A post I read got me thinking about diffrent kinds of Dojo's. Mostly Karate Dojo's being thats what Im familiar with. I noticed diffrent clubs usually tend to focus on one aspect of training more then others.
In my opinion Some clubs focus mostly on Kihon so their students tend to have great Kihon and ok Kata. Some Dojo's tend to focus on Kata. so they have great Kata and as a result of that pretty damn good Kihon. Then some Dojo's focus on Kumite more. Those clubs tend to have sloppy Kihon and ok Kata but have great Kumite players.
So what does your Dojo primarily focus on and do you see a weekness overall with your peers in another area because of that?


My Dojo being a Kumite Dojo surprisingly has Great Kumite and great Kihon. Except for a couple of students who have a natural gift at performing Kata. Our Dojo leads something to be desired when it comes to Kata.

My dojo that I attend usually focuses on kata. If we practiced it a little more hardcore it would be better but sometimes it's really laid back. My opinion, you don't get excellent at kata until you are exhausted and dripping sweat.

Depends though really, if you go to the kids class (which I do) it's a lot of kihon. We might practice it in the adult class sometimes but not regulary. Kumite/randori usually about once to twice every other week. Not as much as I would like, but there are a lot of different training methods we work in instead of straight randori.

Mainly kata though. Usually when you see us do kata it's really serious, crisp and clean techniques, strong stance (which is checked) strong tech. fast and slow when appropriate, proper breathing, the whole works.

Quote:

---

I think there are three main parts to karate:

1) Kata
2) Bunkai
3) Sparring

---

We "focus" on all three.

My old dojo was mainly basics and kata, so I just added to the mix by working on all the elements my instructor did not cover in his classes. For example I worked bunkai, strikes and different types of punches (vertical fist for example - not often practiced in my experience), high stances, more realistic kumite, self defence orientated basic practice , reverse side kata (my instructor did this as well actually) and anything else that was a little too "out there" for shotokan that I could slip into the class. Now I'm gone and I regularly get moaned at to come back by the senior grades when I see them. No chance.

The Okinawan Master Kawakamizes 1.)Kata 2.)Bunkia 3.)Kiso-kumite 2 man kata 4.)Self defense 5.)Trad Kumite.
His assistance dojo 1+Trad weapons,2,4,3,5.
His understudy dojo 1+tweapons,2,5,3,4,
My main teacher's dojo 1+tweapons,2,4 real world,5 +continuous sparring,3 incoporated weapons.
My dojo 1.,2.,4. real world, 5. 1-5 level sparrinng incorporating 4&5 s/d, 3. Free movement weapon work after learning Trad weapon Kata+Kiso.

first off, a kihon is a kata, just to clear things up.


at my dojo, form what I see, the prioirties are:

1. kata(which includes kihon)
2. kihon-kumite(preagranged kumite not freestly)
3. kumite/sparing

Our Dojo is a rather small dojo, that's why we get pretty good attention to (good) kihon, kata is to learn techniques an we do kumite to test our techniques.
So it pretty much focuses on those three aspects.

The level of attention depends on grading. 9th kyu focuses more on kihon than on kumite.

Ok, it is still not clear.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Kihon meant basics? How is that the same as kata? Other than basics are practiced withing kata.

- J