The training styles of Karate

 

People take up the martial arts for many different reasons, most of the time it has to do with fitness, recreation, wanting to be Bruce Lee….or whom ever the current trend is.  The reasons very but the styles of training you find in different clubs tend to dictate who sticks around. If your club for instance is super into competitions and you just want to destress after a hard day of working…you wont stick around. Conversely, if your instructor is into basics and making your Karate sharp and uses a curriculum-based program to try and get you to grade and rank often….but you want to do the kind of Karate that will earn you medals not belts…you will hit that door fast! Not all dojos can be everything to everyone! Some focus on Kids classes (on purpose or just organically) some are home to beasts that like to smash the new guys and its like training in a grinder daily. In other words, you may have to search around for the right home for yourself or your kids/family.

                Don’t be scared to try a few classes, dip your toes in and figure out if this is for you or not, and if not…don’t give up…look to other clubs to find the perfect fit. About the only thing I can guarantee you is that the instructor WILL tell you that their club is the perfect one for you…and they will be right about 25% of the time…..but they will insist it to you 110% of the time!

                Each club will have a specific feel based on the lead instructor and their focus. Even if they try and split away different classes into “Team training” and “Dojo training” or “conditioning classes” and “Syllabus training” they will inevitably teach one specific way or focus on just a few specific styles of training. You wont get a Dojo that focuses on 5 different training styles and is successful at them. Even good instructors will “give away” classes for different focuses like Kids classes to focus on the core training they are doing in class.

                Each style of training includes different aspects that may or may not be in the other systems.  Trianing for conditioning may actually have a few things in common with training for sport/tournaments and family Karate may look a lot like Syllabus or Dojo training, but they are unique and they often have systems that they are dynamically opposed to.  Kids training instructors probably wont do very good in teaching a Sport/Tournament style of program and those that focus on Health training probably wont do well systems focused on conditioning…I will explain!

               

                The most common kind of Karate program is what I call Dojo or Traditional Karate. Its super old school and you will do lots of Kihon, basic Kumite and a solid focus on Kata. The system is not fancy and it uses old school conditioning (think Push ups, sit ups and Makiwara training) with the focus on hardening your body for more Dojo training. The focus is no not being fancy, working towards solid waza in each thing and while it may look a lot like Syllabus training but it allows for a lot more personal freedom and expression in training and application. This is the kind of training in which Jiyu Ippon and Jiyu kumite really starts to show your personality when you do the sparring. The Kata training is super traditional but also has room for personal expression.

                Dojo Training works well into syllabus training and can even cross over into sport or other systems, but the no BS style of training does not mix or convert well into the esoteric training or less focussed training like health training. Most people who are really into Dojo training also find Family training and fitness training dull and unfocused.

                The people who like the Dojo training system enjoy systemic, focused, structured and challenging training that builds spirit and focuses on the minute details while also encouraging your creativity while pushing you to improve all the times and drive your training to build spirit.

 

                Almost the polar opposite to Dojo training is Sport/Tournament Karate style training. This training is not easy, I don’t want to let my bias against this training really affect my telling of what the system is because it does have its place. This is the system of training that focuses on preparation for competition. Its more dynamic, flashy and holds the belief that the ends direct the means! The focus is not on the minutia of the training, the fine details of each movement, the finer points of power creation, the kinematics and dynamics of each move….its about building better athletes, making them faster, stronger and more explosive so they can improve towards earning medals and trophies. When people ask me the different between the Sport/Tournament training and Dojo Training I point out that the style of Kumite and Kata are very different.

                Tournament Kumite is bouncy, it follows a sort of “who tagged who” approach and the use of Kime is non-existant. A Dojo Kumite focus however is strict, focused and you hold your techniques out longer at the end of an attack. So by way of example a Tournament match the attacker is bouncing in and out, up and down…then you rush/jump in and then throw a fast snappy punch that recoils upon impact. The attacker is relaxed, snappy and explosive, the Dojo kumite fighter shifts in and out, maintaining the same level (Even sinking a bit more) then rockets forwards with a sharp powerful punch and upon execution the punch is held out with complete contraction of the core muscles and arm muscles pushing the leg into the ground with a solid, loud Kiai!  I am going to say ……for the record….both styles are goo and have their merit, Im just not a bouncy kind of guy…but I can teach it!

                Tournament Kata is very VERY Much different than your other Kata training. The focus is not so much on proper form, timing and traditional Waza use…it encourages more dramatic movements, over extension, larger scale and exaggerated moves. The theatrical nature of the Kata often grinds on us traditionalists, but some love the long Kiai’s the Sensationalization of the Kata and the melodrama that is on display. The ironic part is that Tournament Kata tends to throw away the stoic display that traditionalists value the most, and in doing so they tend to draw more crowds and interest in watching the Kata display than traditional Kata has.

                People drawn to Tournament/sport Karate styles tend to enjoy athletic training, they are performers…the way people like being dancers on stage or actors in plays. The training is varied, modern and dynamic, coaching is geared towards building up students as individuals and rank tends to be secondary. I have seen purple belts doing Unsu in tournaments because physically they can perform the movements with flair and dynamic movement, they have no idea what they are doing but they do it well!

