Karate and gymnastics on Nuns’ Island: what the dojo adds beside the apparatus

01The short answer

02Two sports, two calendars

In Long-Term Athlete Development (Human Kinetics, 2013), Istvan Balyi, Richard Way and Colin Higgs separate early specialization sports — mostly acrobatic and artistic sports, such as diving, figure skating and gymnastics — from late specialization sports, which are practically all the others, combat sports included. Karate Canada, which governs Olympic-style karate and not Kyokushin, classifies karate the same way in its development model: an early introduction, late specialization sport, where peak performance comes in the mid-twenties.

For a gymnastics family, that means two things. Karate does not ask you to choose early: it can sit alongside, taking nothing away from the club. And it stays open later: a child who cuts back on gymnastics at 11 or 13 can start at the dojo as a white belt and follow the same belt programme as everyone else. The American Academy of Pediatrics writes, in its 2016 clinical report on sports specialization, that participating in multiple sports, at least until puberty, decreases the chances of injuries, stress and burnout in young athletes. Starting karate at 8, 10 or 12 says what awaits a child who begins at that age.

03A complete programme, in the same hour

What the hour contains is written down. In the WKO Shinkyokushinkai first-year textbook, an examination covers kihon, ido geiko, kata, conditioning (knuckle push-ups, jumping squats), flexibility and kumite. A gymnast will recognize at least two of those six subjects: flexibility and bodyweight strength count at the dojo as they do in the gym. The rest — basic strikes and blocks, footwork, partner work — is what the apparatus does not ask for.

The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities gives each described activity a MET value — a multiple of the energy spent at rest. Gymnastics in general is listed at 3.8, trampoline at 6.3 recreationally and 10.3 in competition; karate at a moderate pace is at 10.3, and a beginner’s slower practice at 5.3. These values, measured in adults, describe an activity as it was observed, not your class or your game: a beginners’ class is closer to karate’s 5.3 at a slower pace than to 10.3. The figure measures effort, not difficulty: no table scores a somersault. Kyokushin body conditioning says what the hour holds on that side.

04What a gymnast finds again, and what is new

A lot is familiar. Bare feet and the mat. A form fixed in advance, learned by repetition and presented to someone who scores it: that is kata, which What is Kyokushin kata? explains. Jumps, too: tobi mae geri, a jumping front kick, is in the green belt programme. But a kata is not a floor routine: no music, no acrobatic element to place, and every movement in it counts as a strike or a block against an imagined opponent.

What is new is the person in front of you. In gymnastics, even in acrobatic gymnastics where people work in groups, a partner lifts or is lifted; at the dojo, part of the hour is spent facing someone whose movements you have to read — striking, blocking, keeping distance. That work does not arrive all at once: it is introduced in stages, and kumite is allowed only when the Sensei gives permission or the instruction. Another dojo habit: every basic technique is practised left and right, and the kata run through both sides.

05The club calendar

A gymnastics club has its busy weeks: the ones before a competition, or the end-of-session show where there is one. That is not the time to add a sport. The better moment is the break between two sessions, or the end of the competition season: the dojo keeps its classes going all year, and the trial is free and commits you to nothing. For a child who already goes to the gym several times a week, one karate class a week is a start; the trial is mostly there to see whether they want to come back.

06Gymnastics keeps its coach

Skills on the apparatus, landings, the coach’s spotting and the expression of a routine are learned at the club, and this page does not promise a better floor score. Gymnastique Québec oversees seven disciplines — women’s and men’s artistic, trampoline sports, rhythmic, acrobatic, gymnastics for all and parkour — and none of them is part of the karate classes. What the dojo brings is of another kind: strikes, blocks, and a partner who reacts — What is Kyokushin kumite? says how that work is introduced and graded. The questions parents ask before a first class have their own page: Kyokushin for kids.

07On Nuns’ Island, in practice

The dojo is at 550 chemin du Golf, suite 010, on Nuns’ Island (Verdun), and also serves LaSalle, Pointe-Saint-Charles and the Sud-Ouest. Children train from age 4 to 13, adults from 14, five days a week: the schedule gives the groups and times, the pricing page the monthly rates.

The first class is a free trial, and there is nothing to buy beforehand: comfortable clothes and a bottle of water are enough — what to bring to your first class has the list.

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