Best karate style for poorly knees & clubs near High Wyc

[wouldbemaster]

Was speaking to a work colleague who is very experience shotokan karateka reaching 1st dan on a couple of occassions following injury to his knees and operations leading to time away.

What are peoples views on styles of karate that are less strenous on knees.

Also he lives near High Wycombe in southern England (UK) so any ideas on good clubs in that area most welcomed.

Cheers.

Brian

[bushido_man96]

When you watch what is done in the class, look at how the kicking is done, and the footwork that is done in the forms. You can see how it will affect your knees by watching the footwork. Higer kicking will be a bit rougher on the knees, I think, because of more pivoting, and the need for flexibility. Lower kicking will be a bit better for the knees.

Also of importance is learning to kick properly; making sure you have good pivot movements with the base leg, not locking the kicking leg out completely upon completion of the kick, and things like that. Quality in kicking is important, regardless of the art you practice.

[mudansha]

No one martial art is "worse" on the knees than the other. Some people have weak knees, some people have weak hips. For every practitioner that gets a bum knee there are 4 that study karate their whole lives and never get hurt. The plain and simple fact is that if one is hard on his body for a long period of time, the body wears out. This is true of any physically-demanding activity.

Take your pick. When you get old do you want:

A) Bum knees

B) Bad hips

C) Strong knees, good hips, and a fat belly

If you are worried about wearing your body out, just take it easy. Don't be super aggressive on everything. Karate in general does not have to be destructive to body parts.

[barefoot-kohai]

From my experience, I think that the best thing is having a talk with the instructor. As an experienced practicioner he must know that every person has his/her own physical constraints that determine "what that person can/can't do and how he/she has to practice".

Inside martial arts in general (and in my case karate in particular), there is always "something for everybody": a martial art is a sort of "rigid" discipline, but up to a point. Karate becomes real when is performed by some person, and that person is conditioned by his body.

I practice karate to keep up my physical condition and "make my brains work", but above all, because I enjoy it and I'm having a good time each time I practise. It's not a religion: if someday I'm not feeling well or I'm not having a good time I will leave the practice and that's all.

Karate is part of my life, but it is not my whole life: It will never be (again).

In my case, I have never been a very flexible person, and at 16, I knew that I would never would be able to perform jodan geri (kick at the level of the face). I had two options: trying to perform insane flexibility stretching (with a high risk of getting hurt) or search inside karate what was in it for me.

So I focused in the sort of techniques that suited me : solid stances, fist techniques and kicks at waist level. (without leaving completely appart other things which I know I will never perform in a totally correct way)

What I want to mean is that a martial art should never be a rigid discipline: "inside the art, there is always something for everybody": "Rigid" discipline means "rigid" people, "rigid" people are just machines, not people. Karate (or any martial art) has to be an extension of yourself. If you have nothing inside, your karate will be as empty as you.

A "machine-man" can be at most a good practicioner and even master any tecnique or movement and be "invincible".

But everything will vanish as his/her condition evolves with age, just because all this wonderful things he/she could do were just artificial things. You can keep them for a limited period of time. Only the things "natural" to your body and mind will remain for life.

I have always been a Shotokan practicioner: low and solid stances and so on. Now I'm nearly 42 and after a period of inactivity I'm overweight, my body is rigid and soar and if I practice very hard, my joints ache. It's not the perfect condition but it is the physical condition I've got, so I had a talk with my Instructor and I told him about this. We agreed that I could work using higher stances, changing some techniques (for example, performing yoko geri instead of mawashi geri or chudan geri instead of jodan geri), or even leaving the class if I'm not feeling well.

Anyway, if you have some physical constraint, the best thing is trusting your physician or consulting a chiropractor (people who perform massages and are knowledgeable about muscles and articulations) and talk about it with your Instructor.

Best Regards

[bushido_man96]

What I want to mean is that a martial art should never be a rigid discipline: "inside the art, there is always something for everybody": "Rigid" discipline means "rigid" people, "rigid" people are just machines, not people. Karate (or any martial art) has to be an extension of yourself. If you have nothing inside, your karate will be as empty as you.

Very well said. I like your points here, and I agree with you.