The New Student Starter Kit

Congratulations! You are officially a kareteka. It's often been said that the hardest part about starting something is "starting" -- so we have some helpful links to accelerate your beginning.

Osu.

Welcome to the dojo!

The absolute best way to start training is to.... take your first class.

Come to class as often as you can, especially at the beginning, to begin a momentum and rhythm for training. Take as many different classes as you can, and start to meet some of the amazing and wonderful karateka who train at our dojo!

Everything else – all of the material here on GOJUKARATE.COM, all the downloads and videos and audio in the Goju Students section – all of that stuff is very helpful.

But none of it is a substitute for walking into the dojo, going to the locker rooms, putting on your uniform (your Gi) for the first time, and then walking out onto the dojo floor.

If you registered and paid tuition here on GOJUKARATE.COM, don't forget to come into the dojo a little early before your first class to buy your gi. Typically, the cost of a gi for an adult is about $35 and for children around $30 – Goju Karate is a non-profit organization (read more here) and sells equipment and uniforms at wholesale cost. You'll also receive your white rank belt when you get your uniform (there is no cost for your rank belt).

If you registered at the Front Desk at the dojo, you already have your gi. Don't forget to bring it and your white rank-belt with you to your first class!

To help you get started, here's a few things that might be of interest:

Your Student Account

Your online account at GOJUKARATE.COM has been updated with your status as a student. To access it, simply login using the email address you specified at registration and follow the prompts to either create or update your password, or to receive a login link. (If you registered online, you probably are already logged-in.)

If you have any trouble accessing the student parts of the GOJUKARATE.COM please contact us — we're always happy to help and always pleased to get emails and contact requests from students!

Helpful Pages on GOJUKARATE.COM

First, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the regular class schedule:

Please make particular note of the TODAY@GOJU section: it has an always up-to-date class schedule that takes into account holidays, etc. If you're wondering "is there a class today" then that's where you want to go look.

Then also check out the Event Calendar (if it's the beginning of the year, please note that the full annual calendar generally comes out around mid-January):

As a final note, that Calendar Section has a handy link to add the Event Calendar to your iPhone, MacOS, or iPad device, or to your Google Calendar — and it automatically updates!

One more note on classes: Goju Karate offers LiveCast classes several times a week at different times. If you're traveling or can't make it to the dojo, you can also take classes online via live-streaming. (This is included in everyone's basic tuition – there is no additional cost for this). Find out more here:

Some Early Reading

Here are some helpful links to the website pages you might want to look at soon — this can be overwhelming at the beginning, so please take your time and look at them when you can. The most important thing is to come to class as often as you can – all of this material will make more sense when you are actually training regularly!

Your Syllabus is the outline and quick reference for everything you are learning at your rank. Your first syllabus would the be 10th Kyu White Belt Adult syllabus. (Confused about ranks? Read more here.)

You’ll note that the syllabi lists concepts and ideas in karatedō to learn — you can find most of them in the Karatedō section on the website (there is a handy Search 🔍 function on every page of GOJUKARATE.COM that you can use to get to the article that you want easily).

In addition to downloading your syllabus from the Kihon (basics) section, you should also look at the Dojo Kata handout in the Kata section (that'll be the first kata you'll learn):

And if you'd like to practice something that'll have some very long-term benefits, take a look at the videos for the Junbi Undo (that's the basic stretching we do before most classes):

And finally, you might be wondering what this "Osu" expression is all about. Here's an article that'll give you a start on understanding the concept:

Get Started

That's enough to get you started.... check out the Class Schedules and get ready for your first class. We're excited to have you as part of our dojo community and we can't wait to see you on the dojo floor!