Karate and Other Martial Arts Styles
When talking about self defense, the topic of Martial Arts never fails to be brought up. Simply put, Martial Arts stand to be practical as forms of self defense, as one's body is already one's weapon, negating the need for having to bring self defense weapons like night sticks, or pepper spray canisters or stun guns and other electroshock items.
Karate, would be one of the most popular of Martial Arts Styles among all other Martial Art Styles in the world today. Karate is actively learned for its self defense value, but is also revered for other values as well. For starters, the fitness value of Karate is known to the world and is one other reason why it is so popular, even with other Martial Arts Styles. Karate is also known to develop self-confidence, mental discipline, positive character development and the building up of self-cultivation/meditation. These aspects of Karate is also imbedded in other Martial Arts Styles, but Karate is known to breed its own class of Karate line of thought. Specifically, a Karate practitioner is called a karateka.
Karate is basically a Martial Art which owes its origins from a synthesis of the Ryukyuan fighting methods, the Chinese Kempo Martial Art, along with the basic concepts of classical Japanese martial arts. In Japanese, Karate means "empty hand" emphasizing that it is a form of self defense, as well as offense, requiring no weapons at all. Just like other Martial Arts Styles, Karate has offensive and defensive stances, but gear students to always consider resolving an issue non-physically first, before resorting to more physical solutions. Not that other Martial Arts Styles don't adhere to this principle, Karate is a Martial Art determined to only yield to physical action when no other self defense option is left to take.
As with other Martial Arts Styles, Karate is one with various codified pools of training and practice information, geared for combat. As a Martial Art, Karate is known for featuring kicks, punching, elbow/knee strikes and other open handed techniques. Basically, this is no different from other Martial Art styles, only that, just like other Martial Arts Styles, Karate boasts its own set of disciplines and practices. Joint manipulations, grappling, restraints, traps, locks and throws are also included in Karate, building up its comprehensive self defense nature.
If you are entertaining the thought of taking up Martial Arts Lessons in building up your self defense skills, Karate would be a good Martial Art to consider.
