Karate is the name not for just one sport, but for more sports which are quite similar. Every sport apart is founded in Japan, with its own techniques and ideas. There are three important parts of karate:
1) Kihon. These are the basic skills like punching and kicking. They are trained a lot, since they are important for both the other two parts.
2) Kata. This are a prescribed movements with a lot of combinations of techniques together to form a sort of fake fight
3) Kumite. This is sparring, so two people trying to defeat each other in a fight.
Every karate style its own kihon, kata and kumite, based on their techniques and ideas.
At the Mattekloppers we train Kyokushin karate. De founder of this style is Masutatsu Oyama. He tried to pick the strongest parts from the other fighting arts and sports. Kyokushin karate is also called “the strongest karate”, since it is a full-contact sport in kumite. This means that you are not allowed to wear a lot of protective stuff in (official) competitions. However, techniques may be used with power and speed. Arm techniques (like punching) are not allowed on the head , but leg techniques (like kicking) are. In training we focus mainly on condition, kihon and kumite. Sometimes we’ll do kata’s. This is because the main part of this sport is competition and so we want to train for that.