Kobukan Karate Club SKIF

  • I am not a robot!

    For many of us the Shotokan path to senior grade level has enabled us to train our bodies to master stance, zuki and geri. The regulated syllabus of kihon, kumite and kata is a very efficient system of body development and martial expertise. However, the typical karate class maybe considered to be quite militaristic in its approach. Students line up in (perfectly) straight lines and then proceed to advance across the dojo performing oi zuki; after five repetitions, there is a resounding kiai (shout) before the class moves backwards performing age uke (upper rising block). The kumite is performed in two lines and is called out by numbers e.g. ‘kihon ippon jodan number one’ (basic sparring with a face attack and an upper rising block with a reverse counter punch). Has it always been taught this way? The militaristic slightly robotic approach to training probably came into being when karate was introduced to school children in Japan. The five Heian katas derived from Kankudai, Bassai Dai and Jion give credence to this idea. This approach to training has produced many thousands of highly competent karateka; Shotokan karate has many benefits, improved fitness, flexibility, increased confidence and mental health well-being. It has the added bonus of training the body to take care of itself in threatening situations.

    Can it go further? Can we go further?

    We have all trained with acknowledged masters of the art; many are Japanese, although mastery of a martial art is not limited by geography. We stand back and watch in awe at the effortless artistry of such masters and their ability to generate tremendous power. This is the standard we all aspire to, but are we able to glimpse even a tiny fraction of this artistry in our own practice?

    There are very few karate teachers who are able to articulate how they have developed their own karate to produce such high levels of power and technique. Sensei Rick Hotton is one such teacher. He is a self-proclaimed ‘karate heretic’ and challenges the karate status quo. Rick gives many tips and pointers in seminars and on YouTube as to how senior Dan grades can take ownership of their karate by beginning a detailed study and analysis of their technique and how to apply this to the whole body. In essence, each individual is unique and therefore a regimented ‘one size fits all’ system of training may only take you so far.

    At Dan grade level and above, then, perhaps we should begin to question our own training and experiment to try and discover the best shape for our body and our stances. This may include adapting  zenkutsu dachi, kiba dachi and kokutsu dachi if it feels right for you. Moving away from the robotic block, counter drilling routines and try to merge them into one continuous flow of movement. Examine our body posture, our technique, our breathing and acquire total relaxation in movement before the moment of kime. Incorporate the elegance and flow of Tai Chi into our karate; make our movements softer (but still fast); ‘be like water’ to quote a famous martial artist; abandon certain aspects of our conditioned training. After many years of traditional training in Shotokan, perhaps it is time for some of us to throw off the shackles and rethink the mechanistic, robotic approach; begin to question the rigid focus on stance and technique and take more ownership of our personal training. On reaching a plateau in our training at whatever age or grade, a critical but constructive examination of our karate as it now, may enable us to continue our karate journey and present us with an opportunity for further development and understanding. 

    This is worth exploring.

  • Kime and the art of Tameshiwari

    A cartoon of a hand breaking wood AI-generated content may be incorrect.
    A person in a white kimono and black belt AI-generated content may be incorrect.

    All Shotokan instructors and teachers emphasis kime when practising punching, blocking and kicking. Put simply, kime is the ability to focus power for a split second at the point of delivering your technique. As I understand it, kime is a whole body focus.

    I would explain this by referring to gyaku zuki in zenkuzu dachi stance (reverse punch in front stance). Firstly, the body must be relaxed, front knee bent, hips at 450 back leg slightly bent, left arm reaching out in front (hand open), right fist resting on right hip.

    A person with multiple acupuncture points AI-generated content may be incorrect.

    https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13070218

    This diagram gives you an idea of the muscle groups involved in delivering the reverse punch. The right foot pushes from the floor, the hips twist, the left hand pulls back (hikite) as the right punches. All this is done with speed and a sharp exhalation, culminating in a tensing of the muscles and a squeezing and contraction of the lower abdomen (hara, or tandem, or dantian) and pelvic floor muscles. Rick Hotton, Sensei refers to this as ‘relaxed heaviness’.

    Kime literally means decide or decision from the Japanese verb kimeru to decide. Taking this further we may think of kime as “a decisive intent to produce and focus maximum power”. Every technique in Shotokan, in kihon, kumite and kata should manifest the dynamic expression of kime. In reality, full power kime is exerted in probably about 30% of a training session. We learn slowly with small steps and repetition. Once mastered, then we perform with kime.

    In researching this blog, I’ve come across several articles that put forward a different view of kime and its function. Namely, the muscular contraction and focus at the end of a technique prevents hyper-extension and hence protects the joints. They go further to say that kime reduces overall power delivery because there is no follow through. Quote ‘boxers don’t freeze their punches, and no-one punches harder than a boxer’. This has challenged my thinking but, I’m going to stay with the whole body synchronisation when delivering a technique. I will go further by pointing out the health benefits of karate training if pursued sensibly, taking into account age, flexibility and physical condition. The flexibility is akin to yoga and the whole body tension (kime) provides muscle toning akin to resistance band training.

