Karate????

Question

I was thinking of starting Shotokan Karate, partly for the sport participation, partly for fitness and flexibility and partly as marks towards my PE exams (its the only martial art that the examiners can grade me on). However, everyone says this is ineffective, so should I study krav maga aswell???

I could also do research on Jeet Kune Do to complement karate training?

Answer 1

Shotokan Karate can be effective, no only for all the reasons that you want to take it for.

Provided you find a good school, the techniques are effective, Karate gave me all the basics for stand-up and basic kicks and punches, a shotokan karate black belt is somebody to be respected.

If you have doubt on how effective it is, or why people say it's not effective, it's probably on a grappling or applying on a sport like MMA, however, St. Pierre's background includes kyokushin karate, and Chuck Liddell's includes Kempo.

good luck!

Answer 2

I have nothing but respect for Kempo karate and I train in kyokushin, and although I hate to say it, i have little to no respect for most of Shotokan students, they just don't train hard enough and talk WAY too much

you should definately study something else and make sure you hit a heavy bag at home or at the gym so you get some power in your punches, pulling punches all the time in training and not doing alot of bag work will give you really weak punches in the future

Ofcource im generalizing, you might get into a really good tough Shotokan school, it's just that overall there arn't that many and its better to do Kyokushin or Kempo, i have nothing but respect for both those styles, also Goju aint too bad and there are alot of independent karate styles that a good to it's just a matter of finding a good one

Answer 3

Shotokan is effective if you work hard at it, just like any of the martial arts. I'd recommend that you pick one martial art and focus on it until you've gained a certain level of proficiency (at least 3 or 4 belt levels) before experimenting with other styles. You'll find that the fundamentals you learn will translate well to the other styles, even very different ones like Judo.

Answer 4

If you want to study shotokan for the reasons that you gave, go ahead and take the class. I just recently started out shotokan and i got to say it is very difficult especially for those not used to it. I mean after class each time, my headband is literally soaked where i have to squeeze it to take most of the sweat out of it. My point is, im getting a very good workout out of it and it is very fun! If you going to do it for the fitness and flexibility, definetly do it!

Answer 5

krav maga is used by military forces around the world..believe me..it's more effective than karate..in the words of eddie bravo "he's not going to wait for you to gather your chi to deliver a perfect overhand knife strike". check out some techniques of krav maga:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnetsQnaNxM&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ajaQ2j0Al0&mode=related&search=

Answer 6

This is Karate:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4943196803330437467&q=Kiyohide+shinjo&total=4&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

and also this:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=taika+oyata&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv

If what you learn is not this, it's BS.

Answer 7

The effectiveness depends on the instructor