Karate!
Yoko Geri
Getting off the ground is only part of the problem. The flying side kick (Yoko Geri) is the result of many hours of hard work.
Karate, one of the world's most exciting and rugged sports, is steadily gaining popularity at the University of Kansas.
Max Muller, Shawnee Mission law student and instructor of the KU Karate Club, said more than 800 students and faculty members had had at least some introductory karate training since the club had been organized in 1965.
"When the club was formed five years ago, only 10 people were interested in learning karate." Muller said. "Now a core group of at least 40 stays with the club every semester."
Karate is centered in a person's ability to use his hands, arms, legs and feet to cripple or disable an opponent, Muller said. It requires agility, speed and most of all concentration.
Muller said the club's goal was not to produce killers, however, but poised and self-confident persons who could defend themselves mentally or physically in any situation.
Terry Rees, Argentine junior and the club's assistant instructor, said Muller stressed the karate philosophy as well as techniques in his teaching. The philosophy is that karate is never to be used unless a person's well-being is endangered.
"Most people get into karate to learn how to defend themselves in a street fight," Rees said. "But after some training they learn how to take a punch without having to return one."
Muller said karate students first learned basic hand and foot techniques. These are then used in kata, he said, an exercise in which a man simulates fighting from four to eight opponents.
From kata, Muller said, a man learns to work with another man on prearranged sparring techniques called bunkais. In these, two men perform the moves of a kata against one another.
When a student is deemed ready by his instructor, he is allowed to participate in free fighting or kumite, Muller said.
Karate ranking is broken into two divisions, Muller said. Kyu division runs from 10th degree to first degree. Beginners or white belts range from 10th to sixthkyu, green belts range from fifth
to third kyu and brown belts range from third to first kyu.
After first brown a man who earns the black belt enters the dan division. Degrees in dan range from one through 10. Muller, who is a first degree black belt, said the highest a man can earn through actual achievement is fourth degree. After that, he
said, degrees are honorary.
"It takes, however, a minimum of two years to earn a black belt," Muller said.
In the past two years, there has been a strong interest voiced by females in an all-women's self-defense course, Muller said.
"This course has proven successful since we started it." Muller said. "Many girls have come in telling how they used the techniques learned in class to defend themselves in situations as simple as putting off a fresh boyfriend."
The women do not learn karate alone, but a combination of self-defense techniques involving judo, akido and other martial arts as well.
Watch out for the little guy
Most students start their instruction in Karate to learn self-defense. They learn that to defend themselves they do not have to be physically large.
It's harder than it looks
Students in the KU Karate Club find the movements their instructor made look so easy an