Deferring Hips

[sensei8]

Understanding hips as to its relationship to power is paramount to consistently developing that necessary power at any given time. In a split second, an unbelievable amount of things must take place and they must take place correctly, or any karate technique is mute.

We can talk/teach about hip transition and the like as far as to the who, what, where, when, why, and how until the cows come home, but any technique(s) suffers because of the unprepared karateka, both Kyu and Dan.

Is the technique(s) and/or the style surrounding the use of ones hips flawed? No, imho, I'd say that it's the karateka that's flawed. Flawed in putting the pieces together and making sense of the entire process.

Some questions to ask oneself:

>Does the hip drive?...and when?

>Does the hip push?...and when?

>Does the hip thrust?...and when?

>Does the hip stall?...and when?

>Does the hip stay level?...always?

>Does the hip snap?...and when?

What does the hip mostly depend on? Is everything within any said technique, from start to finish, unloaded like a domino or at the same last moment?

For most karate styles, a kick, for example, has a four count: Up, out, back, down. For the essence of power, when, during this four count, is the hip activated?

Sometime a karateka must ask questions, no matter how futile and/or how frustrating it might be in conquering and revealing effectively consistent hip movement.

You are either pushing or you are damaging your opponent.