How Has Karate Helped You In Other Sports/Arts/Professions

[Killer Miller]

I thought I would start a fresh thread on this topic from a reply on another thread.

How has Karate, or any other MA, helped you in other sports, arts, professions, etc.? Please try to be specific as to the techniques and body mechanics and how they relate to each other (similarities). I will re-post part of my other reply from the other post as an example to get things going.

• Recap of things I've participated in:
   
  Table Tennis - same stances, heavy use of hip rotation, and lots of shifting and stepping exactly the same as karate.
   
  Archery - same breathing techniques, shoulders down and relaxed, and stance is a modified centered 50/50 stance (45 degree angle) similar to karate to provide good anchoring and a smooth release of the string.
   
  Golf - hip rotation and breathing.
   
  Baseball or Softball - hip rotation.
   
  Classical Guitar - Breathing techniques, relaxation of entire body with focus on left and right hand movements (arms staying relaxed) and keeping all movements to the center of the body. Also, learning new pieces, especially Bach, working on "phrasing" like you would in a kata. you work on the outside movements of the piece, then learn the inside movements/feelings of the piece - this includes appropriate pauses for proper timing, proper breathing, and to dynamics for entertainment value and your interpretation of the piece. Just as you would performing a kata in karate.

- Killer Miller -

[Menjo]

Well one thing i remember the most is how karate actually hindered my football training. Whenever we did drills and stuff, my posture was always up straight, when i was supposed to be bended over. Little things like that really made things difficult to adapt to. Other than that, karate has helped me in everything one way or another.

[Ripper]

Killer Miller; how do you know MA helped you to improve on other sports? Couldn't it also be the other way around? Because you live in the States I'm guessing you did baseball before you did MA. So maybe baseball helped you in MA?

[Patrick]

I think it's probably true that they both could have helped each other, etc. i.e., the more you use it (your body), the better you get at using it.

[NidaninNJ]

Table Tennis - same stances, heavy use of hip rotation, and lots of shifting and stepping exactly the same as karate.

- Killer Miller -

KillerMiller- That's a Killer web site you have! Table Tennis and karate... I never realized that there was such a connection.

Lots of other sports and activities can use the same main points as karate...balance, timing, rythym, endurance... Maybe the biggest thing is the idea of 'centering'? I guess balance is a big one also and maybe centering is more about balance than anything else.

Great thread, Killer.

[Killer Miller]

Thanks NidaninNJ,

- Killer -

[Enshin Karate]

The one way that I saw is in my daughters high school softball team that started coaching. They were always getting kicked around by the score of 22-1 and 21-2. They compete in a division with some high dollar schools that can afford to bring in professional coaches to drill them every weekend. I taught them the spirit that full contact karate has taught me. You must have the mind set of you can handle anything that a fighter can throw at you. The spirit caught on faster than I thought as we started to have fighting practice after softball practice. Last spring was the second year together and it was the first time that our softball team had a winning record in 18 years. I think the mental thinking had alot to do with it.

[Hobbes]

Well, if you think about it we transfer skills and experineces all the time regardless of the activity.

With MA's it just so happens that one of the "sets of skills" happens to be Karate (in this case) so it

just stands to reason that the framework or construct that one is familiar with will be applied to a new skill.

It speeds learning in a lot of ways. I had a student who only thought of karate in terms of dance (initially at least) until she was brutally attacked. The new experience shifted the context of her training. Very different MA after that.

I think some instructors fail to really appreciate the power of skill transfer. Yes, it doesn't transfer 100%, but some transfer is better than none. I've heard too many instructors say "forget that, start fresh", meaning to forget what you learned before and start from the ground up. Frankly I don't think this is possible and certainly isn't reasonable to think this way. As a physical educator and coach, I can't help see the sports and other activities in terms of (psychology aside * for the moment) bio-mechanics, machines with leavers and the forces involved in motion. It concerns me that some will state that "karate is unique compared to other sports", and this is said in terms of motion, not philosophy or any such thing.

Our bodies are very adaptable multipurpose machines. Despite the subtleties in motion the gross movement patterns are repeated over and over and over gain in almost everything.

If the context is the same and the strategy and tactics employed are similar, then the resulting technique will be virtually identical regardless if its wacky-fu or karratta-do-do or firefighter-emergencydoorkick-do.

While many will jump up immediately in vigilant opposition to this idea, I can put you in front of a camera and

record you at 200~500 fields-per-second and show anyone that this is the case. You know, some will say that

you are stripping the art from Martial-Arts when you break things down like this, but really pure bio-mechanically executed

techniques are rarely executed. How each of us utilize motion-reduction and punctuate our techniques to achieve results is

personal and requires flare and style.

This is the art part. The technical part allows us to express the art. A lot of argument is over style, and flare and its often not recognized that they are arguing from a different context to begin with.

I took to TT very quickly because of my reaction/response time was good, my tracking skills were finely honed, and I was used to shifting my body weight and I could concentrate for extended periods properly using internal broad/narrow and external broad/narrow focus.

K Jack, TT is cool! but I like squash better.

your mind is like a parachute it only works well when its open... hard to deploy inside a box.

[Nidankid23]

Karate has definatley influenced little things like self discipline, control, endurance, fitness.

Another useful thing is pain tolerance

[jaymac]

As a child, Martial Arts helped me develop self confidence and self esteem, I gained all the postive attributes dojo's are promoting (which are true) I learned that I did not have to fall to peer pressure. It certainly helped me stay fit. As an adult, MA has given me the same but I have incorporated it into the work place. I try to always stay calmin any situation. I am not afraid to stand up for myself (wouldn't think you would have to do that in a workplace as an adult, but there are adult bully's too!) I could go on and on, but I know that I am a better person for being a Martial Arts student.