lowest ranking students in the class. However, with an advanced class, as there are no lower ranks, these classes concentrate on more advanced techniques and advanced kata. It also gives the advanced students a chance to train for a longer time at a higher level (as everyone would be of higher rank).