With her fists up, ready to strike the wooden board with a flying kick sophomore Kaitlyn Lozada runs toward the board, jumps with her foot extended and boom: it cracks in half.

When she was little, Lozada practiced karate with her older sister, but took a break from it. When her younger sister started the martial art three weeks ago, Lozada resumed her karate training, going to the dojo four times a week. She practices with her sister outside of the dojo using punching bags at home. Shealso plans to get her friends to do karate with her.

“I saw that my little sister went out to learn something new and she was actually having fun with it, so it motivated me to join her and have an experience [that involves something fun],” Lozada said. “It was a good choice and I always feel accomplished about myself while practicing karate.”

At the dojo, Lozada focuses on the form and technique of her punches and kicks, which are the fundamentals of karate. She also works on footwork for sparring such as how to move around the sparring mat and how to use her legs to prepare herself for offensive or defensive moves.

“I feel karate is good for me because it gets me active and out of the house, which is nice,” Lozada said. “I even broke a board once while I was at home by punching it and that was a memorable moment.”

One move Lozada enjoys are kicks, which have many variations based on stance, leg movement and the height of the kick. Her favorite is the roundhouse kick, where an individual brings up their leg and strikes in a sideways position by hitting their target with the instep of their foot.

“Kicking is my favorite part of karate. Because I would consider myself pretty flexible, I am able to kick high,” Lozada said. “I have a good sense of balance while doing the kick.I really like roundhouse kicks because they’re easy and effective.”

Since Lozada started practicing karate recently again, she is a white belt but plans to move her way up the belt system. She also plans to join a karate club in college as she builds up her skills. Lozada intends to use the karate skills she learns to defend herself from possible dangers in the future.

“Most of the time when I’m training for karate, I always focus on doing everything correctly,” Lozada said. “I like working out in general, but karate is a workout that I actually have motivation to go do and I love the people around me.”Ω