Your Sensei always says, practice at home! But, exactly how do you do that? What routine should you follow? How long and how often should you practice?
Here’s how to practice karate at home
Plan to practice on your own, outside of class four days a week. You should block off a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour to practice on these days.
1. Start off with some cardio and/or strength training for 1 to 15 minutes. This will help improve your stamina and strengthen weak areas of your body. Ideas for cardio: jump rope, jumping jacks, burpees, running or high intensity shadow boxing. Ideas for strength training: push ups, sit ups/ crunches/ Russian twists, squats, lunges, pull ups (if you have a pull up bar), weights (10, 20 & 30 lb dumbbells are all you really need.) For other ideas, a quick search on YouTube will return hundreds of exercise ideas that don’t require an entire weight room. To get you started, look up “body weight exercises.”
2. Stretching and flexibility for 5 to 15 minutes. Once your body is warm, it’s a great time to do stretches. Use the stretches we do in karate class. Focus on stretching areas that are tight on you. I.e. leg flexibility is especially important in karate. There are a number of leg stretches you can do alone from home. A wall and a chair are all you need. We will review several of these in the Tuesday, April 21st virtual karate class for all ranks.
3. Go through all the basic blocks, kicks, stances and strikes that you know for your rank. (Approximately 5 minutes) Focus on doing them correctly with proper technique. Go slow at first. Then, once you believe you are doing them properly, focus on speed and strength. If you have a punching bag, this is an especially helpful tool to practice kicks and strikes.
4. Review your rank curriculum checklist. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes. Choose one or two categories and practice them. Especially choose to work on techniques that you had just learned in class or had been corrected on. Then, focus on repetition, technique and memorization.
Choose from these categories (you may not have some of these until you are an upper belt):
- • step sparring – ones/twos/threes
- • unarmed self defenses
- • armed self defenses
- • sparring drills
- • combinations
- • foot sparring
- • free sparring techniques
- • Bonus: If you have someone you can practice with at home, you might be able to practice your jujutsu techniques. If you have mats or a safe area to practice ukemi waza (falls) you could do them as well.
5. Kata for 3 to 10 minutes. Strive to perfect each kata you have learned. Choose to perform a minimum of 4 kata… either four different ones or repetition of the same.
6. As you cool down, read through and study the general knowledge section for your rank. (1 – 5 minutes) Also, study any notes that you had written down after classes. *You should take about five minutes after each class to write down a. what you had learned, b. What you had been corrected on and c. What you need to practice.
7. Write down any questions or concerns you might have about what/how you are practicing. (Approximately 1 minute.) You can then talk to your Sensei at the next class.
Often, I hear from students who say they don’t want to practice at home because they are afraid they will do it wrong and reinforce bad habits.
I call baloney on this!
That’s like saying, “I don’t want to practice my musical instrument at home because I’m afraid I’ll play it wrong.” Or, “I don’t want to sing because I’m afraid I’ll get the lyrics wrong or be off tune.”
Ridiculous, right?
Practice anyway! If something doesn’t “feel” like you are doing it correctly, write it down. Talk to your Sensei about it at the next class. Ask them to kindly watch your technique. They will correct you. You will then work to fix it and practice the corrected technique. This is how we learn.
Here’s a little secret. Even instructors sometimes get it wrong. They may practice for years doing a technique incorrectly. Then, one day, they read through their notes again, discover in a video, research online, attend a karate seminar or have a lesson with a grand master and BAM… they realize they were practicing it all wrong!
It happens!
So, they correct it. They practice it the right way. They humbly admit their mistake. They correct their students. Everyone gets better.
The true test of a great teacher: Be willing to seek improvement in your art, discover mistakes or weaknesses, correct them, humbly admit your mistakes and continually seek improvement.
This is the basis of Kaizen – seeking never ending improvement in all things.
Vashon Borich-Leach, 6th Dan
Seiyo-No Shorin-Ryu Karate & Kobudo Kai
The at home practice routine outlined above is based on the curriculum for Seiyo-No Shorin-Ryu Karate & Kobudo at http://www.bransonkarate.com. If you are studying a different martial art, you can modify the practice routine above to fit your own curriculum.
If you’d like to be a student of Branson Karate and learn our system, please contact us. Not only do we have a dojo in Branson, Missouri — we also offer an online course that includes live virtual training. If you are ever in the Branson area, look us up! We always look forward to connecting with martial artists from around the world.