Karate and hockey on Nuns’ Island: the complete sport, off the ice

01The short answer

02The second sport, as far from the ice as possible

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. Sport for Life, the Canadian long-term development body, puts it another way: early specialization makes no sense if the aim is healthy, lifelong participation rather than the podium. For a hockey family the question is therefore not one of choosing: it is one of finding a second sport that does not redo what the ice already does.

Skating imposes a way of standing: knees bent, the weight carried by a blade, balance kept up by movement. At the dojo none of that is available. You have to move forward, pivot and stop on a mat, feeling where the body’s weight is, and hold stances that go nowhere. Basic techniques are practised left and right, with no stick side. The vocabulary is new too — stances, blocks, strikes and kicks carry Japanese names that sink in over a few weeks of hearing them; Kyokushin techniques describes that catalogue.

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. The dojo holds technique, conditioning and flexibility in the same hour, and grades them together at the examination. That is the sense in which karate is complete: nothing needs adding on the side for it to hold up.

The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities gives each described activity a MET value — a multiple of the energy spent at rest. Ice hockey is listed at 8.0 and skating in general at 7.0; karate at a moderate pace is at 10.3, and a beginner’s slower practice at 5.3. These values 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. A parent who wants their child to keep fit between two ice seasons finds a full hour here — Kyokushin body conditioning says what it contains.

04A hockey bag, and nothing to prepare for the trial

Hockey families know the bag, the drying, the sharpening and the pre-game logistics. The contrast is worth stating: for a karate trial class there is nothing to prepare. Comfortable clothes, a bottle of water, trimmed toenails. The karategi is bought only once the decision is made, and protective gear later still, after first asking the instructor what the child’s group actually uses. And if the parent who waits at the arena feels like joining in, the pricing page publishes family rates.

05The ice season, and the other one

An ice season takes the winter, with weekday practices and weekend games. Adding an activity in the middle of all that is rarely a good idea. Spring and summer, when the ice stops, are the obvious moment: the American Academy of Pediatrics report quoted above also recommends breaks from the main sport during the year, and that is precisely where a second sport takes its place. The child keeps a regular appointment, and within a few weeks you will see whether they want to carry on in the autumn, alongside the ice.

06Hockey keeps its coach

The stride, stickhandling and reading a shift are learned on the ice, and this page does not promise a harder shot. There is also one thing it will never do: present karate as preparation for hockey contact. Hockey’s contact rules are learned at hockey, with hockey coaches, and nothing taught at the dojo justifies anything done on the ice. Kumite is practised under karate’s rules, with the instructor’s permission and not otherwise — What is Kyokushin kumite? says how it is introduced and graded.

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.