The first thing is my self-defense. The self-defense moves had gotten harder and more useful in real life situation. Self- defense has taught me how to defend myself and how to get stronger with such moves. To know those moves I had to train and not just fool around, and I had to put effort into my training not just memorization.
Next are my katas.Katas are different than self-defense because you put effort into, but also a lot of memorization. Katas train your speed and strength. You also need to have strong stances to get a kata correct. That’s why katas got harder throughout time.
After that are speed and strength. Speed and strength are the keys to be a great karateist. Speed and strength are also key in sparring. Sparring is the most important thing to karate so speed and strength are the same with sparring. You also need speed in fights not to get hit but to move around your opponent. Strength is also needed in fights because if someone is bigger and stronger that you then you probably want to have strength to fight back. Strength though is hard to get. If you want to get strong it takes years not just to hit a punching bag but to train in every way like kicking and punching a bag with the most force you have. You also get strength by keeping yourself fit by doing crunches, sit-ups, leg lifts, pushups with and without using your knuckled.
Last but not least is the main purpose of karate, sparring. Sparring helps train you to know how to defend yourself from an attacking opponent. To be a good sparrer you need to have strength and agility. You need agility to move away from attacker and strength just incase to fight back. That is my essay about what I have learned since I got my black belt.