Friday, October 24, 2014

For Professional Karate Portland Oregon Is The Way To Go

By Jocelyn Davidson


Karate is a martial art that started Japanese Islands of Ryukyu. Its emergence combined various combat techniques resulting in the formulation of specific fighting systems, which later became karate. At the time of development in Japan, people in the US, China, and UK were also developing other versions of the art. That led to classification of styles as western or eastern depending on origin.

This martial art has spread to several places around the world and many training schools have been established worldwide. For the best taught karate Portland Oregon is a nice place to consider visiting. In Portland, karate is exercised as a striking art, which uses various techniques including elbow strikes, kicking, punching, knee strikes, and open hand methods. Some styles teach locks, throws, restraints, vital point strikes, and grappling. Practitioners are called karatekas.

In the modern world, people engage in martial art for different reasons. The reasons range from maintaining physical, emotional, and mental fitness to gaining vital self defense skills. This martial art has been determined to have the ability to relieve stress in practitioners hence helping in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Most people take classes in the evening after work to shake of stress gained during the day. In doing so, the mind and body get relaxed and strength is gained to take on another busy day.

In terms of self defense, karatekas are taught basic skills of defending oneself against attackers. The skills range from attacking, defending, and fleeing. A simple strike can give one enough time to flee away from an attacker or to seek for help from the police or other members of the public. The US military is currently training its soldiers in martial arts to allow them to defend themselves against unarmed but hostile members of public during riots.

Some people spend free time on classes as a hobby. Hobbyists normally do not focus on achieving ranks or acquiring advanced skills but rather as a way of passing free time. The nature of exercises in this discipline make it suitable for losing excess weight in people with problems with their weight. The exercises help in gaining proper body shape, endurance, and flexibility while shedding off extra calories.

The art is also considered a sport with participants taking part in Olympic games. When practiced as a sport, participants may use simple tools and weapons made of wood, stone, or metal. Normally the main emphasis of the sport is flexibility, agility, power, aerobic and anaerobic exercises. The exercises involved target to improve stamina, muscle coordination, strength, and speed. If two participants are involved, contact may be made fully, partially, or non at all.

Kata is a competitive sport under this martial art which is meant to show mastery of skills. Participants display their skills singly or in groups to viewers. Marks are scored basing on the level of perfection of a participant.

Belts are used to mark ranks in this discipline. Karatekas hold belts of different colors depending on their rank. The highest rank is the black belt. Students holding the black belt are well trained in the discipline and may even function as teachers in absent of one. Some start their own schools.




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