To the new karateka

Welcome to Karate!

Congratulations on your decision to try out a physical activity that can be as recreational or as life-altering as you allow it to be.

As a new karate student (karateka), you are considered a "white belt" (9th kyu). When our instructor (Sensei) refers to the white belts, that's you, even if you don't actually have a white belt yet.

Where do I get my white belt?

You get an actual white belt with the purchase of your first training uniform (gi). You do not need a training uniform immediately, but you are required to have one before entering any competitions or taking any tests for higher level belts.

Testing for new belt ranks

Tests are generally around 3 months after your start date. Your first testing would generally result in receiving your yellow belt (8th kyu), although particularly gifted or athletic individuals may be allowed to "double grade" and may skip yellow entirely and jump straight to orange belt (7th kyu).

Competition???!

Competition is an aspect of karate that is encouraged, but not required. If you're not sure what it's all about, don't worry about entering yourself into any events, but be sure to come out and volunteer your time and brain to the various things that need to get done to make a tournament run smoothly. You'll get a front-row seat to watch what goes on at a tournament, and as a volunteer you'll be right in the middle of it all, learning an amazing amount about the competitive and officiating aspect of the sport. If you choose to compete later on, you'll know the rules much better than most of your competitors. And as a new karateka, you will have minimal responsibilities, so while the senior black belts scurry around in funny dress-like pants with worried looks on their faces, you can sit back and watch and not be in the wrong.

Back to reality...

Okay, okay - we've gotten a bit off of the "new karateka" trek, but I could hear you askin' about those things in your head, so I covered them.

The first class

In this club, the first class isn't really a whole lot different than the second class or the third, and so on. There's probably more in the way of announcements because our instructor has 3 weeks of news to unload on us, but from there, it's a pretty standard karate class that you'll do two months in to your training as well. So, what I'm saying is:

You are going to get hopelessly lost during this first class. Expect it. Don't worry about it. Just keep trying.

Don't look at me, with 6 years of training "under my belt", or even the green belts who have been training for 1-2 yrs, and judge yourself harshly because your brain cannot seem to command your arms to move in those ways when it looks so "easy" for us. When your brain turns to mush, don't get down on yourself. This is normal. Eventually Sensei will do something confusing to demonstrate how even higher belts can get confused, and everyone will laugh.

But, I should back up. The start of class will be somewhat confusing and surreal as well, until you get used to it. I've heard it compared to a religious ceremony by an outsider who didn't know what they were looking at.

Before class, students will be milling around socializing, practicing techniques alone or on one another, or doing other things to keep themselves entertained. There's a sign-up sheet that the returning karateka will know to sign, Sensei will inform newcomers about the list at the start of class, but by that time it is too late to sign in until after class.

Class starts officially when Sensei says "Line up!". At that call, all students are to stop what they're doing and find their place in the lineup. Lineup is done in rank order, with the most senior students to the far right, and the most junior students to the far left. So yes, you'd be far left :) It doesn't take much to work your way up that line, tho!

Line up has us all standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder, close to one another, back straight, heels together, toes apart (feet in a "V" position) and arms hanging down by the side with your palms flat against the sides of your thighs. Sensei is at the front of the class, facing us, and while we stand in line up, he greets us, makes some small talk, then gets into announcements and the likes.

Once he's given out all the news he and his assistant can remember, he will motion to his assistant instructor, who will step out from the line a few steps. Sensei will then turn around to face the same direction we're all facing, and he will kneel down. Assistant Sensei will kneel down after Sensei has finished kneeling down. Then, the senior student will call out "seiza", at which point all students kneel down together. Watch Sensei to learn how to kneel "correctly". There are many small details to a good kneel and bow-in.

After all students are kneeling down, the senior student will call out "mokosu" which is Japanese for "quiet meditation". At that point, all students and the instructors are to close their eyes and focus on their breathing - release the real world and its problems behind you and prepare to commit yourself to your karate training.

After a short period of meditation time, the senior student will say "yame" which means, literally, "stop", but in this case is extended to meaning "stop meditating, open your eyes". We used to say "mokosu yame" which made more sense - "stop close your eyes".

Now come the bows to the various people we are showing respect to for our karate training. The first one has the senior student call out "shomen-nei rei" and karateka, students or instructor, bow to the front of the dojo, where the picture of the founder of Modern Karate, Gichin Funakoshi, is. Then, Sensei turns around and faces the students and his assistant instructor, and the senior student calls out "sensei-nei rei" and everyone bows to Sensei. Then the Assistant Sensei turns to face the class, and the senior student calls out "sempei-nei rei" and all students bow to the assistant, and the assistant to the students.

That's a formal bow-in. After that, Sensei generally tells us to get up and spread out in the dojo to prepare for warmup, and then he selects either his assistant instructor or a green belt or higher student to conduct the warmup. While you're not subjected to having to lead a warmup while you're a white belt, it's something that's part of every karateka's training as they advance.