Karate is not only about getting fitter, winning competitions or becoming more capable of standing up for yourself when threatened.
Each month we encourage our students (especially karate kids, but we believe all adults will also benefit from learning about our skills) to give some thought to two important skills, one applicable to their physical abilities and the other to life in general. These two areas of potential growth are intended as guides that when practiced and remembered at all times will make our students healthier inside and out.
Our June themes are:
Life Skill – Trustworthy
Trustworthy is when a person is deserving of trust or confidence, they are dependable and reliable.
We encourage all students at AKKA Martial Arts to be the best version of themselves and always ensure they are being honest and gaining trust between other students and their instructors. We believe trustworthiness is
something that all children should build on from a young age as it builds good, strong values for the future.
In karate, students can show they’re trustworthy by setting goals, sticking to them and trying their hardest until they are achieved. This is showing the instructors and other team members that you stick to your word and achieve something when it has been set.
As part of our SWAT program, where older students help build leadership traits whilst helping the younger students to improve. For this to work the students need to have trust in each other and trust the SWAT members as strong leaders who can assist. Our students all have a large amount of trust
in the SWAT members and learn to listen to their suggestions and make the changes.
Physical Theme- Speed
Speed is seen as one of the most important aspects of being successful in martial arts. Speed has an impact on your performance in both training and competing.
The higher the speed of punches and kicks the more force present resulting in them being more effective. When competing if your kicks and punches
are of high speed then this gives your opponent less time to react and try and block the move. The technique then arrives to its destination in a much shorter time allowing you to get back to your original fighting stance preparing to either strike again or block.
In classes we always dedicate time for improving the students strength hopefully resulting in increased speed. The students are encouraged to maintain a high level of concentration when performing skills and focus just the muscles that are required to perform the skill, by just focusing on these particular muscles and relaxing the rest will increase the pace at which strikes and kicks are performed.
It is all about increasing efficiency in martial arts, as energy needs to be conserved but at the same time making sure all required moves and sequences are being done with maximum energy and speed.
