What is learning karate like?

[Shira]

I'm writing a story about a girl who is highly skilled at karate. I therefore want to know what she will know and how she is likely to behave. She's seventeen years old and has been learning her entire life - how good is she likely to be? What values are involved? Is there some sort of daily exercise you do every day? What is it? What's the mindset supposed to be? What's the attitude towards emotion? How is she likely to use her skills in a fistfight against someone with entirely different training? Someone with similar training? Will it affect the way she uses a sword? I know nothing about this, so go into as much detail as you can.

[ReHe]

Sorry but I will probably write you a paragraph so you can do it correct. I will tell you that I have students who started really young, the youngest was not even four but he cried and asked why so I let him try Karate, expecting him to stop in a few days. If I would not have felt bad for him I would have not taken him until he was at least 12. He also changed my veiw of children as he took to it great and is now in high school. If your character is going to start training at a young age there would have to be a reason besided money for someone to take her as a student. My students are exeptional after a few years as will never allow more than 15 students in my class. I am a professor of Clinical Anatomy so have taught them about bones, injuries and fractures. Any student of mine is taught the common areas that to body breaks and how to strike those areas best. If she trained with a teacher who liked to keep the art alive she could be inspiring.

Values
My young students have taken in the philosophy of Okinawan Karate and even the youngest know the stories of the Great Masters. This include reciting the old karate poem:

"No matter how you may excel in the art of ti (old name for Karate)
and your scholastics endevour
nothing is more important than your behaviour
nothing is more important than you humanity
as observed in normal life"

There would be a pacifistic mentality under ideal conditions and an avoidance to any violence

My students are encouraged to be human first and to enjoy all the aspects life has to offer but to be responsible and better than the rest of humanity. I expect them to pity other people and forgive and expect their short-comings. Yet not to allow themself the same complacancy.

All students are encouraged to do all their Kata (forms) first thing on waking up twice. The first time slow to wake up the muscles, the second time at full power and speed. If you are doing this correct, you end up drenched in sweat before the shower. As you are always doing it to the best of your ability you never get used to it.
At 17 she would not be ready for Makiwara training for another year though she might want to do it it would be prohibited.

How would they fight someone else?
They would avoiding the fight, if that is not possible to end it quick even if it means destroying their attacker. If they had the same training, the fight could not really occur.

The way she uses a sword?
Traditional Okinawan Kobudo (weapons) in general is not really part of Karate but is something added to help the training. This training usually does not involved swords and in modern times it seems that most prefer the 6ft bo which some styles use similar techinques to older swordsmanships.
To get a better feel for real karate consider finding the following books:
Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters
Essence of Okinawan Karate Do
Karate-do my way of life

If you want to know how we use Kata to under break the body let me know

[callsignfuzzy]

"how good is she likely to be?"

If she's very serious and spends hours training every day, it's possible she'll be close to Olympic level, but more likely, she'll be about the athletic level of a high school or college athlete. A good school will not allow someone to test for black belt until they're considered "mature", which can be anything from 13 to 18 years old, but it's possible she'll be a first or second degree black belt.

"What values are involved?"

Varies a bit, but hard work ("discipline") and honest behavior ("honor") are generally associated with "traditional" martial arts training. Think the willingness to make personal sacrifices of an Olympic athlete with the superhero-like "do the right thing" morality.

"Is there some sort of daily exercise you do every day? What is it?"

Modern karate training consists of the "three K's"- kihon, which are basic technique repetitions, kata, which are pre-arranged dance-like fight sequences, and kumite, or sparring, which is pretty hard to do without a partner. Okinawan karate systems (Goju-Ryu and Uechi-Ryu in particular) have a set of exercises called Hojo Undo, done with unusual objects, like gripping jars filled with sand to strengthen the grip. Outside of that, any sort of physical conditioning would be acceptable, like distance running, weight lifting, yoga, boot-camp-style exercises (common in karate classes), and even boxing-like training, like skipping rope and hitting the bag.

A note on kata: each different karate style will have a different set of kata. Look up the different styles on Wikipedia and cross-reference the kata on Youtube.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_kata

On a daily basis, she might work out a bit in the morning by doing some running, exercises (with or without weights), then practice several repetitions of kicks, punches, blocks, and combinations, and maybe finish by hitting the bag or doing a kata or two, probably multiple times. In the evening, she'd probably train with a group.

"What's the mindset supposed to be?"

Depends. Some folks like to think they're old-school warriors and that every strike they throw should be intended to kill, and as such, they avoid any form of violence (including a lot of sparring) at all costs. Some folks treat karate as a physical art form, focusing on "perfecting form"- these folks would put a higher premium on athletic training. Some folks see it as a sport, and train relentlessly in sparring and/or kata. Some view it as a discipline, something just to get better at for the sake of being good at it. Most people feel all of these to varying degrees.

"What's the attitude towards emotion?"

Generally that it should be controlled.

"How is she likely to use her skills in a fistfight against someone with entirely different training? Someone with similar training?"

Whether they're trained or not doesn't change much, though a trained opponent is generally more dangerous. How she responds will depend on how she trains. If her school does a lot of scenario training- that is, "he punches/grabs your collar/chokes you and this is how you respond"- she may have build-in responses to those situations, but that's not really a "fist fight". How she responds there will depend on how her sparring sessions are conducted. A common form of sparring is light-contact point sparring, which will make her fast, but she won't be used to taking a punch, and maybe will have developed a bad habit of "pulling" her strikes, because you can actually get disqualified for hitting too hard under some rules. On the other side, you have "knockdown" sparring, which is full-contact: you can kick the legs, body, and head, and punch the body, bare-knuckle, but not the head. Some schools have incorporated kickboxing sparring into their training, so that might be something to consider.

American point sparring (if you fought this way against anyone who was trying to knock you out, you'd get knocked out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlZWLHU-Qtg

Japanese point sparring (slightly better):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VsTLpVCfCo

Knockdown sparring (used mostly by the Kyokushin, Enshin, and Ashihara styles of karate):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsUOTV86K6Y

If her opponent is trained, what they're trained IN will be a tremendous difference in how the fight is likely to go. If they're a grappler/wrestler, they'll probably take her down and punch her out, or apply a choke or lock. If they're a striker, both fighters will try to keep it standing and hit one another.