Practical Karate Archives

A matter of perspective

Perspective in martial arts, karate, self protection and self defence.

Picture a standard six-sided dice.

No doubt you have handled or seen one before. You know that it will be numbered with Arabic or Roman numerals or dots, a different number on each face. If you are particularly familiar with dice you might know that 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4 are on opposite faces.

Has it ever occurred to you that you know this because you have viewed or handled the dice from multiple perspectives?

If you place a six-sided dice on a surface, without moving either it or yourself, the most you can see at any one time is the top and two sides: three faces, only a half of the whole.

The nearer you get to the dice the more detail you can see, but when really looking closely you inevitably end up seeing only one face.

To see all of the dice you either have to exchange information with others who have different perspectives, or you have to take those different perspectives yourself. One might say that to understand it you have to throw it many times, or at least observe the process, perhaps learn from those who seem to be able to skew the odds by feeling the indentation of the dice with their fingertips or by using loaded dice.

I am not really talking about dice.

The same could be said for almost every facet of knowledge and experience. Taking multiple perspectives yourself and exchanging information with others leads to greater understanding, even if (to stretch the metaphor somewhat) some perspectives are skewed by cataracts or dirty glasses. That just means you need more sources of information.

Throughout my martial arts training I have read, watched, trained with and learned from instructors from multiple systems and backgrounds. Regardless of whether they were orientating what they did towards a particular competition format or to what they perceived to be appropriate self defence, they all had the common element that they were using the human body against another human. They had the same dice, just a slightly different perspective.

In similar vein, when it comes to how I teach and structure my syllabus I have not limited myself to solely following the example of my karate sensei but have taken on board lessons from my professional teaching qualification; my low and high ropes qualifications; the varied vocational instructor qualifications in self defence, conflict management, control and restraint; my first aid instructor qualifications; and the varied military instructor qualifications that I once held.

I continuously look to learn from other instructors and from disciplines beyond my own. I endeavour to share what I have learned with instructors and students through my books, seminars, videos and blog. I understand more from my interactions with them.

I do not imagine that I will ever reach the pinnacle of knowledge or best practice in my chosen field. The ever-growing sum of human knowledge continuously raises that peak. Rather I will actively pursue that through combining detailed study of my own perspective with information from others whose approaches either share the same view or take a different angle.

There is more than one side to the dice. If I want to focus on just a few, then to keep perspective I need the help of others with eyes that see differently to mine.

Hikite for Power? Pull the other one!

Discussions on hikite are like discredited political philosophies. You think that empirical evidence has consigned them to history and then they flare up again, fuelled by the ‘true believers’ devotion to outdated treatises or the misguided analyses of the long-dead.

2020 saw another such flare up with many prominent and respectable individuals in the practical karate spectrum voicing opinions. I chose to steer clear, not seeing the need to express an opinion on what I felt was obvious. I suspected that ‘Covid Boredom’ and mischief rather than ignorance may have been responsible for the topic crawling from the grave once more. At the request of Les Bubka (author of the thought provoking Anxious Black Belt) I’ve finally been coaxed into stating my views in time for Halloween.

Retracting one arm does not increase the speed and therefore the power of extending the other arm. Whether the (non-striking) arm is pulled back or already held at the hip or in front of the chest / face makes no difference to the velocity of the other hand. It may feel more powerful, but any empirical test with hundreds of experienced subjects from multiple disciplines striking impact measuring equipment will demonstrate that this is not the case.

BUT

Leaving one arm fully extended while striking with the other may limit hip, torso, chest and shoulder movement and thus striking arm extension, resulting in reduced speed and therefore reduced power. As a result, if you have an arm already extended you should bring it back to enable full body movement to generate a powerful strike with the other hand. It is not the retraction that makes the extension more powerful, it is not having the ‘non-functional’ arm extended that enables better muscle recruitment for power generation in the striking arm. The simplification of this to ‘pull the arm back for more power’ may have been lost in translation.

Pulling a target onto a strike will increase its speed at the point of impact (and therefore the energy transferred) as the speed in the force calculation is the sum of both the striking object and the target moving towards it. HOWEVER, the distances involved are so small that very little target speed is generated and the shortened distance made by the striking limb results in it achieving a lower speed and thus the overall effect (in terms of power) is negligible and may actually be less powerful. Far more significant is the effect of any pulling on the state of the target, since third party induced movement may result in loss of muscle tension resulting in the strike having a greater effect; furthermore seizing a target increases the chances of the strike hitting the target and may enable greater accuracy.

I hope that is simple enough to understand.

Sometimes I think my martial arts friends are pulling my leg.

