Karate

Karate and Self Protection from John Titchen

speed

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evidence has consigned them to history and then they flare up again, fuelled by the ‘true believers’ devotion to outdated treatises or the misguided analyses of the long-dead.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.

What’s the rush?

I had some space cleared in my schedule today for some training at home.  Not a particularly unusual thing as I train every day, but rather than grabbing a few minutes here and a few minutes there, today I had one of those nice long stretches of unbroken time.  With that luxury I knew I could work on my strength with some weights and work on my balance with some kicking exercises, but what I really wanted to do was pick a few forms to use as visualization exercises for the delivery of a number of my techniques.  In case anyone wonders why I haven’t mentioned that important training facet impact work,  I’m currently between kick bags and I know I’ll be hitting the pads in class tonight.

While thinking about which particular forms I wanted to train I remembered something interesting regarding two books in my little martial arts library.  In one of my editions of Funakoshi’s Karate Do Kyohan he gives an approximate start to finish time as if the Kata was to be completed in one go as an unbroken exercise.  In another book I own, written in the 1990s, the performance times of three highly ranked UK Karateka were given for the same kata.  Although they varied slightly their times were generally half to two thirds of Funakoshi’s times.

Funakoshi’s times were not those of an old man.  They were the amount of time that it took, in his opinion, to go through the kata.  So why is it common to see modern Karateka go through the forms at a greater speed?

Your focus determines your reality.

Unless you are deliberately moving slowly, when you practice a strike, you do it fast.  When you practice blocking another person’s attack, you also have to move fast.  But wrestling for control against resistance is something that slows us down, and manipulating limbs in grappling even at full speed is a slower form of movement than striking, as is throwing another person.

The modern fast pace of kata is a result of a different vision of the same movements.  The shorter times are a result of more movements being executed as fast as possible, as if each was striking or deflecting a strike.  The longer times given by Funakoshi are a reflection of a different emphasis.

Those of you that have watched some of my bunkai on my youtube channel, or read my first book, will know that I see most Uke receiving techniques in kata as strikes or limb manipulations, and that often I see Tsuki techniques as thrusts used to control, not necessarily punches.  A number of my kata steps are viewed as leg attacks, as are some of my turns.  My kata are close quarter struggles that utlise the movements effectively to escape from habitual acts of violence (haov).

So how fast will I be doing my kata?

It depends.

How fast I go through a kata will depend upon what I am visualizing.  Good Karate allows for multiple applications of the same sequence and the majority of kata are made up of good karate.

There is no set speed for a kata.  I’m not going to rush my practice.  I’ll go through at a pace where I feel I am accurately practicing my application.   That is the luxury of practicing karate at home as well as in the dojo.