White Tiger Martial Arts UK
Breathing new life into martial arts. 1st session is FREE
What is freestyle
What is Freestyle Karate/kickboxing?
Where did it come from?
"Karate" is a term made up of two Japanese words, "kara" and "te"
meaning "empty hand". It is one kind of self defense system from one
country,
and some of them have many systems. For example,
400 systems of Kung Fu. That's not counting the weapons arts and
wrestling they also have.
So what is White Tiger Freestyle Fighters? It is a version taken
from sport karate. Lets take a moment and I'll try to explain.
Most styles of karate differ because of the following reasons:
1. Technique emphasis (more kicks than punches and that sort of thing)
2. Instructor's preference (he's a big guy and likes punches more, etc.)
3. The culture it came from (
First let's look at the cultural aspect.
The Japanese martial arts were governed by its principal weapon, the sword.
Sword fights usually only lasted for one or two exchanges as the cuts were often lethal.
That has influenced the Japanese viewpoint so that they emphasize the
"one punch kill" coming from the one cut kill.
This also came out of
by the Japanese.
Only the Japanese were allowed weapons so the Okinawans had to
develop a martial art that could overcome someone who had a weapon
and who wore armour. They only had one chance so they developed
their fists to be as hard as stone so they could break through the
armour and kill their attacker.
In
kick them there.
This has promoted the rise to a kick-oriented art such as Taekwon-do,
the original kickboxers heralded from
of martial history.
You can see how the culture that an art comes from tends to stylise the
art, effective within their area of expertise, but vulnerable outside it.
A kicker will be in trouble if a wrestler gets inside of their kick and a
boxer's jab can frustrate a one punch artist.
In the
take what works and apply it to their system or style. We are not bound
by a cultural tradition, that is to say, doing it a certain way because that
was the way it's been done for years.
The general idea in Freestyle sports karate is that each individual will
eventually use what works for them in the combative arena of competition.
Now let's take a look at the title itself.
White Tiger Freestyle Fighters will hopefully carry as many of the
same values found in traditional karate. An ethos of: Truth, hard work,
respect, honesty, honour plus other less abvious rules applicable in each training area.
The dojo kun will indicate what is expected from each student.
RESPECT is a major rule in each training area RESPECT for each other but the utmost respect for the INSTRUCTOR.
Any student not able to show respect to their instructor should stop training and leave
Good morals for good people regardless of race, age, gender or culture.
FREESTYLE - This implies an inclusiveness of all the possibilities.
If you can only kick, you will be in trouble if a good effective puncher gets in the arena and vice-versa.
White Tiger Freestyle will within the syllabus include PUNCHING (striking) KICKING (many variations)
Joint locking for grappling. Both long and short range to cover as many angles that a students may encounter.
KARATE - This is a term that is generally understood by most people karate means open hand and is an unarmed martial art.
Karate is the core art that the founder studied along with Wing Chun, Jujitsu, kendo & a little Iaido.
When students begin to study the history of martial arts, they often find that it has been suggested that the true roots of karate originated in
This is basically the path of the art that has ended up as karate.
From there it was exported out to the western world.
Westerners were one of the last legs of that journey.
We have taken an Oriental art and have moulded it to our culture of sport
karate being named either Freestyle karate or freestyle kickboxing both
herald from the same traditional roots.
