Karate and volleyball on Nuns’ Island: what the dojo adds on the other side of the net

01The short answer

02What the dojo adds for a volleyball player

Face to face. Volleyball is a net sport: you read the opponent, you never touch them. Karate is a contact sport under rules: in kumite the partner is in front and does not cooperate — they are trying to land their technique before yours. It is another way of learning to read someone; What is Kyokushin kumite? explains how that work is introduced, graded and supervised.

Both arms. Volleyball hits with two hands or one hand above the head; karate works blocks and strikes left and right, at body height, with the hip behind them. That is not a promise about your attack: it is something other than what the body does on court.

Rotation. Six players on court, the others wait; the serve rotates. At the dojo, everyone performs every technique for the whole hour, first to last in the line.

03A complete programme, in the same hour

What the hour contains is described in advance. In the WKO Shinkyokushinkai first-year textbook, an examination covers kihon, ido geiko, kata, conditioning (knuckle push-ups, jumping squats), flexibility and kumite. Where a volleyball practice is built around the ball, the dojo hour is built around the body: basics, moving, the form, conditioning, flexibility, the partner. Six subjects, one hour, one examination.

The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities gives each described activity a MET value — a multiple of the energy spent at rest. Competitive volleyball in a gymnasium is listed at 6.0 and recreational volleyball at 3.0; 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. On this page karate’s value is the highest, and even a beginner’s slower practice is above recreational volleyball — Kyokushin body conditioning says what fills the hour.

04For a junior: the second sport

If it is your teenager who plays, the argument changes. 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. Volleyball is played as a team, with two hands, across a net; karate is practised barefoot, alone in the middle of a group, facing a partner. A teenager who does both is not doing the same thing twice — and Kyokushin for kids answers parents’ questions.

05The gym season, and summer

If your season is the gym season, summer is free — beach volleyball takes over for some, not for all. The off-season is the simple moment to try; the dojo is open five days a week all year, and Is twice a week enough? says what a school or work timetable can hold.

06Volleyball keeps its coach

Setting, passing, serving, blocking and reading an attack are learned at the gym, and this page does not promise a better jump at the net. What karate brings, it brings as its own: a technical catalogue, a partner within arm’s reach, and a form to present — Kyokushin karate belts says in what order.

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.