Thursday 9 February 2012

Karate terminology for beginners

This post is created specially for the students of the beginners course in the Freiburg dôjô. The list of terms, introduced in training, is presented and will be updated accordingly to progress in training.

For the full list of karate terms I highly recommend The Karate Dictionary written by my sensei Schlatt.

Shôtôkan:
  shôtô - billowing pine trees
  kan - hall, building

dôjô - place of the way, training room

seiza - sit straight
mokusô - meditation
reishiki - etiquette

shômen ni rei - salutation to the front
sensei ni rei - salutation to the master
otagai ni rei - salutation to each other

osu (oss) - a universal word used by karateka for greetings, thanking, responding to sensei's instructions, etc.

kihon - basic training

  tachikata - stance, position

heikô dachi - parallel stance (feet are parallel)
musubi dachi - united stance (heels are together, toes are pointing outward)
heisoku dachi - feet-together stance
kiba dachi - straddle-leg stance
zenkutsu dachi - forward stance

jôdan - upper level
chûdan - middle level
gedan - lower level

choku zuki - straight punch

hiki te - pulling hand

oi zuki - lunge punch

gyaku zuki - reverse punch

age uke - rising block (jôdan)
soto uke - block from outside, moving forward
uchi uke - block with the inside of the arm
gedan barai - downward block

kumite - sparring (literally - meeting of hands)

yakusoku kumite - pre-arranged sparring
gohon kumite - five-step sparring

goshin - self-defense

kata - form

Taikyoku Shodan:
  tai - big, great
  kyoku - 1) end (substantive), pole (substantive); 2) extreme (adjective); 3) "go to the end" (verb), "study thoroughly" (verb), "carry to extremes" (verb)

Osu!

No comments:

Post a Comment