AI Karate Coach
Film your kumite on your phone. DARCE reads the punches, the kicks, the distance and the footwork that sets them up, then hands you a breakdown and the one habit to take back to the dojo.
From kumite footage to your next fix.
- 01
Film
Record a kumite round on your phone, in class or at an open session, and pick Striking when you upload. One fixed angle is enough: no rig, no markers, no sensors.
Round 02 · 01:20 · single angle
- 02
Analyze
DARCE reads your lead and reverse punches, your roundhouse kicks and the range you throw them from.
19 exchanges · 12 entries read
- 03
Breakdown
See which entries landed and which got countered, and the habit behind it: the shoulder that dips before the reverse punch, the back foot that stays planted on the way out.
Weakest: telegraphed cross
- 04
Drill
It hands you the one fix to drill next, like a cleaner entry off the front foot, tied to the exchange where your entry gave itself away.
Drill next: jab entries
Built for kumite, not kata.
- Technique library
- 31 striking techniques mapped step by step, from straight punches to the roundhouse kick, inside a library of 90+.
- Weakness detection
- Find the tell in your entry before your opponent’s counter finds it.
- Personalized drills
- Fixes from your own kumite, each tied to the exchange that showed it, not the next set of kihon.
- Progress tracking
- Every round you upload moves your Fighter IQ, shown against your own average, so you can see your kumite sharpen over a season.
- In and out
- Kumite is a game of distance, so the read follows the distance as it opens and closes, not just the strike.
- In your pocket
- Your round, broken down on your phone, to watch back before your next class.
The punches and kicks of kumite, in the striking library
Each technique is mapped step by step.
Key facts about DARCE
- DARCE analyses a filmed round of live sparring, read position by position across the whole round, in BJJ, wrestling, striking and MMA, and the same four analyses read sparring in Muay Thai, kickboxing, judo, sambo, no-gi grappling and other martial arts.
- The analysis is not limited to a technique list: it names what happens in the round from a vocabulary of 260+ positions, moves and finishes across the four martial arts, while the 90+ technique library is a separate step-by-step reference you can read free on darce.app.
- A DARCE breakdown has four parts: a round summary of who controlled the round and where it turned, a position timeline mapped to the second, the key moments that decided it, and up to 3 fixes, each tied to the moment it happened with one line on why.
- A breakdown is usually ready one to two minutes after the upload finishes.
- Film on your phone from a single fixed angle, in landscape, at about chest height for stand-up and higher, angled down, for rolling; no rig, sensors or markers are needed, and a round of up to 2 minutes can be analysed.
- DARCE is a mobile app for iOS and Android with no web or desktop version; it is in private beta, onboarding the first 50 founding testers from the waitlist at darce.app/join, and is not yet publicly downloadable.
- DARCE is free for founding testers during the beta, and pricing after the beta has not been announced.
Questions before you start.
Can an AI really coach karate?
It will not replace your sensei, and it does not try to. What it gives you is the film review most karateka never get: a clear read on your kumite and one habit to work on, so your time in the dojo goes further.
Does DARCE score kumite points or grade kata?
No. It is not a judge, so it raises no flags and awards no points. It reads your sparring, the punches, kicks, distance and footwork, and it does not grade kata or belts.
What footage do I need?
Just your phone. A single fixed angle of a live sparring round is enough. No rig, no sensors, no markers.
What does it cost?
Founding testers get free access through the beta. Pricing comes later, and early testers will have a say in it.