Honest review: Karate is brilliant but the split between traditional and sport karate schools is real

Karate has been one of the best decisions I've made for my fitness and mental health. The oi-zuki lunge punch and the deeper kihon basics keep training mentally engaging in a way the gym never did.

But I want to be honest: the split between traditional and sport karate schools. Nobody told me about that before I started and it caught me off guard. Invest in proper gi (karategi) early — again, something I wished I'd done sooner. kumite opening up after basics click came later than I expected but when it arrived it was worth the wait. Four stars rather than five because of that one persistent issue.