After grading in November, I am now starting the 2010 year of Wado Kai karate as a yellow belt! Last class I was introduced to a new kata: Pinan Nidan. I observed this kata being performed by yellow belts before, but now I actually got to do it. 
After training the basic Kihon kata as a white belt, the Pinan marks my first step into training some advanced kata.
The Toronto Wado Kai karate dojo is focused on teaching techniques that can be used for self-defense, more so than training specifically for tournaments. The Toronto dojo still participates in tournaments, as we practice the basic karate techniques; however, training focused on self-defense exposes us to techniques otherwise not allowed at tournaments. You could say we train primarily for the streets, in which case the focus is on survival, and not necessarily a fair fight. For instance, in a sequence of take-down techniques, hitting below the belt can be an early step you perform to distract your opponent while you proceed with a joint lock to control the opponent and finally take him down. The students at our dojo are also exposed to a variety of self-defense techniques belonging to other martial arts, such as Judo.
Karate training is an excellent way to stay in shape and a great way to stay sane after hours of coding. To anyone sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time, I extremely recommend getting involved in a physically and mentally rewarding activity, whatever that may be. Going to the gym is obviously an excellent way to stay in shape, but I find that lifting weights alone gets boring very quickly, unless you have something else to occupy your mind with. This is not to say that gym is not useful; often times the karate training alone is not enough to keep my endurance up in all cases, so additional cardio work is always welcome. Though, as a single activity, karate is one that balances mental and physical challenges very well.
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