The Kata teaching experiment

Last month I had the pleasure of teaching the Malta Karate Federation nine practical karate seminars over the course of six days. This was the fourth year that I had been visiting and so when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to test on a different group something I had found to be true on my own students.

On the Thursday night by request I introduced one of the core kata for my DART system students. I taught this in the manner I had originally learned kata in my original core style of Shotokan and how I had learned weapons kata in Aikido.

Teach a small sequence, repeat as necessary. Add another sequence, repeat… Once we’d done the sequence a few times I showed some ways to use that part of kata. Admittedly that wasn’t the way I was originally taught: I had to go out and make sense of the kata I was taught in my own time, but the point was to put form first.

A functional seminar and combined with a series of impact and reaction time pre-emption exercises I covered the first half of the form.

The next day I had a private class with two instructors and committed to finishing teaching the form. This time however I decided to take a different approach.

Here’s a paired drill; this is the threat/attack, this is a simple response. Where time permitted, I might also explain the underpinning fundamentals – the ‘why’ a particular movement is done. With each drill I’d occasionally illustrate the response without the attacker to illustrate the mechanics in a clearer fashion before returning to the paired drill.

After going through several of these drills with the instructors working them together at varying levels of intensity, I then got them to go through the already practised movements solo, one after the other. We thus completed the form.

Both instructors had begun their karate journeys learning kata in the same manner as me: form first, function later. Afterwards I asked which of the methods used on the two days made the learning process easier, form first or function first? In both I had essentially given both elements in the same session, but I wanted to know which made the learning process easier.

The unanimous answer was what I expected: function (drills) first, form later.

This was not a surprise. It’s easier to form positions if you have experience of using them, and applied physical practice is easier to remember than seemingly random movements pieced together.

So why teach the form first?

Most forms, even the fundamental ones taught at the start of a syllabus, are packed with movement and multiple possible applications. To cover every use of the form (assuming of course you are using the form) before teaching it as a memory exercise for solo practise at home is impractical. There is an argument that in a mixed ability group it is difficult to find time to train just one application drill for each sequence before you get to a stage where you want the students to be able to go through the entire form, but then so long as they have experience of part of a form they can work that while more experienced grades cover longer sequences, and as there is no physical contact in form work there is no harm in cycling other instructors or more experienced students through the counting/demonstration of the shorter sequences.

Over the years I’ve tried form first, form and function side by side, and function first, form later. I’ve found the last approach gives me the best results, whether I’m looking at developing skill sets in drills, developing impact power against pads, or in developing aesthetically pleasing form performance. If you’ve got the drills, why not try giving them the lesson before setting the homework?

The Brown Belt Mentality

Anyone involved in the martial arts who uses social media will no doubt have seen many different memes purporting to inform them what a black belt is, and what a black belt isn’t.

Some of these are apt, others simply amusing or ignorant. I once saw a group of people whom I’ve taught in a meme that compared them with another group of black belts. “There are black belts and there are black belts!”it proclaimed proudly. As the group I trained with surrounded a former army full contact champion still training and teaching at a very senior age, and was made up of instructors who regularly gave up their evenings and weekends to teach and train on top of their normal occupations, people who had competed or coached competitors to good levels in their chosen discipline and who also had the guts to take part in my scenario training, I had no doubt who to me represented the spirit and technical ability I rate.

But this isn’t about black belts, it’s about brown belts, or is it?

I can remember I had my brown belt for about two years. Although my association at the time had multiple stages of brown belt, I chose to simply add and remove coloured tabs with each grading rather than buy a new belt. Although I was focused on achieving my black belt, when the time came to retire that belt I was actually very attached to it: we’d been through a good deal together and I’d worn it longer than any belt I’d had up to that time.

Watch out for the brown belts. They’ve trained long enough to have a reasonable amount of power and skill, but not so long as to have the control and timing of the Dan grades. That’s a combination that can lead to painful mistakes.

One of the characteristics of brown belts is that they know they aren’t black belts yet. Does that seem a little obvious? Let me explain.

As a brown belt the symbol, status or ability of the black belt remains a goal. The brown belt itself is a constant reminder that although you’ve done well to ‘hang in there’, there is still work to be done, things to be learned, things to be refined. That’s not a bad thing. The brown belt may be confident, cocky even, but there is ‘in the belt’ the constant reminder that they’re not ‘there’ yet.

There is a quality of seeking refinement and new knowledge in brown belts that often Dan grades seem to lose. Casting aside those black belts who quit on reaching the goal they (or their parents) set, it’s easy for many to get trapped into simply repeating the same training year over and over again; gaining longevity but not necessarily increased experience, knowledge or skill.

So what makes a black belt?

The brown belt mentality.

A Christmas tail (off)?

