Average length of your Karate class

[RJCKarate]

Hi all,

What is the average length of your Karate class?

I see a lot of classes (especially commercial dojo) running classes for only 45 minutes or an hour. For anyone who runs, or participates in those length classes what are your thoughts on them - do you really have enough time?

Also, to expand on the question what part of your session is dedicated to what? For example 20min warm up, 15min basics, 30min kata etc.

Feel free to answer even if you don't practice Karate, but I'm more interested in replies from people who do.

For my dojo:

Kids classes - 1 hour (split 15min warm-up, 15min basics, 30min kata or kumite/drills)

Adults classes - 1.5 hours (split 15min warm-up, 15min basics, 30 minutes of kata or extension on basics, 30 minutes on partner work involving kumite, yakusoku, goshin waza etc)

Cheers,

[T3chnopsycho]

Hi there

Well in my dojo when I started classes where I think around 45 minutes. Although those were kids classes (I started around age 9-10). For kids I find that OK from different aspects. First mostly kids are less enduring than adults. And second kids especially younger ones lose concentration over time so I think 45 minutes is OK.

Well since some years now I'm training with the adults (well actually I am an adult now *OT* I'm getting old xD *BTT*).

Our training usually goes something from 1.25 to 2 hours. We also have different lessons (Technique / Sparring). So on Monday we normally do pad work and different combos and on Wednesday we do mostly sparring and also some combos and so on.

Monday:

5-10 minutes warm up

20 minutes basic techniques and drills

30 minutes advanced techniques / combos and drills

5-10 minutes cool down (pushups, situps etc) + stretching

Wednesday:

5-10 minutes warm-up

10 minutes technique training with a partner (Also a sort of a warm-up --> we warm up our eyes and reflexes (one side attacks (e.g. mawashi-geri) the other side blocks).

10-20 minutes technique and combo training. We also look at new combos from time to time.

40-60 minutes sparring

5-10 minutes cooldown (as above)

During the sparring we sometimes also do it that we make groups of four and then always change (2 refs / 2 fighters) and fight rounds of 2 minutes in our small group.

It is also different how we spar.

We have international (style specific) championships every year (1 year european 1 year world). These normally are around May-August.

So after the championships we usually spar less close to our full potential (fighting with only 30-40% speed (This makes it more difficult because you can't win with your speed. So you have to try and lure him out or surprise him with a technique

or

rythm-fight (Two guys fight but it's always an exchange so I attack and he has to counter then I have to counter so there is always a flow in the fight and it should never be that one doesn't do a technique --> Basically you learn to react to whatever situation you get into. Even if he sweeps you you have to bring a next technique (maybe spin kick or so This is also done with only about 30-40% speed)

During this time we normally focus on trying to learn new techniques or combos to use in a fight. (Normally you have some favorite techniques that you always use so we should fill our bag with some more of these and also try out new stuff.

Then when we come closer to the championships (about 6-4 months before) we start to get a heavier training. So we fight more with our full speed and not try to learn new techniques but get experience with those we learned during the time before.

Hope this could give you some insight

Cheers

T3chnopsycho

[FangPwnsAll7]

My classes are an hour. We do forms and basics.

[blacknebula]

My classes are an hour long, however I often do two classes back to back so I get two hours in total. First 10 minutes are warm up and stretches. After that it really just depends on who the instructor is and the topic of the lesson, but typically starting with some basic drills and combinations then moving on to kata, and kumite at the end.

[vantheman]

Hour long classes for me as well. However, I also go to two classes most days, the adult class, then the black belt session. The adult class is a review of more basic techniques and a good workout, while the black belts work on more advanced techniques, strikes, ect. On Tuesdays, there is BJJ instead of the Black belt class, which also works into the schedule pretty well.

[Chunmonchek]

My classes are 1.5-2 hours long.

Back in the eighties and nineties, my teacher's classes were 3 hours long. Most ran overtime, sometimes going 5 hours on Fridays.

[Takeru69]

Kids (3-5y) is 30 min

For Addult it start at 45 min per class

10 min War-up

20 min Practive

15 min Drill

Later for more advance belt the class is longer.

But yes i feel like it's to short.

[Wastelander]

All of our classes are an hour long, with the exception of our class for students 6 years old and younger, which is only 45 minutes long. Typically we will do about 10 minutes of warm-ups and general exercise before getting into the lessons, but we don't have a regular breakdown beyond that. In the adult classes there is usually not a warm-up because the adults come in early and warm themselves up in advance. Again, we don't have a regular breakdown of how lessons go--they are at least a little different every time.

[JusticeZero]

Also, to expand on the question what part of your session is dedicated to what? For example 20min warm up, 15min basics, 30min kata etc.

Not Karate. Usually we have about 90-100 minutes; in theory we have 120, but we leave early so we can take a shower before being tossed out and start a few minutes late because we have to wait for another class to leave before we can start. No 'kids class' because i'm teaching an utterly tiny class in a college fitness center as a club thing.

It's usually more or less like so, and various bits sometimes get swallowed up by other bits.. like if it's raining, I might not want to carry the instruments over and back, and if someone comes limping in having hurt themself, i'll spend a lot more time working on structural to try to help it.

15 minutes singing/instruments

15 minutes footwork, basic kicks, structure work

15 minutes falling and other floor movement

30 minutes of whatever I feel inspired to focus on that day

15 minutes of either free jogo or self defense drills

10 minutes of cool down stretching

5 minutes of talking and going over stuff to work on

we're pretty informal, I guess.

[Harlan]

Two hours. Warm up is kata, and the rest of the time working on applications.