Cooper Hodge makes like a crab during his class at Northeast Louisiana Shotokan Karate school.
Whoa…up kicks in MMA!!!
Kick it up
Benefits of karate include better health, better focus
By Manuel Jovel
mjovel@thenewsstar.com
John Brown goes through an intricate set of motions in his gym on Louisville Avenue: blocking, sliding away from and striking an imagined series of attackers.
His movements are sharp and assertive. The drill he practices is kata, a Japanese term meaning forms. Edit: Since when is Shotokan kata that intricate? Name a kata.
As a practitioner of Shotokan karate for the past 22 years, Brown has practiced each motion thousands of times before.
“Every movement we go through has a reason for it,” Brown said. Brown earned the title Sensei, which means teacher, 16 years ago.
Shotokan karate is considered one of the more mainstream forms of martial arts, with its practitioners describing the style as more of a sport. Edit: A weak point sparring sport.
Brown credits karate for instilling him with greater discipline, honor and improving his health.
He keeps his attacks focused, limiting his range of motion where his feet and hands never extend far from his body. He makes a concerted effort not to lean or over-extend himself.
“We target a specific area,” Brown said. “We might not always hit that target, but having a specific site to attack is the key.”
Health benefits of karate include increased flexibility and balance, a stronger immune system and better coordination. According to a study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine, research showed that karate practitioners in their 40s and 50s had 12 percent less body fat than sedentary people. Edit: Breaking news, people who exercise are more in shape to do exercise and that sort of craziness.
Brown’s students range in ages from 8-year-olds to a man in his 60s with a purple belt. In all cases, karate teaches students that they can only focus on one task at a time. Edit: I hope you are not saying karate is for stupid people.
“In some cases, I’ve had students with ADD who came in wanting to learn discipline,” he said. “A lot of times what happens is that people are trying to focus on too many things at once.”
Brown demonstrates the importance of keeping control during a training session with Samantha Berry.
By moving his arms away from his body, Brown demonstrates how easily a fighter can lose leverage. He asks Berry to take a wild swing at him. She obliges. He dodges the blow easily, leaving his attacker exposed and off-balance. Edit: I congratulate on dodging the attack you asked for and expected.
“You always want to keep your hips over your feet,” he said. “Once you’re leaning or over-extending, it’s easy for someone to take control.” Edit: Horse stances are the answer.
Brown began training at 26, saying he was drawn to karate because of actor Chuck Norris, who has appeared in many movies and shows where he used karate. Edit: But unfortunately he never realised they were choreographed.
“I thought it would be a cool thing to learn,” Brown said with a laugh. “The most difficult thing about it was making time to work out.” Edit: I sympathize, a very common problem.
A year into learning Shotokan karate, Brown realized he wanted to make it part of his life. He became more confident and appreciated the camaraderie and fellowship of the sport, going so far as to purchase the Northeast Louisiana Shotokan Karate school three years ago.
“It taught me a lot about discipline,” he said. “It’s not like other physical activities in that it’s more personal. It’s self-motivated.”
The self-defense and speed of the art attracted his son Nick Brown, an eighth-grader at Lee Junior High, to karate. Edit: Since when is karate known for its speed? It’s not. Training and sparring with more karate practitioners now I was extremely puzzled when some of them chambered their punches. Out of habit. Cannot comprehend. You fight they way you train. At least they know it’s a problem.
“It’s also taught me to focus,” said Nick Brown, a first-degree black belt. “Once I learned that, it became easier to block things out at school and elsewhere.” Edit: Like people that actually know how to fight taking your lunch money.
For sparring sessions, John Brown keeps protective pads to a minimum to emphasize awareness and defense. His students practice with lightly padded gloves and without headgear. Too much padding can serve as a crutch, fooling students into believing they can take more contact, he said. Edit: If this school actually hit each other beyond medium contact I take back all the things I said in this thread.
“It makes us focus more on what’s in front of us,” said Max Henry, a Shotokan karate black belt.
Henry, an eighth-grader at Start Elementary School, said it takes between two or three years for repetition to become a reaction. Edit: Thank you expert.
Once you’ve made it stick, knowing the movements and knowing how to coordinate your body, that’s when you perfect it, he said.
Originally published March 28, 2005
http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050328/LIFESTYLE/503280301/1024
Disclaimer: This is not a slant against shotokan karate.