Practice Karate a home?

Question

How can I set up a little karate practice area for me and my two little siblings. Just using the usual house hold stuff like pillows and food and stuff. I would really appreciate lists of items that I'd need and then how to set them up. We go to a karate class so we want to practice between classes. Any ideas? Please Help!!!!!!

Answer 1

My Ishin Ryu instructor told me that the karate man doesn't need big money equipment to reap great benefits and 20 years later I still agree with him. A pair of focus mitts are pretty cheap and very useful. If you don't want to go to the expense of buying good mats for the floor check into carpet remenants they sell them real cheap and it is some protection especially over concrete floors like in a basement. You can fold a pillow to take some of the cushion out of it and then wrap it in duct tape for use as a small kicking shield or focus mitt. You can make a conditioning bag if you have reached a level where you are ready to start doing knuckle and feet conditioning to toughen up your striking surfaces. All you need to make a conditioning bag would be some sort of canvas or even paper bag, some sand depending on how big a bag you want to make, some plastic and duct tape. Take your bag and put your sand in (depending on what size you want to make it) fold the bag over and roll it down to squeeze most of the air out and compact the sand a bit. You don't want to make it too solid especially since you sound pretty young and are going to have younger siblings training with you. You you have it somewhat compacted, but still a little loose wrap it in plastic or just start wrapping it in duct tape. As you go keep it loose at first and then slowly tighten. Again if this is your first conditioning bag don't get carried away with making it too solid, take it a bit at a time. The idea of a conditioning bag is that you want to be able to hit it or kick it fairly hard and not hurt your weapon. Slowly over time you can make a new one and make it tighter and harder as your hands and feet become conditioned and toughen up. Again if you wanted to you could make a small bag or even a big bag out of household items if you have the space and the time. In my basement I have a 6'6" heavy bag that weights over 200 lbs that I made 9 or 10 years ago and it still holding up great. For it; I filled a 5 gallon bucket with concrete and set a 4" x 4' steel post in it, then drove a 4x4 that I had trimmed the edges off of down into it to get to a height of 6'. Then I put an eyelet in the end of the 4x4 so i could run a peice of bungy rope out the top to attach to the beam in my basement to hold it up straight. This gave me a core to start with and from there I wrapped the whole thing under the bottom to all the way over the top with carpet and carpet padding that I had got for next to nothing from a carpet store. After I added a couple of layers I would wrap it in duct tape to tighten it down and then start adding more carpet and pad. My end result cost me maybe $40 bucks and has outlasted 5 or 6 good quality heavy bags (as in Everlast and Fairtex) and it doesn't have to be hung it is a standing bag. If you wanted to do one that you could hang, make a big sand bag or a few and then wrap them in carpet and padding as described and then use duct tape to hold it together and tighten it all down. Good luck to you!!! If you decise to do the hanging bag by the way I highly recommend using multiple sand bags in the core otherwise over time all the sand will work it's way to the bottom and the bottom will start to feel rather like concrete and the top will just get softer.

Answer 2

how about you just find an open area and spar with each other at home.

if you really need to buy some cheap used throw mats but that might be excessive if all you are practicing is striking techniques and you are actively attending classes.

there are a number of places that sell refurbished mats as well but you have to see what kind of space you have- i get the feeling you don't have much.

Answer 3

I think that's a really cool idea. Here, here's something that might help, it's at my favorite website of all time:

Answer 4

That's a great idea.  You should practice every day if you can.  One axiom in martial arts is that you need to practice a move 10,000 times before you truly know it.  If you do the math, that's 10 times a day, every day, for just over three years.

If you have a backyard or patio, that's a great area to practice.  No furniture, lamps, etc. to get damaged and no one staring at you.

If  you must practice inside, then clear the room and take off your shoes (you don't want a shoe to come off during a kick and end up through a window).  Don't worry about fancy equipment, you can get enough of a work out by practicing kata and kihon.  If you need weapons practice indoors, pantomime the weapon and work on your stances, balance, breathing, etc.  

If you don't have a large area to practice in, work on your kihon.  One great kata you can do in very limited space is "Ten No Kata."  If you don't know it, ask your instructor.