Let your kata guide your way!

[AngelaG]

Ok, this is a kind of cross over between the Karate forum and the Internal Arts forum but I have posted it in here for a specific reason. I suspect there are people who do karate who have no idea how subjects such as 5 element theory, meridians and pressure points etc. come into their karate and therefore will never venture into the Internal Arts forum. I feel this is of interest to karateka as a whole rather than just those you want to study the more internal aspects.

 

Sometimes when we break down the kata we take it really slow. Working with a compliant partner you work out exactly what position they end up in correlation with what position you end up. We study the target areas suddenly opened up to you. With a little bit of PP/5 element knowledge suddenly it can be apparent that the kata are showing you where to hit best in relation to where you have previously struck for maximum affect with minimum effort.

 

Take the oft misunderstood move in Bassai Dai. It’s about move 6 where you turn to your right and a very low height, swing your arm low around and up to your ear, and storm in with an outside block (soto uki). I’ve heard so many people say that they are crouching to hook a kick with their arm (!) and then using the next move (uchi uke) to break their opponent’s knee. I suggest that it is probably a very bad idea to use your arms to catch kicks and to lower your hands down to that level whilst crouching – in that situation you have opened up your entire head for them to punch as they storm through the kick (not that many people do a nice mae geri on the streets anyway)

 

So what alternatives do you have? Imagine your opponent has come in with a hook punch. Soft block it with your left hand and riding the direction sweep your arm up to their fist. This is going to stroke down the pericardium meridian (Fire). (If you’re lucky you may get heart (Fire) and Lung (Metal) too!) Now sweep your right hand across and through their ribs, for those who know Pressure Points you are aiming for the Gallbladder/Liver crossing – a wood point. So already you are only halfway through the move and you have gone from fire to wood – backwards along the constructive cycle. Now storm in and use the right hands momentum to crash down into the neck which is a very sensitive area and packed with PPs. You can aim for the jaw line to hit Stomach 4, 5 or 6 so that you go along the Destructive Cycle and get Earth – or strike into the neck, and leave your hand relaxed so that it wraps around and strikes into the back of the neck (gallbladder 20) for a double wood strike. Well to be honest if you go for the neck there are so many meridians you can’t go wrong – but GB 20 is a favourite of mine.

 

One of the big questions people ask about pressure points is that how can we hope to hit a tiny target during a fight. The point is not that we are searching for them with our fingers but that we are striking in the area of them with a large target. If I strike to the neck with the whole of my forearm how can I miss hitting a pressure point? It’s like having a small nail, if I try to hit it with a toffee hammer I may miss 3 out of 5 times, if I take a lumphammer to it I will hit it every time! Just because the target area is small does not mean that the striking object has to be small. That way if you miss who care? You went to hit them hard with everything you got and therefore it will still be effective.

 

One of the other reasons I chose to put this in the karate forum is that if you are not a fan of studying 5 element theory it doesn’t matter. The point is to study where the kata takes you and notice that it hurts more if you hit this before you hit that. You don’t have to know all the fancy names to get it to work. Try working through tour kata with a compliant partner, both just going where it leads you and you will see that it opens up some amazing targets. Kidney shots, back of the head/neck, inner legs all seem to become available just when your own body is in a prime location to hit them. Let your kata guide you rather than you guide the kata. Taking the previous example and removing all 5 element theory. You block their hook punch, you strike with your fist through their ribs (near the floating rib) and then came in and strike their neck with your forearm. It’s the same as above but with all the buzzwords taking out, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work any less. And the fact that the kata guides you to it means that you may never need to learn the names as you just hit what you’ve been given!

 

As an interesting exercise I sometimes look through other people’s applications and play a “What happens next?” game. For example, I go to kick you, you X-Block my shin and assuming your arm doesn’t shatter leaving you in agony on the floor I still storm in and attack your head whilst your arms are around my leg level. Or the people that use manji gamae as a block against two attackers. Oh yeah, they both attack simultaneously, and then after one of them waits politely as the other one attacks you, and then he waits whilst you turn back to the first. HMMMM Do we really think that the founders of these Martial Arts that formulated these kata were that naïve?

