IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE

The aim of this article is to present the motives of students practising shōtōkan karate-dō with reference to the theory of the somatic culture patterns. The main research problem was to check which patterns of somatic culture were preferred the most and which the least by examining the motivations of karate-dō students. It had been assumed that the most preferred pattern is the positive aesthetic pattern of self-fulfillment, whereas the least preferred is the hedonistic pattern. Additionally, it had been assumed that karate-dō is practised for hygienic reasons. To test the proposed hypotheses 15 IDI (individual in-depth interviews) were conducted using a questionnaire prepared by the author. The interviewees were selected by the purposive sampling method. As a result of conducted research, it turned out that students practise karate-dō mainly because of the need for moral and spiritual development. Thus, it was concluded that the positive aesthetic pattern of self-fulfillment is the predominant one among the research group, whereas hedonistic and hygienic motivations are less noticeable. The reason for this is the considerable average time of practising karate-dō in the research group (9 years), which indicates higher awareness of its spiritual and moral value.