Karate: background, exercises and tips

Karate, originally called Karatedo in Japanese (Do = the way), translates as “Way of the Empty Hand” and emphasizes the fact that, from history, it is practiced without weapons. Unlike martial arts, which have been restructured to focus on competition, the techniques in Karate are largely still in their original form.

On this page we present backgrounds, videos, tips and co. about karate

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Karate is one of the most popular martial arts in Germany, so most of you have already had a taste of it. If not, below you will find some popular karate videos from competitions and training sessions.

Karate is a great sport, the more it becomes a passion, the more you will want to know about it. In the following articles we try to illuminate individual facets of the martial art:

For the beginning and a trial training a simple training clothing in the form of sweatpants and shirt or top is sufficient. Traditionally, Karate is trained with a Karategi (German abbreviation: Gi), which consists of a jacket, pants and belt. Of course, you can get this yourself at various places on the Internet, or you ask your club members for tips.

Further karate accessories are for example fist protectors, mouth guards, groin protectors or training mats, whereby you could continue this list for a very long time. Ask your coach what the club provides and what you have to take care of yourself.

For the first year, at least in most cases, the Gi should be enough for you. There are some textbooks on the market that can serve you as a reference book, but at best should be considered as a supplement to your training. Learning karate purely from books and without the supervision of an experienced teacher is, due to the complex movement structures, almost impossible.

• Official association for Germany – German Karate Federation
• Professional association for traditional Japanese Shôtôkan Karate(DJKB)
• Shotokan Karate Federation Germany(SKVD)
• German Traditional Karate Association(DTKV)