There are a lot of martial arts out there, but karate remains to be one of the most popular and one of the most learned martial arts across the entire world – but what is it that makes karate a favorite above all the others?
Here we are going to be taking a look at all the reasons why so many people take up karate over other types of martial arts.
This way, you can understand all the benefits on offer by practicing karate and why so many people love this martial art.
Everyone Can Learn Karate
Karate is one of the great equalizers in sports because everyone can learn it.
Most karate schools take on lots of new students all the time which means that no matter your age, you can take up karate and start to learn from scratch.
There’s also no bias between race, class or gender – instead, sparring sessions are like large melting pots where all different kinds of people can meet up and make new friends.
You don’t have to be fast or strong to learn karate because there are a lot of different styles so you can find the best style that suits you.
The lack of equipment also means that karate is super accessible to learn. All you need is enough space, a mat and a trainer to run a class. Therefore, you can easily find karate lessons available in lots of places like town halls, gyms, schools, and even outdoors.
So, it’s super easy to sign up and start to learn karate (sometimes even for free!) which means that anyone and everyone can start out.
Karate Has Appeared In Lots of Movies And Shows
A lot of people will tell you that karate definitely became mainstream during the 80s due to a lot of great movies and television shows.
Although karate was already practiced in the states by this point, it was really thanks to the media that karate became so widely known.
In 1959, Bruce Lee became a national star whose combat skills in movies like Enter The Dragon and The Chinese Connection.
After Bruce Lee came a range of other martial arts stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and thus more and more Americans became exposed to and interested in martial arts.
In 1984, the mainstream blockbuster movie The Karate Kid was released and became one of the highest grossing movies of the year. The movie focused heavily on karate, rather than having one martial artist jump between different styles of martial arts.
Therefore, The Karate Kid’s popularity was credited for helping popularize karate in the United States and elsewhere in the western world.
Since then, karate has maintained its popularity – but most people first learn about the art to begin with through movies and shows like The Karate Kid.
Karate Helps You Keep Fit
Karate is also a great way to workout and help keep yourself fit and healthy.
Although it’s not a great way to lose weight, karate is all about improving your flexibility, balance, and strength through exercising every inch of your body.
Thus, you can also use karate to improve your endurance and stamina both physically and mentally.
It’s also proven that learning martial arts like karate can help improve your heart’s health by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol.
Not only that but you can also improve your posture and movement through repetitive sparring and stances, helping improve your mobility through regular exercise in the form of drills, strikes, kicks, and footwork.
So, karate is an intense form of exercise that aims to improve your muscles, strength, stamina and health without putting focus on shifting and losing weight.
Karate is not about promoting a certain body image; instead, it focuses on keeping you healthy and happy no matter your weight or size.
It Teaches A Lot Of Core Values
Martial arts develop more than just your fitness and muscles as they are also great for developing character and teaching valuable lessons.
Karate is great at instilling confidence in its students as they grow and progress, but it also requires you to grow and develop as a person as well in order to see the results you want to see in your performance.
To be great at karate, you need to become hardworking with a ton of patience and discipline and once you have learned these core values through karate, you can apply them to other parts of your life.
Therefore, studying karate can help you develop as a person and learn more about what you are capable of.
Respect is also another important lesson taught through karate as to succeed, you need to respect your teacher, your opponents, your sparring partners, and yourself.
This is why a lot of parents send their kids to karate because it instills them with a lot of important values and characteristics when they are young so they can grow into a rounded, confident, and respectful person.
It’s Super Safe
One of the reasons someone may be scared to try a martial art like karate is due to safety fears – but karate is very safe because of the rules and controls put in place.
In karate, you are not allowed to aim for certain areas like the neck or spine when attacking due to the risk of injury and so, students are not taught to aim for those areas.
Instructors and teachers are also trained to deal with all kinds of karate-related injuries so even if you are hurt, you are in great hands.
You are also put through a great warm up and drilling routine so your chances of injuries like sore joints and muscles.
So, although you can expect some bruises and bumps (karate is a contact sport, after all), it’s very rare that you will ever suffer from a life changing injury during karate.
Karate is all about training you to perform martial arts as safely as possible and so, you are taught exactly how to control your strength to avoid hurting others.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of reasons why so many people take up karate.
It’s a great way to keep fit, it’s super accessible, it can help teach you a ton of important values to apply to other aspects of your life, and it’s actually a very safe sport to try out.
Plus, it looks super cool thanks to movies and knowing karate can also help you keep yourself safe out in the real world.
So, it’s pretty easy to see why karate is so popular!
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