Karate is not only about learning how to do Blocks and Punches. There is a certain amount of etiquette or protocol that I’ve been able to pick up. It’s how I would imagine the military to be like, and probably why karate is popular with ex-military, police, etc. Although I’ve never been in the military it reminds me of being in marching band in high school; very disciplined and a lot of organized movements.
Below are some of the protocols of our Tang Soo Do Karate classroom. Of course, this may differ from other forms of Karate.
- Upon entering or leaving the class, you should turn towards the classroom and bow. The bow represents a respectful gesture to the place of learning.
- When a Grand Master or Master belt enters the room, the instructors stop the class to have the whole class acknowledge the Grand Master or Master belt by bowing to them. Bow in Korean is "Kyung Yet".
- When a student is late to class and the class is already in session, they are to wait until the instructor tells them it is ok to enter.
- At the beginning of class, you line up according to belt rank. Higher belts start at the front of the class from the instructor’s left side to the right side.
- After the instructor tells us to be ready by saying “Choon Be”, the students need to stand in the ready position until the instructor tells them what is to be done and then to begin it. An instructor demonstrated one day, what it feels like to stand at attention for two minutes. Stating that in Korea they would often have to stand at attention for hours. It’s not as easy as you would think.
- During class, students wait to ask questions until the instructors ask if there are any. Then they can ask a question. The instructors often stop students and ask if this a question or a statement. Statements are to be saved until after class.
- A lower belt instructor can’t show new karate forms to novices unless a higher belt has told them to or the higher belt has already started to teach them the form.
- When moving around the lines in the classroom, you need to go behind the line and to the end of the line to leave the line. You’re not to cross through the line or in front of the line. I think this is for safety as well as respect.
- At the end of class, the instructor tells the class something to the effect that it was nice teaching you today and the students reply by thanking them for teaching us. Of course, this is all in Korean and I’m not quite sure of the exact wording.
If you know of other bits of Etiquette, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list. Otherwise, I’ve added some links to some other sites that have similar information about protocols in the classroom.
