Wastelander

In the first two years of my karate training, and all throughout my active judo training, I competed. I never liked competition--I'm a VERY non-competitive, non-confrontational person--but I did it, anyway. As my interest in practical karate grew, the competition aspect just lost my interest. Back then, I also used to practice kobudo, but that interest faded around the same time. When I was competing, I had a few pictures taken, but not many, and almost no video. When I was going through photos, this morning, I stumbled across one video, though! It's of me competing in the Weapons division of the 2008 Midwest Regional Championships outside of Chicago. Honestly, I'm pretty embarrassed about it, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to share it, anyway

I do this, every now and then, and my instructor teaches it fairly regularly to our competitors. If you get the timing right, you can actually make them think they blocked the strike. I really see it as more of an entry into close-range techniques, but that doesn't actually matter in point sparring.

Thanks for the feedback! I wouldn't say I approach pressure points as a "naysayer," exactly, but I am an eternal skeptic. I just take the "better safe than sorry" approach, I guess . Perhaps, once I've amassed as much experience as you have, I will change my tune. Until then, though, I will train to expect the worst and hope for the best!

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. Most, if not all, people involved in martial arts have heard of pressure points in some fashion - kyusho, dim mak, poison hand, death touch, etc. There are entire books and DVD series on the subject, and a wide array of seminars where you can "learn the secrets of pressure point fighting." On the other hand, there are huge numbers of combat sports competitors, martial artists and scientists, who believe that there is no such thing as an effective pressure point. It is a controversial subject but, as is usually the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. This article will briefly cover how to approach pressure points in a practical manner. What Are "Pressure Points"? What most people call "pressure points" are really more accurately described by the terms "vulnerable points" or "weak points." They are places on the body that are more susceptible to injury, or the introduction of pain, than the rest of the body. An example that everyone is familiar with is the "funny bone" point — the spot where the ulnar nerve passes through the elbow and is unprotected by muscle. While many of these points are nerve-related, there are also many that are not, including the knee joint, the iliotibial band, the liver, the carotid sinus and the temple. It is necessary to learn where pressure points are on the body, what effect they can have when attacked and how they should be attacked. The Effects of Pressure Points When used against a healthy, non-resistant person, quite a large number of pressure points can be effective, and studying their effects can be very educational. Some points can cause a temporary loss of consciousness or motor control, some can cause the legs or arms to weaken, some can cause pain, some can cause muscles to cramp, some can cause breathing inhibition, and some can cause vision disruption. All of these points may also be more susceptible to certain types of attack, such as striking, pushing or rubbing. While the locations of these points can be found in books and diagrams, much practice is required to get a feel for where they are and how to attack them to get the greatest effect. It is important to remember that not all of these points will work on everyone, and they will work even less often when used on a person who is resistant and fighting back. For this reason, it is important to focus on training pressure points that you can safely and reliably access in a self defense situation, that produce the desired effect a majority of the time. Incorporating Pressure Points in Training While there are a great number of pressure points on the body, only a small number of them are likely to be readily accessible in a fight. These are generally points that do not require you to be behind your attacker and do not require them, or you, to be in any awkward or unnatural positions in order to access them. They should also not compromise your defense; utilizing both of your hands to attack the pressure points while your attacker has one or both hands free, for example. These criteria will allow you to keep your training focused on practical targets, and your exploration of their effects should have taught you how much force is required when attacking them. This means that, in your training, you can strike, push or rub the vast majority of the pressure points available to you, at a level that is safe, while still receiving feedback. Some targets, like the eyes, may require protective gear for safety reasons, but most will not. The Reality Pressure points cannot be relied on to end a fight and should not be the only attacks that you use in your training. You might miss, the attacker may not be susceptible to a particular attack, or factors like cold, layers of clothing or the influence of drugs might diminish the effect. The successful use of pressure point attacks should be treated as extra credit, rather than the end goal or you can end up in deeper water when you try to use them. When training, it is helpful to incorporate pressure points, but to train as if they will fail to produce their intended effect. This will help keep you grounded in reality, as non-compliant training will quickly reveal the unintended consequences you may face when utilizing impractical pressure points. If you consistently fail to affect a point in training, or you consistently end up on the losing side of your engagements when using a point in training, then that point should be dropped. Martial arts training is meant to be a process of constant improvement of self and of technique, so evaluate yourself and your material as objectively as possible, as often as possible.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

GKR is a touchy subject. From what I understand, they often hire instructors who have trained in other arts, so a big problem is consistency in instruction. Some of the instructors have a solid martial arts background, and are very good. Some have just a couple years of experience, and are not. In the end, if you like the instructor and enjoy the training, that's good enough. If it isn't realistic/practical enough for you, then you can always do some research and find somewhere else to train.

Here is another way of looking at it: If you didn't know they were supposed to be jodan, how effective were the kicks at the level they were thrown? If the form was good, and the speed and power were there, then it's probably just a flexibility issue. I know some people who physically can't kick to their own head height, but you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of their kicks thrown with ill intent. There are some things I don't worry too much about when I'm evaluating skill levels of martial artists, and being able to kick to head height is one of them. For what it's worth, I suck at hook kicks and crescent kicks. If I were being evaluated by my ability to throw a hook or crescent kick, I would rate quite poorly!

