If you practice Karate at home where do you practice.

[opr1945]

If you practice at home (house) where exactly do you practice? I expect that answers will fall into several main categories:

1. Practice in the middle of a room set up and used for other purpose, i.e. family room

2. Practice in an area sort of reserved for karate practice but also used for other purposes, i.e. spare bedroom, garage stall with car removed.

3. Practice in an area with space dedicated to Karate practice, a home dojo, i.e. bedroom, garage stall, section of basement equipped with mirrors, posters, weapons, makiwara, punching bag, perhaps a Bob stand and other accoutrements of Karate.

If you answered number 3 please provide a brief description. Size (Square feet/ meters? ! square meter = 10.8 Sq. Ft.), mirrors, lights, flooring, heated, TN, DVD/video player etc. Pictures would be nice.
does your area have a name? Mini Dojo? Dojo-ette, Karate cave. Retreat, refuge, hide away?

I am thinking of setting up one stall in my two car garage for Karate practice. Looking for ideas. One issue for me is cold winter weather is starting here, Michigan, USA. High temperatures predicted in low 30 degrees Fahrenheit ( -1 degree in Celsius) for the next two weeks then colder until spring.

Thanks

 

[Badhabits]

My home practice area is in the woods on the back of my property. About a 30x30 foot area cleared out. Heavy bag, double end bag, makiwara, weight bench. Plenty of space to move around. Bugs are a pain but otherwise I love my little outdoor dojo. Practicing in the rain when it's warm is fun

 

[Dirty Dog]

3 car garage. Move the cars out.

 

[Blue Lotus]

I call it, "My Room."

It is on the 2nd floor of my house and is not perfect, especially since I am 5'10" and the ceiling is... not. But it is enough to do bodyweight training, partial form work, light to moderate heavy bag, etc. It gets cold here, too (Minnesota; 15F this morning and going to get much worse, soon).

I also have found that I spend a bit more time working in there now since I made it less Spartan and a bit more "cozy." I added the curtains as a visual cue for my nephew, as he almost went out the window while we were training. It is a happy accident that it helps me a bit too.

 

[opr1945]

awesome! thanks for the picture.

 

[Badhabits]

I'm disappointed more people didn't respond to this.

 

[opr1945]

Me too. 181 views and only 6 posts. And 2 of them were mine! Why the hesitancy to show what you have? Thanks.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

The best place to train is not indoor but outdoor. The hottest day of the summer and the coldest day of the winter are the best time to train outdoor.

冬練三九，夏練三伏 (“to carry out training in the coldest and the hottest parts of the year”).

 

[_Simon_]

Yeah I practice mainly in my lounge room on the hardwood floor for kihon/kata/exploration stuff (just moving my coffee table out of the way), and in my gym room for bagwork. Only a small gym room (3.5m x 3.5m maybe??), but it's just enough room if I move my weights bench out of the way (I usually push it up against the back wall, and pull my heavy bag forward more towards the centre).

 

[Old CJ]

I use the patio off the back door to my house. It's plenty big enough for Kata and 5 step. I keep a heavy trash sack over my Century Wavemaster when not in use. The patio is mostly shaded. The bummer is; the floor is stone so I need to wear shoes.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I practice in the middle of my office room. Only thing we've got in there are my computer desk, a small drink-mixing setup, bookshelves and storage. I'll move the storage stuff out to do open-handed practice, or knife work. If I'm practici lng with any larger weapons, I'll do that in the woods near my apartment complex where people won't see me and call the cops on a crazy person waving weapons around.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Side note: the cops getting called thing happened during covid, which is why I take it into account. We were training outdoors (due to covid), wearing our school t-shirt uniforms or hoodies, which were mostly black with a "tough" looking logo. Along with masks that were also black with the same logo on them. And mostly doing sword and stick work since, again, covid.

Mostly it was fine since it wasn't a popular area, and the people in the area knew about the dojo and what we were doing. Then a new supermarket opened on the opposite end of the parking lot. By the end of the first class after it opened, the police were there about multiple calls of a terrorist group/militia/political bogeyman/etc. training weapons and intimidating people. If i remember right, the cops stayed the rest of that session and possibly the next couple just to ward off concerned citizens.

 

[Hot Lunch]

I do it out in the backyard. I live in a one story three-bedroom house that has about the same square footage as three-bedroom flat, so I don't have much room to do anything indoors.

 

[isshinryuronin]

I don't have much room to do anything indoors.

A 6'x8' space (or even less) should be plenty of room to practice basics and two full step combinations including a kick. Even kata can be done within these confines. The "secret" is doing a switch step: From a left lead stance, instead of taking a full right step forward, bring the left foot back next to the right foot then step with the right. This gives you the stance change while remaining in place. The distance can be fine-tuned by not stepping back quite as far or adding a small slide step.

I believe the switch step was much more common in karate pre-WWII, not necessarily for distance control in a small space, but as a tactical fighting move with several applications such as confusing the opponent as to your distance or your intended direction and for use with/as a feint.

Even weapons kata can be done in a small space by using this switch step or using a shorter version of your weapon or no weapon at all in a pinch. I think practicing weapons forms without the weapon is an excellent training method. It allows you to focus on your fine technical body motion which I've noticed is often neglected as one is thinking of the weapon too much, relying on it to do all the work.

I went to the park this morning to practice bo and sai kata - one still needs to do the "big" execution without worrying about the lamp or TV.

 

[opr1945]

here is mine in progress. Will be approx. 8' x11', If you look close you can see makawara and my sons weights. weights are way to heavy for me. TV with dvd player and Karate dvds. mirrors. Part of my garage. I plan on adding heat since winter has begun here. Yeah, I know wimp. actually, short, fat old guy with medical issues. But still upright and walking.

 

[Buka]

I consider any kind of exercise, rehab, stretch or research of a Martial Art to be part of my Martial training. That includes reading on this forum.

If somebody told me thirty years ago that I would be able to talk to people from all over the world from a computer and/or a portable phone, to write, read, see photos or film of whatever Martial Art they practice, I’d ask for some of whatever they were smoking.

So…I use whatever part of the house I was in. Over the years in different places I’ve lived it’s been the back yard, the cellar, the living room etc.

Heck, I used to spar with Joe Lewis in my garage. Except in the cold, we’d use the kitchen, which was really small. (He was pitching, I was catching.) And thank God he was a nice man.

 

[Cri70]

In summer, my terrace. In winter my living room.

 

[opr1945]

Counting my in process project there are only 3 practice areas posted. I was hoping for more pictures. We can get ideas from what we see others doing.

 

[Cri70]

Didn't post a pic of my living room because, well, mine are just a plain decked terrace and a normal living room, with no special features.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I didn't post pictures. It's a garage. What's there to see?