Though still rather exhausted by its mighty move into tiddlywinks last year, Harvard's ever-expanding sports program will take another historic stride in the next few weeks when the Karate Club is formally organized. The Club, which will be open to all undergraduates, will usher Harvard into the extremely elite circle of American universities which have karate organztaions, and may indeed be the first formally organized college karate club in the nation.

Founders of the organization hope that in addition to spreading the karate (pronounced kah-RA-tay) discipline, they will be able to dispel the mystery and misconceptions which usually envelop the sport in America. For, contrary to popular opinion, karate is not the science of breaking boards with a bare hand, does not involve any particular toughening of the hand as a weapon, and, in fact, does not consider the hand any more important than any other part of the body.

The instructor of the Harvard group, and a real devotee of the sport, William Zachmann, contends that "true" karate is a total mental and physical system. And while he feels that karate is the best system of self-defense available, he insists that it is primarily a system of general conditioning and coordination.

Karate History

Karate as a discipline has much in common with gymnastics, Yoga, modern dance, and zen, tracing its ancestry back to the sixth century Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma. As a result, the breathing techniques and many of the exercises employed are identical to ones used in Yoga, and are very similar to exercises used in the other three disciplines.

The skills and abilities which these exercises impart to the individual are not the type which require any exceptional or inborn ability. Since one of the primary goals of the sport is the development of balance and coordination, there is no question of "aptitude" for athletics either. Karate initiates even minimize the importance of physical fitness or build in the beginner.

A Pure Form

In keeping with Harvard's tradition of intellectual purity and perfection, the Club here will teach Okinawan Uechi-Ryu (pronounced oo-AY-chee ryoo) Karate, a style which adheres closely to the form of discipline as it was taught by the Buddhist monks. (The type of karate which emphasizes board-breaking and other such stunts is a Japanese corruption of the real thing.)