Your Journey

"You can always start down a new path regardless of your age, your heart determines your own happiness"  - Soke Kanazawa

Let the journey begin...

Some beginners are quite nervous to start karate: "Am I fit enough, will I get hurt or will I embarrass myself?"

First, we will assess your level of fitness and make sure you do not over-extend yourself.  

Second, while any martial art carries the risk of injury, we will do everything in our power to keep you safe.

Third, no student has ever been embarrassed in our dojos... we were ALL beginners once!

The Syllabus

There are three core elements: 

Kihon

Basics characterised by deep, long stances that provide stability, build leg strength

and are a platform for powerful kicks.

Upper body techniques in the form of blocks and punches dovetail with the former and

are underpinned by a holistic approach to building core strength, flexibility and coordination.

Kata

Kata are patterns drawn from the arsenal of Kihon and is in essence a fight with an imaginary opponent, typically comprising

blocks followed by counter-strikes. The syllabus consists of 26 kata and draws on the human body much in the same way that

ballet does on that of a dancer. It requires, core strength, fluidity, coordination, balance, agility, speed, and good breathing.   

A well-executed kata is graceful, beautiful and develops a fitness unique to karate.

Kumite

Sparring is where the adrenalin rushes no matter what level you are at! There are five levels starting with simple

5-step sparring, moving through another three levels before the pinnacle of 'free-fighting' is reached.

You will only advance to the next level of sparring if we believe it is safe for you to do so.

Note that our style is not full contact plus mitts and gum-guards are typically used when free-sparring.

Self Defence

This is an integral part of training at DYSKC and students are introduced to simple but effective techniques early on. For starters, we suggest ways to get out of and not into a fight!

The Ranking System

As students progress, their belt colour changes reflecting an increasing level of proficiency across the elements discussed above.

SKIF has the following belt system:

Note that to be eligible for grading, students are required to have trained for a minimum of 3 months and completed 36 hours of training between grades up until 3rd kyu.

This increases to 72 hours and 6 months between grades until 1st dan is reached.

This means that it theoretically takes 468 hours of training to get from white to black belt, but realistically most students exceed 500 hours by far.