    Many karateka like to demonstrate their power by breaking wood, concrete blocks and roofing tiles. This is referred to a “tameshiwari” literal translation “breaking test”. This can be quite spectacular and is often carried out at karate demonstrations when publicising a club to attract new members. You don’t have to be a trained martial artist to be able to break a pine board, but the training definitely helps and probably prevents broken wrists and knuckles but, I am more interested in the focus aspect of tameshiwari. My instructor Roger Carpenter, Kyoshi, recalled a time he had with Soke Kanazawa. He asked Kanazawa Sensei to demonstrate breaking. He produced four, inch thick pine boards from his garage. Kanazawa then said, “which one do you want me to break?” The implication being that he was perfectly capable of breaking all four, but he could also break any one of them individually. They decided he should break the last one in the pile, which he did. A few days later, Kanazawa Soke explained the process to Carpenter Sensei. He said that the practice of Tai Chi enabled him to channel and focus his intrinsic internal energy. He visualised his energy flowing from his centre (hara) up though his body and along his arm to project outwards from his fist. Just recently Soke’s son, Kancho Kanazawa posted a YouTube clip of him breaking a third pine board but not the first two. Demonstrating the skill taught to him by his father.

    Click here to watch the demo: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1859756801459453

    To attempt to explain this phenomenon we need to delve into the world of physics. Hitting a pine board (or any object) sets up a longitudinal compression wave through the wood. The molecular structure of wood is complicated but for simplicity it is helpful to think of the material as a series of masses (molecules) attached by springs. Each molecule can vibrate backwards and forwards when a force acts on the wood.

    When the wood is hit, the compression wave travels through and if/when it comes to a weak point, the wood will break.

    Diagram of a wave propagation diagram AI-generated content may be incorrect.

    A diagram of a blue eye AI-generated content may be incorrect.

    So, are advanced practitioners able to focus the internal energy rather like a lens bringing parallel light to a focus?

    The karateka in question, Kancho Nobuaki, is able to direct his kime through 2 blocks and focus it on the third one to break it. Is this still within the laws of physics or are we now in the realm of metaphysics? Many Tai Chi practitioners talk of using their chi or internal energy. The underlying philosophy of Yoga refers to the body’s internal energy as ‘prana’. However, there can be a lot of showmanship surrounding the notion of internal energy resulting in a good deal of scepticism. From a scientific perspective, if there is concrete, absolute data to support the focusing of internal energy, then it is possible.

    My own experience with Soke Kanazawa was after a Tai Chi session I organised for him at my club, Kobukan in Windsor. In the restaurant after training, I asked him about the Chi Gong exercise he taught regarding fire and water. Moving our hand upwards we visualised fire, lowering our hands we visualised water. This was to experience a temperature change from hot to cold in our fingers. Needless to say, no-one there actually experienced that. In restaurant afterwards I asked him to explain. He grabbed my hand, moved his hand up and it became very warm, he reversed his hand, so the fingers pointed down and dropped his hand. It immediately went very cold. It happened so quickly, but it happened. I asked him how and he just said “image” by which I interpreted visualisation. I don’t think mastery of internal energy can be taught. Or, is that the practitioners are not able to fully explain and teach this mastery. I am both fascinated and frustrated. I seek a further understanding but as yet, I remain in the dark.

    Put simply, kime is the ability to focus power for a split second at the point of delivering your technique. As I understand it, kime is a whole body focus.

    Kanazawa Soke states in his book, ‘the very essence of all Karate-Do techniques is kime and kime is the ability to release the power of a technique at an intentional point’

    Kanazawa’s Karate: Hirokazu Kanazawa, Nick Adamou, Dragon Books, 1981

  • The evolution of Shotokan

    This blog is my reflection on the changes within Shotokan over the past 60 years. You may agree or disagree, either way I welcome your comments.

    It is now gender friendly; many more women are training in Shotokan; it has lost its male dominated machismo

    Instructors have become teachers

    The dojo is a safe, learning environment to promote the advancement of all students

    It is no longer an activity designed to exhaust the body and push it to extremes

    Stretching and warming up is done with due care and attention to the body

    Self-defence/offence is no longer the primary aim

    There is a recognition that repetitive drills are potentially harmful to ligaments and joints

    There is an acknowledgement and acceptance of each individual’s capability with respect to age, flexibly and general health

    Karate is like ballet with martial intent; it is an art form; there is an aesthetic quality to the performance of kata

    It promotes fitness, flexibility and general well-being

    It challenges the body and the mind; equal importance is given left and right sided co-ordination; the memory is stimulated through the accumulation and practice of 32 kata

    Kumite in the dojo is performed with controlled aggression and respect; winning and losing have no place

  • Karate teacher or karate instructor?

