Kyokushin's Focus

[username19853]

In my dojo, we’re nowhere near as hardcore as a standard Kyokushin class. Our focus is has always been on kata and bunkai. We’ll start off with a warmup, some kihon (almost never any kicks as they aren’t heavy in our style), lots of kata, and usually a drill or application practice.

From my limited knowledge, Kyokushin seems to be very different with more of a focus on kihon and kumite. Can anyone share an example?

[Nevinyrral]

What do you usually do for warm up? And how long does it take, and how long does full class take?

What kata do you practice mostly?

[username19853]

What do you usually do for warm up? And how long does it take, and how long does full class take?

What kata do you practice mostly?

We always start off with meditation/breathing, seiza (I think that’s the spelling). Then we do dynamic exercises while lined up or moving across the floor, sometimes running is included. Arm swings, leg swings, hip rotations, squats, lunges, pushups, etc. usually lasts 10 minutes or so before kihon.

On days that we have an hour of judo, karate is only an hour long. Other days karate is either an hour and a half or 2 hours.

[Capella]

I practice kyokushin in a small dojo in Germany.

We usually train twice a week for 90 min, sometimes, if the dojo is free on Wednesdays, we throw in a third 90 min session.

Every session is a bit different, and depending on who is there and wether we are preparing for a belt exam or a competition, the focus can shift a bit, but a typical session looks like this:

- greeting

- warm-up (shadowboxing, open hand sparring, skipping rope or just some light cardio stuff, mostly) for about 10 min

- half an hour of either kihon/kata or combinations/pad work

- some strength/conditioning or flexibility workout

- half an hour of sparring

As I said, not every session is exactly like that, but there usually is a strong focus on kumite and there is always at least some strength/conditioning involved as well.