KARATE

Karate's origins come from Okinawa where locals formed an art called "Te" to defend themselves against pirates, thieves and later, invading Japanese. When Japan finally overtook Okinawa, "Te" was forbidden for fear of local uprising so training was forced to be undertaken at night and in secret.

"Kara" meaning "Chinese" and "Te" meaning "Hand" the word "Karate" translated to Chinese Hand due to the influence from China and its martial arts but when Karate was popularised in Japan by Gichen Funakoshi two beliefs exist of how Karate came to be translated to "Empty Hand" as it is known today. The first belief is that the way the word "Kara" can be pronounced in different ways and can mean Chinese or Empty. The second belief is that the Japanese character for "empty" looks similar to the Chinese character for "Chinese" and "empty" seemed more appropriate as Funakoshi wanted to make Karate unique to Okinawa and that it had progressed a long way from it's Chinese Kung Fu origins.

Karate is made up of three parts - Kihon, Kata and Kumite.

• Kihon is the term for basics which are the kicks, stances, punches, open handed strikes and blocks.

• Kata is a series of pre-arranged movements developed by Okinawan Karate masters incorporating Kihon against imaginary opponents, which is the heart and soul of Karate. Certain Kata's can take years to perfect and past masters of Okinawa felt they only needed to know three or four kata's for they thought that it was impossible to master any more than that in a life time.

• Kumite is when two karateka using Kihon and movement learnt from doing Kata usually with no contact spar each other. It is considered that to control your strikes and kicks is just as much an art than making full contact.

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