                Traditional Dojo people and syllabus training styles do NOT do well with the sport/ Tournament style training normally. Its hard to convert from a very strict and stylized system to a loose and more dynamic and dramatic style. The focus of the training tends to make this great for younger students, but as you pass the age of competition participation the usefulness of this kind of training tends to be limited. Those that focus completely on Tournament style training will have to transition to one of the other systems of training as you progress out of this training style.

 

                The next two systems are sort of bunched together because they tend to have similar focuses, even if they are very different. First off they are both not “hard core” training but focus more on a bit of fitness, a bit of fun training and dabble in some traditional training. These two styles are Kids Training and Family Training. The kids training programs are often seen as “play time” with some basic Karate training mixed in. The kids style training looks Chaotic, confused and spastic. Kids are found running around, playing with balls, kicking bags….each other and often they are focused on doing about 10% karate and 90% controlling them with fun drills. This is NOT to say that its not beneficial and does not teach Karate, its just not the main focus of the training. Family Karate is a bit more focused, it’s a bit more traditional and a whole lot less chaotic. Family Karate tends to focus on Kihon and traditional style training, but with out the “Hard core” aspect that traditional Dojo training tends to have.

                Family Karate is great for people who want to train in Karate, get the fitness benefits, learn a bit of defense and set and reach goals. I normally call this the “feel good” style of training. This training incorporates most of the elements of Dojo training but it does not focus as much on the strict systemic implementation of the training system like the Dojo training does. The Family and Kids training program are often where people who transition into Dojo or Sport training start from. These types of training are great because they allow you to train twice a week or around that amount of commitment and get the expected benefits from training. I like Family Karate because of the accessibility and the Kids Karate recruits’ kids to training who may not have trained in Karate, but it should be seen as a jump off point for more serious training. The Family Karate and Kids Karate, ironically, have become the mainstay of most Karate programs serving to act as a way of generating revenue and paying the rent. I like Family Karate because its FUN and I enjoy teaching it because we can have fun, I can joke a bit and its much less me playing military drill sergeant than Dojo or Traditional training is for me. I can also introduce more drills and improvements from Traditional style training, but with a focus on it being fun over building in hard core training elements to the training. I am not, however, not a fan of Kids Karate….I don’t enjoy the sheer chaos and I am not a fan of the circus that normally comes with this kind of training. This is not to say I don’t see its value, I do…its just not something I am particularly good at.

 

                The Next kind of training system is the Syllabus Training style. Its often seen as being “Traditional or Dojo Training” like, and while the Traditional system is based on the Syllabus system of training the Dojo training allows for a lot more fluidity, creativity and self style training. An example of this would be one I saw last night in training. For Jiyu Ippon/Ippon training the syllabus training style dictates you must start your attacks with left side forwards, meaning you always do right side attacks. Or….all attacks start off as Hidari Gedan barai Zenkutsu Dachi and then launch into the attack, The Dojo Training however you often are given the option to attack from your strong side (Meaning you could do Migi Gedan Barai Zenkutsu as a starting point or both). Also, Kata for Syllabus is not open to personal interpretation, its specific and its based on what the organization stipulates. Bassai Dai’s Yoko geri target is the knee, but in the Dojo I have seen people aim lower, aim at the ribs and even the hip.

                Syllabus training is focused on rank advancement, on creating standards in everything and maintaining a specific structure and style of an organization. Its about passing on specific information to students and ensuring that they are following the style specifically. Syllabus training merges well with Traditional Karate/Dojo Karate and Family Training but does not play well with Sport Karate as it’s the dynamic opposite of the free feeling mentality of the sporty training. Syllabus training however is essential in not only passing on specific ideas but in making sure that the training sticks to the same framework that the organization is set on.

 

                Less focused training like Fitness Karate and Health Karate come in next. The fitness training is more about conditioning Karate and you see a lot of things like “Free training” and auxiliary training like jump rope and pad training. This kind of work out is more the interpretation of the instructor who is trying to draw in people who want to get in good shape and use Karate like a Boxercise training program. The Fitness based Karate workouts do not see rank advancement as a goal, they don’t focus on the perfection of a specific technique or sport training. The work outs are challenging and will get your body in great shape, but your skills and technical development will take a back seat. The Health training is more about using Karate to improve your health. Stretching based, using Kata as a way of replacing Jogging and improving your stress management. Its about getting in a good workout to help your over all health.

                People who are into fitness and health will want to find a dojo that focuses more on these things than technical improvement or tournament participation and are a more serious about training than Family training. The Fitness training and Health training also tend to bring in an older demographic, meaning adults mostly. The focus is on weight loss, fitness and general health improvement in an environment that focuses on serious training time, but not Hard core.  Much like the Family Karate style I totally approve of this kind of Karate to get people in the door, have classes focused only on Adult or older teen/adult training but it should be used to transition people to Dojo Training or as a component of weekly training, but it should not be the focus of students.

