[Aerich]

I can tell you a fair bit about Karate-do. Like cocobolomike, I studied Shotokan, but only for a total of 11 years. Injuries and time constraints take their toll. However, not attending classes does not mean that I do not still consider myself a student.

"Do" roughly translates as "Way" or "Path", in a metaphysical as well as physical sense. "Kara" means "empty" or "bare", and "Te" means "hand" or "fist". Thus, the whole translates to Way of the Empty Hand (e.g. weaponless). There are scores of philosophical concepts underpinning this meaning. In case the club you are thinking of joining is Shotokan, "kan" means "house" or "school", and "Shoto" means "waving pines". Shoto was the pen-name of the founder of modern karate, Gichin Funakoshi, who wrote poetry.

You will find, if you join a club and train long enough, that all martial arts have distinct similarities, and that all martial artists are attempting self-perfection - different paths leading to the same goal.

It has been stated before that all martial arts are defensive. That is generally true. In all my years of training and since, I have only had to fight once. However, I have extricated myself from at least a dozen potentially violent situations without a blow, due to attitude, posture, readiness, and all the other things that signal to an aggressor that starting to mix it up would be a bad idea.

Martial arts are broadly divisible into "hard" and "soft" techniques. Karate, kung-fu, and tai kwan do use harder, striking techniques. Tai chi, judo, and aikido use softer techniques such as joint locks. Kendo and iaido are martial arts based on sword technique. Don't get too excited about that, as Japanese swordsmanship is much different from the movies, and they probably won't even let you touch a real sword before year three.

Karate is a good martial art to start with. It has a good mix of blocking techniques, hand strikes, and kicks, while not totally ignoring softer techniques. It does tend to be quite linear, both in technique and in training. Ask if you can watch a couple of classes this summer before you join. The vast majority of clubs will allow potential students to observe.