You said, "... crazy flips I see in demonstration videos". I don't know what kind of videos you are watching, but I can tell you that it sounds like total crap to me. I have been involved in both Karate and Jujitsu longer than most of the people answering have been alive. And in no legitimate school of any martial art having I seen any 360 spins, crazy flips (as you call them), or acrobatics.
The legitimate martial arts are difficult enough to learn and develop skills in. The idea of anything fancy or unnecessary is just stupid. Anyone that wants to risk their life can learn acrobatic moves. It might impress someone, but will get you killed fighting anyone that can really fight.
Sounds to me like you need to find another Dojo to train in....
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Karate does not do gymnastics, nor is there a any kick that goes more then 360 degrees there are spinning kicks that can be very useful at the right time.
Karate contains grappling, striking, stand up and ground. When you train right all you need is one style.
If your doing gymnastics and 720 kicks that's not karate
You should be able to learn to do it if wanted to at the age of 20. But if your focus is to be effective in combat it is not necessary to master that technique. If you must learn it for a grade then learn it more as a conditioning training to work out the leg muscles and train your balance.
"gymnast karate" is not karate. It is for show and fitness.
Karate, and all martial art do not even consider gymnastic.
They are for protection, not for show.
At no point should you do a 360 spin in a martial arts class. Those my friend are fake martial arts techniques that will get you killed in a street fight. Also, you say you see 360 spins in Jiu-jitsu? Not in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, there aren't any. You may be unimpressed with BJJ, but go to a gym and train in and see if you can beat a blue belt your size (or smaller).
Karate in general won't make you a good fighter. Maybe if you start off with that as your base, and then move to something with real contact like mma or boxing/kickboxing/muaythai then yeah it would be effective. But if all your planning on doing is karate then it's better you go to the flashy school. Why do I say this you ask?
The only legit times you see a karate guy beating a boxer or anything thats full contact is when you can clearly see the boxer looks like he has no clue what he is doing.
However, learning all those fancy moves is good for movies and considering most people in america have NEVER been in a fight, why spend your time and MONEY on a art you would never use. I mean sure karate has tournaments but the contact there is nothing compared to the more main stream sports. I for example, started out doing taekwondo, I knew for a fact when I was in class that I hadn't learned ANYTHING that would let me defend myself.
Here is how it's gonna go down in your first few monthes of classes at a karate place. Your going to probably learn a basic front kick or round kick and the other lot of the time will be spent doing useless kata. You will be doing this for MONTHES! And after you fork out more money for your belt test then they may let you start sparring.
Here is how it's gonna go down at a boxing/mma gym. For the first few classes your going to start off learning your stance, your blocks, and how to punch. My first time at the school They put me right into it.For the warmup you either jump roped for about 20 min straight or you went on a 3 mile run, then they had us do hundreds of pushups and situps and squat jumps. afterwards They had me learning how to slip learned some movements some footwork then they put me on the double end bag for drilling. After the timer went off I went straight to the ring and we practice rolling(BJJ). And this is ALL on the first day I still had tons more things I had to learn, and in 6 monthes your sparring full contact.
I am no gymnast, and I've never been an acrobat, even weight-lifting is new to me.I recently enrolled in a karate class that I've been in for a number of weeks... I've been keeping in shape and I strive to learn the art in the realm of sparring, techniques and execution within combat (I'm interested in self-defense purposes about as much as combat scenarios.), though I can't imagine being able to do these crazy flips I see in demonstration videos. I like the gi more than boxer shorts. There can only be an advantage to knowing more than Karate &Jiu Jitsu, and even in these styles I've seen flipping happening. At what point is it necessary to be able to do 360°+ spins and is it possible to shape-up into being able to execute this starting at the age of 20?