                I have seen the Karate world go Ga Ga over things like Tae Bo training and Karate-box style work outs and some clubs incorporate kick boxing classes to draw on new membership. I don’t discourage this or think its bad, I just think that you could use Karate training for many things and totally transitioning to a Thai style clothing and weak kickboxing based training (most instructors in these classes watch a video after getting a shodan and alter the classes to be more kickboxing-ish).

 

                The next system is a bit less prevalent in real Karate training programs but I have seen lots of them in other martial arts and clubs that “transition from Traditional and Health courses” into this system of training, and it often comes from instructors that have mental issues or who are basically looking for ways to earn money and who are not very gifted coaches or instructors. It’s the Esoteric system of Karate training. This system, to be totally upfront and honest…is JUNK and garbage! I have only seen a few clubs that teeter on the brink of Esoteric training styles. My favorite example of this is the no touch knock out group! I have also been told bout a Tai Chi Club that ended up degrading from actual Tai Chi Training to essentially getting thrown into a dark room with a strobe light and told to spar their way out using CHI energy. Any instructors that talk a lot about energy over science or mystical abilities over technical proficiency is going to be Esoteric in nature.

                Now having said that I have trained with some very spiritual and traditional minded instructors who mention Chi and such but teach things in a very technical way. The fact that an instructor focuses on some Esoteric stuff is not a deal breaker, but if they focus ONLY on mystical powers that they have and can teach you….Run!

 

                In the 80’s, for some unfreeable reason, some of the Karate clubs that I used to attend shifted their training from traditional based training to a Defense or Self Defense focused club. Now Traditional Dojo training will prepare you for the need to protect you, but some clubs went all Krav Maga for their search of students. This style of training is a component of the training in most clubs, but some focus so much on the applications of Kata and center their training on this that they fail to grow in other areas, also they “invent” things so much that the original intent is lost.

                I know of a few instructors that focus so much on Bunkai that their whole training is based on doing drills and taking parts of the Kata to teach defense. The courses they teach are really interesting but they fail to work on improved waza, they don’t advocate free fighting at all and they have basically created a new system or style out of the idea of the application. The study of Kata becomes the whole training focus for them, which is best supposed to only be part of training!

                Bunkai based or Defense style training appeals to a lot of people, mostly people looking for answers in the Katas. This does not bother me at all till you run into the “overly creative” ones who insist on making up Bunkai that makes no sense or worse, are not even close to the movements in the kata. If you need to alter a waza or insert extra moves/remove techniques to make their hypothesis work! Bunkai for each move in a Kata should be limited to 1-2 applications, you can do countless interpretations and only find out that you have been wasting your time because the rest is a waste of time!

                When Karate first hit Okinawa the art of Kata study took about three years per Kata, this gave them lots of time to study the in and out of each move, but with 3 months between Kata and more as a black belt…you should focus on understanding the moves with a somewhat more limited scope of Bunkai, and make sure…it works.

 

                The next, and last kind of system you may run into is the Hybrid training program. This is not when a instructor teaches sport and Dojo or Traditional and self defense training. This is when a Karate instructor teaches a mix of Aikido and Karate or Kali and Karate or BJJ and Karate. The idea being that you are taking on a style of Karate and adding a different system completely. Some Hybrid systems include a mixing of Goju ryu and Shotokan or Uechi Ryu and Kyokushin (weird but I have seen it). The two merging together to make a rough and often disjointed system.

                The problem with Hybrid systems is that the standards and focus often gets very messy. You end up learning two different systems not one smooth and functional system. My favorite was a Shito ryu instructor who taught Judo as well. The training was something like “when you stand up do this…when you are wanting to go to the ground do this”. And both were pure systems of training, just done both in one club. My grandfather used to say that you can not serve two masters and you can be a student of many or a master of one. The problem with Hybrid training is that it becomes exactly this kind of situation.

                The Sales of these systems is reliant on a few things, much like the esoteric training programs they often over promise and under deliver. The instructors tend to know a bit from one and a bit from the other and they can not be experts in both systems. I have seen a few of these in the past, or people who dabble in multiples styles and teach both. I studied Judo and a bunch of other arts short term, but gave them up to study Karate harder. I have not done other styles in some times because I don’t want to be a student of many and want to focus on being an instructor in one. Again, this is not a mixing of ideas only, this is a mixing of styles!

               

                A good instructor can mix different styles and often three together to form a basis for their Dojo training. Some can do sport and traditional, even if they are often seen as opposing ideals, or defence and traditional or using Hybrid and defence. The need for multiple focuses will also serve to open up your income stream as well. While its better to have a Dojo that is focused on a specific stream of training,

                To have a viable gym you may have several coaches who focus on different things like Yoga, Running or weight training. In a Dojo you may also have a Sport focused Sensei, a Self Defense focused instructor and a traditional instructor. A good instructor should be able to do more than one, but they may focus on one only.

 

                The Training styles of Karate are often fluid and you can enter a club and see different kind of training at different parts of the year. The important part is that you find a club that you enjoy.