How to Do Karate in the Garage

A garage can be the perfect personal karate dojo, or practice room. It's symmetrical, it's isolated from distractions in the kitchen or living room, and it may have more open space than other rooms in the house, depending on what you keep in there. The car can always be backed out into the driveway during training sessions. As long as the space is at least 10 feet by 10 feet, you have enough room to practice karate, according to MMA Village. A garage is also more likely to have rafters or beams that are at least 10 feet off the ground and high enough to suspend a punching bag.

Things You'll Need

  • Broom or vacuum cleaner
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Instructions

    • 1

      Sweep or vacuum the ground. You should go barefoot for karate training, so it's important to make sure there are no nails, screws, twigs or other items that can cut or scratch your foot. Dirt, sand, small particles and water or moisture can cause you to slip.

    • 2

      Condition your feet on the hard, cold floor. Many martial arts institutions across the country have wood floors. One of the reason is because the heels, blades and balls of the foot become tougher if they are exposed to a harder surface regularly. A cold concrete or cement floor also works for pounding feet into shape as weapons.

    • 3

      Familiarize yourself with the space you have available and establish a training regiment based on that. Again, a 10-foot-by-10-foot space is enough to practice punches, stances and kicks. Katas (rehearsed form that simulates a fight) may require several steps or jumps in a few different directions, though there are also katas specific to confined spaces.

    • 4

      Decide what accessories you want in your dojo. You'll need to place punching bag more toward the middle of the room and allow it a few feet of clearance in each direction. Depending on the garage's size and fixtures, mirrors and a television/DVD player for watching training videos are other possibilities.