That's the way we do it, yes. That said, I have also trained at a judo club that promoted based almost entirely based on competitive performance. I was told when I started training there (as a green belt) that I knew more than enough material for a brown belt, but I would have to be beating brown belts in competition to be promoted from green to brown. I'm a perpetually bad competitor, so that never happened

The "meaning of rank" is really a tricky subject, because every instructor has different ideas of what constitutes a yellow/green/black/etc. belt ranked student. In addition, standards aren't always "standard," because instructors will make exceptions for a variety of reasons. For example, people with physical disabilities may not be able to spar well, or execute some techniques correctly, but they have put in the work and studied hard to learn about the things they can't physically do. Conversely, some people with great amounts of physical talent may be promoted due to their effectiveness in training or competition, despite having limited knowledge.

It hasn't happened to me, personally, but I've seen it happen several times. I always recommend that people wear compression shorts under their gi bottoms, and compression tops under their gi tops. They wick moisture away and reduce gi burns, if nothing else, and have the added benefit of covering you up if your pants rip or come off.

That is a good tutorial--thanks for sharing! I learned that transition from side control to kesa-gatame in judo, but we never went back to side control from there. sensei8 - As he mentions in the video, he isn't actually pulling his opponent's tricep. If it's done the way I was taught, you're actually locking their elbow to your stomach, so it's actually the turning of your body that pulls their tricep. Kind of like if you're working tuidi--the locks are difficult/impossible to make work if you're just using your arms, instead of your body. Does that sound about right?

But it didn't leave ink spots in your gi, did it? No, it didn't. Of course, the area you would write it on doesn't really come in contact with the rest of the gi.

From the descriptions of tegumi by Nagamine, Funakoshi, and others, I would say that Shima bears very little resemblance to it. Many of the sweeps and throws found in Shima probably come from tegumi, but the fact that tegumi was not restricted to a belt grip, and included groundwork and submissions, means there is very little left of it in Shima. I have actually had some discussions with people who have done extensive traveling and training in Okinawa, and they said that Shima and tegumi are separate. According to them, Shima is a popular sport, and many judoka compete in it. If you go to smaller villages, which do not have organized Shima competitions, you can find them still doing tegumi. These peoples' descriptions of it match those of Funakoshi and Nagamine--it sounds pretty much like no-gi submission grappling! As far as the value of this, I think it is fairly evident that it has great value for the karateka. Many Okinawan karate masters cross-trained in tegumi, and recommended their students cross-train in grappling arts like judo, once tegumi declined in popularity. That, in my opinion, is where the Okinawans got their grappling training from.

When you're taking punches to the body for conditioning, you need to have a partner you can trust, who has control. Start light and work up to higher levels of power--be sure to communicate to your partner so they know when to stop increasing the power! Also, I do work on conditioning the entire core, but I recommend palm heel strikes to the liver and spleen, instead of punches.

I know of several martial artists who have had severe ankle, knee, and hip injuries that required surgeries to fix. They didn't let it stop them--you just have to stop long enough to heal. When your doctor says you can start training again, start slow.

Congratulations!

Some of us get our names embroidered in katakana at the bottom of the lapel, where the brand label goes. If you were to write it, there, I suspect it would be fine--it's a pretty standard thing to do for most karate styles. Writing it instead of embroidering it is a little unusual, though. I can't say how that would turn out after washing. I did write my name on a gi in Sharpie, once, and that was okay for a while, but it did bleed over time until you could barely make it out.

Our style is a known style of Okinawan karate, and belt ranks in our dojo will be recognized in the honbu dojo in Naha. I would say that is pretty legitimately "Okinawan karate." That said, the instructors at our dojo bring in a variety of other training experiences and knowledge, which give our karate a different flavor. Some of those experiences are other Okinawan karate systems, but others aren't. That doesn't make it something other than Okinawan, in my opinion, because Okinawan karate has always been an amalgam of people's experiences with a variety of arts. We follow some Japanese and Okinawan traditions, but we aren't Japanese or Okinawan people, and we don't pretend to be. There is a mixture of Japanese, Okinawan, and American culture in our dojo etiquette. Again, I don't see this as a problem because I'm not tied down to practicing strict adherence to a single culture.

I actually thought the same thing... I wonder if there's a connection between these two specific forms (Gojushiho and bil Tze)? From looking at videos of the form, itself, I would say that they are not related. Of course, that doesn't mean that they don't share some applications

Looks like Gojushiho\Useishi, to me Thanks for sharing!

1 - Yes 2 - Don't worry about it I don't do Shotokan, so I don't know if you need Bassai Dai to pass your test. If you do, then yes, you should be worried about executing it properly. Well, as properly as you can, anyway. As far as "excelling amongst the others," that isn't something you need to worry about. Rank tests aren't a competition with the other people testing--they are a competition with your self. Do the best that you can, and don't give up. Good luck!

Ah, that makes a lot more sense! I practice a different branch of Shorin-Ryu, so I highly recommend you refer to CredoTe's information, because he practices the same system. Best of luck to you!

I go through 2 or 3 kata, with low intensity, in the mornings. I wouldn't call it a "workout," though .

According to that website, they teach Krav Maga and Al Tracy's method of American Kenpo. You will find this to be vastly different from Shotokan, and while some of its techniques can be found in Shorin-Ryu, the way they move is different. That's just from my observations, though.