Your First Karate Class.

[Harkon72]

Here is my experience of my first Karate Class; Please share here as requested in a previous thread.

My first class with my present sensei was after a break of 6 years. I wore a white belt, I was out of shape and very scared. Sensei Williams had a fearsome reputation. I had 20 years of Karate before I went there, but in a different style. He asked me about my previous training; he just raised his shoulders and said, "I can see there is Karate there, how much we can use will stand out for itself. But this is now, not then." I was taught to relax, completely, to let the technique flow and how to iron out my Karatedo to resemble that of Shukokai; my Sensei showed great respect to my previous teachers. I am a more complete Karateka today than ever, thanks to the perception and understanding of Sensei Eric Williams and Dragon Martial Arts.

[wagnerk]

My first karate class, well I should really say my first real karate class (I say this as my first karate class was almost 30 years ago in primary/elementary when an instructor came to demo it for a lesson and we participated)...

It was in the late 90's and I decided to try out the martial arts. It just so happened that there were several different martial arts and style in our area, but there was something about one Shotokan association that stood out.

Anyway decided to give this a go. Went to the next training session, there must have been about 20-30 people there, all wearing different colour belts in nicely ironed gi's. In the corner of the room, before class started, there were a group of karateka's practicing their techniques, I thought wow I wish that I could be good as them while being nervous.

Next thing I know this guy (this was the head instructor) is in front of me, professional yet friendly, welcomes me to his association, chats for about a couple of minutes explaining the format of the class, a brief overview of the association and the style, asks if I have any health problems, etc... Basically putting me at ease (well less nervous).

As we all line up (the more senior grades assist with the lines), I notice that there are a few of us in tee-shirts and jogging pants; young, middle and old. We do our warm ups, then we separate... All the beginners head off to one corner of the room (yes it was large) with the head instructor and a couple of black belts, the rest of the class carries on with their work. We go thru: how to make a fist, then basic punches. How to block, the downward block being the first block we learn. How to do a front kick with our toes pulled back so we don't break them and the first 3 basic stances. The instructor then demo's the techniques with the brown belts, slowly at first so that we can see the technique excuted properly. Then fast to show the speed, grace and power of the techniques. I believed that I made a couple of mistakes, they were corrected

It's amazing that all of that took the whole lesson to cover, still nervous, but excited for the next lesson. We all joined back with the main group, did our cool down lessons, bowed then left for the night.

I stayed with that association for over 4 years, reaching Shodan, before I had to leave due to work commitments and moving. But the skills that were learnt over those years, I have used as the basis for the other arts and styles that I've trained in.

[Safroot]

Thanks Harkon72 for this thread ... I wish to share my experiences soon with all of you

[Lupin1]

I was 8 years old and in the spring of 2nd grade. I was obsessed with martial arts movies and tv shows and had been telling my parents I wanted to take karate, but it was just too expensive and we couldn't afford it. I was disappointed and didn't know that my mom had secretly put me on the waiting list for the free class at the local Boy's and Girl's Club. Then one night she surprised me by quietly coming up to me and telling me to put on a sweatsuit and get in the car-- that she had a surprise for me but didn't want my sisters to know because they'd be jealous. When we got into the car she said to me "how'd you like to go to karate class?".

When we got there there were a bunch of older kids (8 was the youngest they allowed) with different colored belts warming up while a couple young adult black belts helped them. We were greeted by the head instructor's wife, who was also a black belt and helped out with the kids' class at the time. She helped me and some of the other first timers (we always start a group of kids together) stretch and warm up while the head instructor talked to our parents about the program and answered their questions.

When it was time to start, she showed us where to line up in the back row and how to stand at attention and bow. After that we did some warm ups as a class and then the head instructor pulled the group of beginners to the side while the other instructors continued working with the older kids. He had us sit in a circle around him just like in school and told us all about the history of the system, about where he trained and for how long, about some of the black belts in the room, and about some of the things we'd learn. After that he had us stand up and taught us to make the Isshinryu fist and stand in a Seisan stance and how to step forward and backward and throw a straight punch. We practiced that for the rest of the class before rejoining the other kids back in line to close out.