 

The other thing I touched upon with the x-block was why use hands to block/attack legs and why use legs to attack the head? My legs are at your leg height, therefore why kick above waist level and expose my groin and put myself off balance (and extend the technique time-wise)… my hands are higher so why bring them down to your legs leaving my head exposed and at the right level for you to pummel. Again if you study the kata the clue are all there.

 

I am not surprised that some people see kata as a worthless exercise and no help in a self-defence situation – it’s because they have been fed *. Study the kata a bit more deeply. Think outside your box. Take your time and find out what’s really there!

[Lord Apocalypse]

Well summed up! It's about time this was realised more openly and not this 'gedan barai a kick' nonsense. Also, i know you're a member of OCFM,but are you linked more with, is it, John Burke or are you linked more with Russell?

[AngelaG]

Well summed up! It's about time this was realised more openly and not this 'gedan barai a kick' nonsense. Also, i know you're a member of OCFM,but are you linked more with, is it, John Burke or are you linked more with Russell?

 

I'm a student of John Burke but I do train with Russell as well. In fact I spent a week in Cyprus last February for the OCFM side. I see John as my mentor in Karate though, and karate is my true passion.

 

How do you know them?

[GrrrArg]

Another good topic Angela..well done on the member of the month to.

 

Myself im start to develop a keen interest in alot of the things you touch on above.

 

Pity most of it just went right over my head lol

[SevenStar]

One of the big questions people ask about pressure points is that how can we hope to hit a tiny target during a fight. The point is not that we are searching for them with our fingers but that we are striking in the area of them with a large target. If I strike to the neck with the whole of my forearm how can I miss hitting a pressure point?

 

But the forearm is a much bigger striking surface - your strike will have to be much harder in order to do the same amount of damage, no? a phoenix eye to a particular point would transfer more destructive energy than a forearm to the same point.

 

 

I am not surprised that some people see kata as a worthless exercise and no help in a self-defence situation – it’s because they have been fed *. Study the kata a bit more deeply. Think outside your box. Take your time and find out what’s really there!

 

this I agree and disagree with. alot of people are fed *. however, I don't think kata itself helps in the self defense situation - in many cases, the applications of them are performed differently than you perform them in the form. This is where drilling comes in...

[karatekid1975]

AngelaG, I can see another article out of you Two good topics in a row.

[neko_shojo]

Actually the main pressure point on the neck (bracheial plexus origin) is more effective with a larger strinking surface...now if you want to hit the mandibular angle...you're going to have a tougher time getting it with your forearm....pressure points tend to be a close range technique in any case, especially when dealing with the upper body, so so I have been taught.

 

As for the braking down of kata, my sensai calls it bonk-ai. All adults do it and the children are taught limited versions as a memory tool in kata.

[delta1]

Angela, great post! Question- when you work through these applications, do you work off the opponents reactions to these strikes? For example, does your uke bend forward in response to a solar plexus strike, or turn in response to a cross to the jaw?

[AngelaG]

Angela, great post! Question- when you work through these applications, do you work off the opponents reactions to these strikes? For example, does your uke bend forward in response to a solar plexus strike, or turn in response to a cross to the jaw?

I have trained with both compliant and non-compliant, however there does have to be a bit of give because obviously I would not want to be smacking a training partner in his/her pressure points. Sometimes people stand there and say "It doesn't work", because their partner resists and you have to explain that of course it doesn't work because they haven't really smacked their partner through the ribs and they haven't really smacked their partner in the jaw etc.

 

But! A light strike to these points can still give a good indication of what would happened if you really went for them.

[delta1]

True enough, you don't want to hurt your partner. He has to fake the reaction. That reaction will change things for you, setting up a whole different set of targets and options in a real confrontation. I'm guessing the masters who set up those forms understood this, and was wondering how it was worked into your understanding of forms and applications.