Editors Kaitlyn Lu and Lara White took a beginner karate class for the first time on Nov. 13. Eager to explore a new sport and confront its challenges, they ventured to Hu Shin Kai, a dojo in Chicago owned by Tony Nakamura, Glenbrook North senior Kai Nakamura’s father, to put their abilities to the test.
Our experience
As we walked up the stairs to the dojo, we were nervous about whether we could keep up with other students. The class began slowly, starting with dynamic stretching and ladder exercises. The warmups were simple, but during the ladder exercises, we struggled to do the footwork correctly while maintaining the same pace as the other students.
First, we were taught how to punch. We learned to position our thumb on the outside of our fists because tucking it underneath our fingers could cause it to break upon impact otherwise. Once we implemented this technique, we realized punching was fairly beginner-friendly.
We were then taught various stances and blocks. Holding the poses was straightforward, but adding transition movements was difficult because it forced us to move our blocks across the entire body. The complexity intensified when we had to coordinate these transitions with leg movements across the mat.
While we understood the broader movements, our lack of prior karate experience made it difficult to catch the smaller details we were missing.
“Kaitlyn’s stance was a little wide, not really in the natural sense,” said Kai Nakamura. “Apart from that, not bad. And then, Lara … It was just a few things about techniques. Like different positions, or in between [positions], it just kind of got a little wonky. But I mean, as to be expected, it’s [their] first time trying karate.”
Though a bit fatigued, we left the dojo feeling empowered. Karate is an engaging way to stay active, and has the added bonus of teaching practical self-defense skills. This dynamic form of exercise is a sure way to build mental and physical resilience. We highly enjoyed our experience and encourage other beginners to try taking a karate class.