The Karate Kid

I haven't been to training for over a week and then I returned last night. I was reminded how much I enjoy and get out of doing karate.

I originally started training to motivate my child but she stopped and I decided to carry on. It is interesting how going to the dojo is like being at home, my karate home.

Many people think knowing karate means you are trained to hurt, be violent, possibly dangerous but it is not true. Knowing karate means you have skills to defend yourself, have self control and able to walk away from a fight instead of starting one.

In the dojo, even though we are all different ranks, we are all equals. We do not train to learn to fight against each other but to help and push each other to become better people, train harder and sweat more.

A lot of people also think that karate has a religious base to it but it doesn't. Yes, we do have a bowing ceremony but it has nothing to do with religion. One of the top rules, if not the number one rule, is courtesy and respect. We do the bowing ceremony to show respect for our dojo, our sensei/sempai and our fellow trainees. We meditate to block out the outside world and ready ourselves for training. It is also to greet each other.

It also interests me how close we become as friends during training as well as after training. We just know that we are all there to help the next person leave training a better, stronger person. We are so proud of each other when we grade to the next colour belt as we have all helped each other get there.

The aim of karate is not to learn to fight but to have self control, respect, integrity and to have these traits in yourself, in others and also to take the principles from the dojo to the outside world.

Karate is not a sport, it's an art, not violent but can be life changing.