    “Sensei” is an honorific title that’s used to show respect to someone who has mastered a skill or art form. The term literally means “one who comes before”.

    In karate, Sensei means “teacher” or “instructor”.

    There is a difference between teaching and instructing.  This is true across all types of education including martial arts, yoga and all sporting activities.

    Karate in the seventies was very much by direction. We did as we were told.  One reason for this was because our Japanese instructors were not always fluent in English meaning that the technicalities of karate were not always articulated in a way we understood. More importantly, we were respectful and did not question. This meant that commands of “more speed, more power” gained response of “Oss” from the students – we were obeying without really knowing how to generate more power because we were in awe of our Sensei. We followed without always completely understanding.

    However, we managed this through our background knowledge.  We knew that twisting our hips in zenkutsu dachi would facilitate gyaku zuki. We understood that hikite, pulling back the left arm when punching with the right, produced more power. This is pure physics as outlined in Newton’s Third Law of Motion ‘action and reaction are equal and opposite. Credit to my Sensei Nick Adamou at the time for including this in his book.

     Even with background knowledge, many of the basic (kihon) techniques were copied but not explained. I remember the first move in Heian Nidan kata, a left uchi uke (inside block) with my right arm suspended above my head all performed in back stance (kokutsu dachi). But I had so many questions  – What is my right arm doing? Why am I in back stance?

    We would not dare ask questions in a karate lesson – but how can learning and understanding happen without questions?

    This approach can be taken to extremes when a militarised approach is taken to training. For example, being ordered by seniors to line up in perfect straight lines as the Instructor took his place at the front of the dojo. The warmup was then taken to, potentially dangerous extremes, taking no account of the age, fitness or flexibility of the students.  Trying to follow the lead of the Instructor as he slid down into perfect block splits and placed his chest on the floor resulted in my pulled hamstrings.

    Other examples of such directed training include – Bunny hops across the dojo, sometimes with a partner on your shoulders, alternate punching into  each other’s stomachs (make strong hara), linked legged press-ups and walking up down on each other’s spines.

    To demonstrate and prove our new found devastating power we indulged in “tameshiwari (test breaking) which involved trying to put your hand through one inch pine, house bricks, breeze blocks or roof tiles. I asked my Instructor how to go about breaking wood.  I was told ‘Just hit it’. I did as I was told, and it resulted in the main metacarpal bone in my right hand swelling up. An X-ray revealed no break, so with increased confidence I started breaking breeze blocks. As I write this I can’t quite believe the absurdity of my actions and the complete lack of guidance.

    Teaching karate (teaching anything) must take into account the learner. In the field of education, where I have spent most of my working life, we talk about individual educational learning plans. Each student has specific strengths and needs, and our job is to tailor the curriculum and lesson plans to accommodate this. In the State Education system, teachers are charged with applying this strategy  for classes of up to thirty students.  Whilst this can be a great deal of work, it means that the teachers are aiming to understand the students.

    In this way karate teachers, need a lesson plan. It is not good enough to line up and drill oi zuki up and down the dojo fifty times because we do not know what the students are getting from it.  Where is the teaching?  What is the learning?

    We need to assess the age and physical condition of our students and ensure they stretch and warm up safely. We need to provide challenge within the capabilities of each student. To quote Vygotsky: teach within the zone of proximal development for each individual. Use, what Vygotsky calls, scaffolding ,when devising lesson plans. Put simply, teach the technical aspects of karate in small steps of increasing difficulty. Teach each individual with enough challenge to stretch them and facilitate their development.

    In conclusion, a well-qualified Dan grade does not necessarily make a good instructor.  This could be because they are failing to understand their learners and the needs of their students.  This may be because they were in awe of the Sensei from whom they learned their skills, therefore they are modelling his teaching style.  This is why it is important to understand the difference between ‘instructing’ and ‘teaching’.  The former suggests commanding and ordering, whereas the latter suggest a more collegiate approach in which the needs of the student are considered.

    As I said at the beginning of this piece, this message applies across all sport.  When Glen Hoddle became a football manager his players were in awe of his incredible technique and ball skills. However, he was possibly too much of a perfectionist when training them. Apparently they were heard to say ‘if he was chocolate, he would eat himself . Good teaching is a two way process and the voice of the students is of equal importance.

    In his later years Soke Kanazawa understood the strengths and needs of his students and showed considerable empathy and patience when instructing and grading as he travelled around the World.  

    There is a lesson here for us all – are we Instructors or Teachers?