It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid…

It’s the season to be jolly, or is it? Most Leisure Centres shut down for a number of days between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and even if they aren’t people are often so tied up with family gatherings and other social events that they can’t make any martial arts classes that are still running.

Are you dreading the physical toll of a dearth of training combined with a number of days of feasting?

I’m not going to advise going easy on the food. Whether you are hosting, a guest, or celebrating on your own, everywhere you look there will be the temptation to eat. If it’s there, make the most of it. It’s only for a short time and a few light-eating days will balance things out. Occasional excess is not the same as sustained excess.

I suspect more people are worried about not having the physical exertion and stress relief valve that training provides.

Without a class you are limited, but not that limited. You just have to work within the confines of the time and space you have and switch to a daily routine if you don’t already have one.

My first tip is start early, before breakfast if you can. That moment between waking and joining others is one of the few parts of the day in which you are likely to still maintain a degree of control. Once you start to eat however other jobs, other activities and the food in your stomach (not to mention any alcohol later) are likely to scupper the best-laid plans.

My second tip is keep it indoors. Poor light, poor weather and the objections of others may stop you training otherwise. Indoor training does not necessarily require much space. If you can stand in straddle stance then you can do squats, you can practice hip-work by shifting foot positions, and you can kick on the spot (working balance, flexibility, coordination and strength). If you have more space you can drop and do any number of different forms of press-ups.

My final tip is to keep it simple. The more you set yourself, the more daunting it will seem, the more likely you are to skip it. Choose one or two exercises for strength and one or two for technique refinement. When I am short of space I tend to do push ups, squats, slow side thrust kicks and either one of my own forms or the space saving Tekki/Naihanchi Shodan.

Have a great holiday, and keep training!

The sobering reality of a fake abduction

On Saturday, under my supervision, four teenage boys (aged 13-14) experienced a fake abduction. This was a single scenario in a multi faceted training day for both adults and teenagers. While this is a very rare event, it is perhaps one feared the most by parents, and so we wanted to see what we could learn from replicating an example.

Like all training, we had to make compromises for safety. The most glaringly obvious compromise was that the boys knew they were going to experience an abduction attempt. They also knew which vehicle the attacker(s) would use. What they didn’t know was how many people would be involved or how we would set them up.

That wasn’t the only compromise:

– due to a scheduling clash we had to stage our scenario outside a venue filled with young children with open doors for ventilation, so the teenagers couldn’t shout for help or bang on the vehicle,

– the vehicle wasn’t scrapped so we couldn’t kick it or hit people into its bodywork.

– for safety all shots to the head were pulled; the attackers wore headgear in case of backward uncontrolled strikes,

– the teenagers were bare-headed and we decided to proceed on the basis that the attackers would use body shots to subdue them so as to preserve their looks.

Each teenager entered the scenario ‘blind’, not having seen the ones that went before or having had opportunity to get any information from the previous participants. They were asked to walk down a particular passageway as if on their way home from school or visiting a friend. An aggressor would run up behind like a jogger, and then grab the boy to lift him into the van where a second person could assist in controlling them. A third man was behind the wheel.

This obviously represented a possible attack. More people could have been involved. We could have used a fake weapon for intimidation. The aim of the exercise was for all of us to see how difficult it was to escape once the attack had begun, and how quickly it could be done.

The results were chilling as you can see here.

Of the four participants, three were taken with the van ready to drive away within 12 seconds from first contact. The longest resistance lasted 35 seconds, and had he not been pulling his shots (for safety) that young man might have escaped or caused his attackers to abandon their attempt for fear of being caught. As it was we did attract some outside attention.

One of the most obvious things to take away from the exercise is that awareness of your environment is everything. Anyone listening to music on headphones would be easy prey. Hoodies would reduce peripheral vision and reaction time. Choice of routes, walking in company, wide corners and how you react to people around you in terms of innocuous hand positions (scratching the back of your neck for example) would make a difference in reducing the odds of being a victim and in being in a better position to resist.

These abductions featured bear hugs in what is their most likely use. These particular scenarios reinforced that unless you act before it is fully on, you are not going to get out very easily, and you probably won’t have a stable ground platform to work on. I teach bear hug defences to illustrate principles of movement, and to try and ingrain the reaction to move before it is on, but I recognise that the attack is both rare (because there are very few scenarios in which someone would do it) and that once it is on then most defences I’ve seen demonstrated (including my own) are ineffective until the person starts to release you.

If you want to theorise about bracing against a van, or pushing off from a van, or a car boot… try it. Come up with ideas, but then try them until you have some high percentage solutions.

This was nothing more than a training exercise, but it has given all those participating something to think about.

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