I honestly don't remember all that, but my instructor still uses the exact same "first day" script to this day and with his recent health problems he's actually had me do the speech and initial teaching with the past few groups of beginners while he supervised and guided me, so I know it pretty well. I do remember being extremely excited and nervous, being intimidated by the bigger kids with their colorful belts and especially the black belt instructors, and being a bit disappointed when we didn't learn to throw ninja stars or transform into Zords on the first night.

[sensei8]

Great topic!!

My first karate class?? WOW!! Let me think back a long, long, long, long time ago. The only thing that sticks out in my mind is that, the then Kaicho, later to become Dai-Soke, scared the heck out of me, and I didn't want to go back, but my mom made me return each and every time.

I was that fish out of water, and I followed what our Sempai's instructed us to do while learning how to bow, where to stand, what to do and what not to do, learnt one block and one kick and one punch and a few stances.

Other than that, it's all a blur that's decades old.

[Rig]

Yes, a great topic!

My first Karate lesson was in 1984 and I was 14 years old, I had been learning Chow Gar Kung Fu for the past 4 years and was a brown sash when a friend told me that he wanted to go and 'do karate' at the local sports centre and as I knew about his stuff would I go with him and support him, being a cocky 14 year old brown sash I thought it would be a laugh and I might get to show up these white pyjama wearing Karate people!

We arrived and there were about 30 people in white gi's all wearing different coloured belts including 3 wearing black belts, we had a chat with the main instructor (Mal) and then began following the warn ups, after about 30 minutes (I was knackered!) we were called into line and the beginners were taken by another black belt (Rod) where he taught us how to make a fist, how to stand, how to punch and front kick etc.

After 2 hours the lesson was over and I was totally worn out and just about managed the 3 mile walk home!

My mate decided that it wasn't for him but that 1 lesson had ignited a spark and even thou the training was way harder than I was used to I loved it (and hated it) I was hooked!

After that single lesson I never went back to my Kung Fu class, I'm not saying one is better than the other, just that this martial art 'fitted' me it made sense to me and my body.

The best part is that I still train with Mal and Rod to this day!

[xnovak1023]

Tonight will be my first formal Shotokan class. Very excited!

[wagnerk]

Tonight will be my first formal Shotokan class. Very excited!

Have fun, let us know how you get on

[brickshooter]

I was 8 years old and in the spring of 2nd grade. I was obsessed with martial arts movies and tv shows and had been telling my parents I wanted to take karate, but it was just too expensive and we couldn't afford it. I was disappointed and didn't know that my mom had secretly put me on the waiting list for the free class at the local Boy's and Girl's Club. Then one night she surprised me by quietly coming up to me and telling me to put on a sweatsuit and get in the car-- that she had a surprise for me but didn't want my sisters to know because they'd be jealous. When we got into the car she said to me "how'd you like to go to karate class?".

When we got there there were a bunch of older kids (8 was the youngest they allowed) with different colored belts warming up while a couple young adult black belts helped them. We were greeted by the head instructor's wife, who was also a black belt and helped out with the kids' class at the time. She helped me and some of the other first timers (we always start a group of kids together) stretch and warm up while the head instructor talked to our parents about the program and answered their questions.

When it was time to start, she showed us where to line up in the back row and how to stand at attention and bow. After that we did some warm ups as a class and then the head instructor pulled the group of beginners to the side while the other instructors continued working with the older kids. He had us sit in a circle around him just like in school and told us all about the history of the system, about where he trained and for how long, about some of the black belts in the room, and about some of the things we'd learn. After that he had us stand up and taught us to make the Isshinryu fist and stand in a Seisan stance and how to step forward and backward and throw a straight punch. We practiced that for the rest of the class before rejoining the other kids back in line to close out.

I honestly don't remember all that, but my instructor still uses the exact same "first day" script to this day and with his recent health problems he's actually had me do the speech and initial teaching with the past few groups of beginners while he supervised and guided me, so I know it pretty well. I do remember being extremely excited and nervous, being intimidated by the bigger kids with their colorful belts and especially the black belt instructors, and being a bit disappointed when we didn't learn to throw ninja stars or transform into Zords on the first night.

Ha ha ha.

I remembered training in t-shirts and shorts for the first 4 weeks, because they ran out of Gi and had to order mine.

[Rig]

Tonight will be my first formal Shotokan class. Very excited!

Have fun!