Karate good for all

Gichin Funakoshi, founder of one of the most popular styles of Karate, once said,”The ultimate aim in karate lies not only in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants.” In other words, karate is not just used to help people learn how to defend themselves, but it's also used to build people's character, spirit, body, and mind. When I first joined karate, I went in thinking that I was just going to learn different techniques on how to defend myself. Over the past 5 years, however, I have learned that karate is nothing like that. When someone joins karate, they are pledging that they want to not only learn how to defend themselves, they also want to learn skills on how to succeed in life and learn how to build their character to the be the best they can be. Most people may say that karate is bad for people of all ages because they might get hurt easily and young kids could want to use their learned skills to fight someone. Even though others may disagree, I believe that karate is good for everyone for many different reasons. Karate is good for everyone of all ages because it helps them build self-confidence, to develop patience, discipline, and humility, and to also learn how to defend themselves.

First of all, karate is good for everyone because it helps them build self-confidence. In karate, you make new friends that soon become family and throughout your karate journey, they encourage you to practice everything you have learned and to work hard to reach your goal. Once you reach that goal, and as you climb up the belt ladder, you start to feel better and better about yourself, meaning you have boosted your self-confidence. When I was in 5th grade, I was a shy little girl who wasn't really sure what was ahead of her and I was really nervous about middle school. When I joined karate in 2012, I wanted to be just like my Mom and follow in her footsteps in karate, and as the years went on, I started to become more open and soon I didn't care about what people thought about me, which has brought me to where I am now. Today, I am a much more confident person and I think that if I didn't choose to join karate in 2012, I wouldn't be as confident as a person as I am now. Karate has really helped me see that I can do anything I put my mind to and that it doesn't matter what people think of me, which means that karate can also help other people boost their self-confidence.

Secondly, karate helps people to develop patience, discipline, and humility. Patience is when someone waits for something to happen without frustration, which is one very important skill that is crucial to one’s journey up the belt ladder, especially when waiting to get the next belt or even waiting to learn something new. When learning patience in karate, it is very important to remember that not everyone is excellent at karate when they become a white belt;it takes time to master a technique. Discipline is the act of training someone to obey certain rules. This is a crucial skill in karate because when performing a certain kata, self defense move, or any technique, you need to know how to control yourself and have good form. In my dojo, we have a huge mirror at the front of the floor so we can focus on something to help improve our discipline when doing a move. When practicing kicks, one important aspect is balance. Above the mirrors, there are clear square pieces that are great to stare at so you can focus on having good form, technique, and balance. My instructor taught me that these pieces can help me improve my balance in kicks, which is why I need discipline so I can focus on those things. Another important skill in karate is humility, which is the act of being humble, meaning you don’t need to put yourself above others. People start karate at different times and just like in school, they are at different skill levels. Some people may understand a skill right away and some people may need someone to guide them in their journey. Humility is also a very crucial skill in karate because you don’t want to think that just because you are older than someone or you are a higher belt than someone that you can brag about it and put yourself above them. They have worked just as hard as you and should not be treated any differently. In conclusion, patience, discipline, and humility are three very important skills needed in karate.

Lastly, Karate helps people learn how to defend themselves. One common issue today for people in general, but especially for women, is rape. Learning how to defend yourself may really help you in a situation like this. If something bad happens, such as you getting kidnapped, raped, or even attacked out of nowhere, you will know how to defend yourself in that situation using crucial techniques so you won’t hurt yourself and so you can get out of the situation as quickly as possible. For example, the website, ModelMugging.org, conducted a research study on the amount of rape incidents reported to the law involving women that have learned self defense and women that haven't. According to the study, 60,000 students have taken self defense classes worldwide and of those 60,000, over 59,000 never reported any assaults. Also, 221 students were involved in a physical attack since taking the program and of those 221 students, 214 were able to successfully fight off their attacker, meaning that only 3% were not able to fight off their attacker. This research study comes to show that women who take self defense classes or some kind of martial arts class, are more likely to get out of a dangerous situation than women who have not taken any sort of self defense class. When learning self defense in my dojo, we are taught from the start that the hardest thing to do is adapt but the most important thing to do is react. By learning little details in self defense moves, it helps you to know how to react quickly and to get out of that situation as quickly as you can. In karate, we practice moves in the air, and on each other, but with control, which is important so you can get tough and know what to expect if you are ever in a dangerous situation. In short, knowing how to defend yourself is good in karate in case of an emergency.

Despite numerous arguments on whether or not karate is good for all ages, there are some people, such as older people, moms of small children, and people who have been previously injured in karate, who think karate is bad for everyone of all ages. Some people may say that karate is bad because they could get injured easily or could injure someone easily when two of them are practicing with each other. Others may say that karate is bad because people, mostly kids, could get angry at someone and want to use the moves they have learned in karate to hurt someone inside or outside of school. While both of these arguments could very well be true, the idea that karate is bad for kids because they could get angry at someone and want to hurt them with the karate moves they have learned is ridiculous. In karate, kids are taught patience, discipline, and humility, as I mentioned previously, at an early level so that they don't hurt kids while in school. Discipline is one main key in this because if they don't listen, they may have to do a certain amount of push-ups in order to learn that they shouldn't do that again or else they will have to do push-ups again. While that may seem harsh, it's not exactly being mean to the misbehaving child; it’s training them to always be on their best behavior.

Karate is good for everyone of all ages because it helps them build self-confidence, to develop patience, discipline, and humility, and to also learn how to defend themselves. Ultimately, karate improves self confidence, helps you to develop patience, discipline, and humility, and also shows you how to defend yourself, and the people that claim that karate is bad for everyone of all ages has not thought it through, and they don’t really know anything about karate. While some of these arguments may be valid, learning karate is important so you can improve the kind of person you are overall. Karate has the ability to change someone’s life. For example, Nathan Bouknight, an instructor and a 2nd degree black belt at The Karate Dojo, has a story about how joining karate saved his life. Before starting karate, he was said to be a very meek person who was lonely and wouldn’t talk to anybody. “Without karate I would be a different person. I would probably be over 350 pounds, if not 400. I would be a lonely, shy person who would not want to talk to anybody, which is what I was about 6 years ago,” he said. He started off as a shy person, and joining karate ultimately boosted his self-confidence, helped him to develop patience, discipline, and humility, and even taught him how to defend himself.

For information about joining karate, visit thekaratedojo.com, call (803) 739-9494, or visit The Karate Dojo on 2262 Sunset Boulevard, West Columbia, SC 29169 and tell them that Sydney Miller sent you.