Karate FAQ
Display their FAQs
Q. What does TKA mean?
A. Takushoku Karate Association
Q. What kind of Karate do you practice?
A. Shotokan Karate
Q. How many different styles of Karate are there?
A. It is generally agreed that there are 4 main styles; Shotokan, Wado-Ryu, Gojo-Ryu and Chite-Ryu.
Q. What are the differences in the styles
A. Without going into great detail, the way I like to explain the differences, would be using a Car analogy; there are a number of major car manufactures, all producing cars, each manufacture offers differing benefits; Faster, 4x4, Comfort, economy, etc, but basically they are all cars. With karate, all the main styles use their hands and feet to, strike, block & kick, each style placing a differing emphasis on how they do this.
Q. How long does it take to become a black Belt?
A. Usually about 3 years if training min twice per week.
Q. Who invented Karate?
A. Karate has been developing, in various forms, over thousands of years, because its was practiced in secret, no records were kept, the knowledge was handed down by the elders.
Q. Whats best, Karate or MMA?
A. The person practicing, would decide who's best.
Q. Can Karate kill with a single hit?
A. The purpose of true Budo Karate is to train to achieve this effect, so I would say yes.
Q. Was Karate in the Olympics in 2020?
A. Yes, as it will be a demonstration sport.
Q. What is the difference between "Sport" & "Traditional" Karate?
A. "Sport Karate", is in general, a way to demonstrate your knowledge & skill, in a controlled environment, using a pre determined set of rules, as with Traditional Karate, having varying degrees of true Budo, Sport Karate has a number of different World Bodies, with their own sets of rules.
Traditional Karate (True Budo) is in general focused more towards "Ikken Hissatsu" (One killing blow), of course as with "Sports Karate" there are varying degrees of focus towards this goal.
Q. Can a Karate man, block a bullet?
A. Not unless it was a the end of the bullets range
Q. Will Karate get me fit?
A. Karate like most activities, will get you as fit as the time and effort you put in.
Q. Do you have to be fit to start Karate.
A. No, as it is a progressive learning activity, you will get fitter the more you practice & your ability increases.
Q. What abilities do you need to practice Karate?
A. The ability to listen, understand, work hard & train regularly.
Q. Who is the best at Karate?
A. There are so many different World bodies, with their own Karate World Champions, within many World bodies & the politics that this involves, many students don't / can't compete against each other. My analogy, again using cars, is with the same difficulty you may have in deciding who is the "Best" Car driver; is it the, F1 World Champ, Rally World Champ, Cart World Champ, Nascar World Champ, World Touring Car Champ, etc
Q. What is the highest Black Belt
A. 10th Dan
Q. Can you learn Karate from a book / YouTube?
A. You could learn what a move looks like, but it would be difficult to develop the spirit or understanding of distance or timing or how to react under pressure, on your own.
Class work and partner work are fundamental to training, the basic understanding of what the move looks like is quite simple, the difficulty is the training in making those moves work correctly under pressure in various situations. How I like to explain it, is with the following Quote from Iron Mike Tyson - "Everybody has a plan until they're hit in the face".