  • Tai Chi Chuan

    The ancient art of Tai Chi, translates as the “Great One”. Tai Chi is practised almost uniformly for health and well-being. It is mostly (not always) promoted as an exercise routine for elderly people. The picture shown above is of the Tai Chi Master, Yang Chenfu and he is displaying “single whip”. Soke Kanazawa introduced Tai Chi 40 years ago in 1982. He taught the 24 step Yang short form from the National Chinese Tai Chi Association. He gave me their booklet complete with DVD but written in Chinese and therefore going back to front. The 24 step form is based on the Yang style of Tai Chi. There was some resistance to the practice of this “soft” martial art from seasoned Shotokan karateka. Mr K’s reasoning was that Tai Chi provided a balance to the hard training embodied in Shotokan. He also suggested that practising Tai Chi might improve one’s karate by helping the body to relax more during movement and delivery of technique, allowing for a greater focus or kime.

    Having studied and practised Tai Chi for many years now, I have come to appreciate the possible martial applications of the moves. They certainly won’t work if you perform them slowly!! but no Tai Chi expert I’ve seen on Youtube demonstrates the application slowly; they tend to be lightning quick and vey effective.

    The highly decorative descriptions put people off and often lead to ridicule. This is unfortunate and very disrespectful:

    Single whip, brush knee, parting the horses mane, wave hands like clouds. What are the karate equivalents?

    Single whip looks like a tate shuto block with a bird’s beak strike to a vital area

    Brush knee is surely gedan barai, gyaku zuki

    Parting the horses mane is/could be uchi uke, gyaku zuki

    Wave hands like clouds looks very like mawashi uke

    If we accept that all things karate came originally from China, then its not really surprising to see a common theme running through Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Shotokan, Shito Ryu and Goju Ryu. Different martial arts, not necessarily better.

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  • Kobukan Karate Club website re-vamp

    HOME

    Check out our website; it now includes a members page and Youtube video clips of Sochin, Nijushiho, Chinte, Nijuhachio, Unsu and Meikyo.

    The video clips are accompanied with a short description of each kata and its origin.

    A question for practitioners:

    Which is your favourite kata and why?

    Answers below, please (-:

  • Shotokan Karate: kata applications (bunkai) 

    One of the main differences that sets karate apart from kickboxing and MMA is the practice of kata. Many of the 32 kata practiced in SKIF have been around for two or three hundred years with their origins in China and Okinawa. They form a body of knowledge that encompass fighting techniques, defensive techniques and an exercise programme for health and longevity. When performed skillfully, they have an aesthetic quality, a rhythm, and an expression of dynamic power.

    During my first 10 years of studying karate from white belt to 2nd Dan, neither of my instructors taught any application from any of the katas. In the 1970’s and 80’s, that’s how it was, “monkey see, monkey do”. It never occurred to me to question the rather odd double block sequence at the start of Heian Sandan or the slow beginning to Heian Yondan. What was the reasoning behind manji uke? why was my right hand held high above my shoulder? Why in Heian Shodan would you step forward 3 times and block age uke? Surely your opponent would not be so kind as to step back while trying to punch you? (and yet I’ve seen this application performed by old Shotokan Masters in black and white on YouTube).

    The only criterion for an application is that it broadly follows the technique and that it actually works. It doesn’t have to involve head twisting, neck breaks, eye gouging and stuff like that, although there are certain techniques that suggest these. My intention is to give you at least one application for each kata so you don’t find yourself “lost for words”.

    Bear in mind, the first time you are asked to explain a move in a kata is for the SKIF 4th Dan grading. That has flummoxed many of us because we were never taught any bunkai in our training. As instructors, we can and should demonstrate applications, but also ensure that everyone has a go themselves. This will enhance students’ understanding and give them confidence to experiment with applications themselves.

    Shotokan must evolve if it is to survive as a Martial Art. We need to develop a new breed of karateka who are technically skilled and who have an understanding of kata and bunkai.

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  • SKIF Stance Kata

    The SKIF Stance Kata has several iterations. The basic kata starts with a forward oi zuki, step back with shuto uke, step across with gyaku zuki and then forward and back oi zuki in fudo dachi. At this point there are a number of alternatives. The version shown here by Tanaka Sensei incorporates a left turn to perform gyaku zuki, a switch back to the front to perform mae geri and then an anti-clockwise turn (180o) to block uchi uke in hangetsu stance. On completing the full circle, turn with empi in kiba dachi.

    N.B. Tanaka Sensei is performing this starting on the left hand side. We would normally start on the right hand side. He is doing this to show a mirror image as it is always difficult to learn kata from a video. We tend to get confused with left and right!

    For the stance kata in a 4th Dan grading there is a basic format for which the examiner may/will change slightly by including a kick, a different block, three punches in fudo dachi instead of one and/or a new stance addition e.g. Hangetsu stance. The aim is to think on your feet, take on board the changes and perform this version of the stance kata three times with speed on both sides. Not an easy task, as many of us have experienced!

    Tanaka Sensei is known and respected for his superb technique and attention to detail.