Tai sabaki

[muttley]

I was introduced to the idea of Tai sabaki years ago by a Sensei of mine who had come to Shotokan from another style of Karate, at the time I had just gained my Shodan and was amazed at the timing Sensei had, it was as if he would move just at the point an opponent was expecting to land the strike.

At first I thought all my Sensei was evading the attack, then I started to look at the position Sensei ended up in and how much of the attackers body had been opened up for a counter attack. I seriously wished I had the skill to "avoid" as my Sensei had.

Now I am back in training and looking at the "art of Tai sabaki" more due to where I work (narrow, confined areas filled with young offenders) and realising how useful Tai sabaki can be to "evade or avoid" a potential attack, leaving myself with and escape route at best, at worst, giving me time to think.

The thing I found hard to get into my head was when a Sensei would say things like "leave moving until the last possible moment, until your attacker cannot change what he is doing", that to me meant I was going to get hit! Obviously, if you get it wrong, you can get hit, however get it right and I avoid not only an attack, but also possibly paperwork!!!

The thing I want to ask is, do we spend enough time studying Tai sabaki in the dojo to encourage students that we sometimes don't even have to touch the opponent to get the better of them and that, in the eyes of the law, by not touching an opponent, yet gaining an advantage over them, we can demonstrate in everyway that what we had done was to act in self defence?

[Harkon72]

Tai Sabaki sounds a little like the intercepting techniques of Jeet Kun Do. Closing the gap to intercept the attack of an already committed opponent can be devastating and gives a grand stand effect.

[Dobbersky]

Tai Sabaki or Ashi Sabaki is apparent in all martial arts in some way shape or form and is definantly there when it comes to Kata

For those not conversant with it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_sabaki

[pers]

Tai Sabaki sounds a little like the intercepting techniques of Jeet Kun Do. Closing the gap to intercept the attack of an already committed opponent can be devastating and gives a grand stand effect.

tai sabaki is body evasion , what you are reffering to as interception is called go no sen if I remember correctly the term for it .

sen no sen is when you wait to see the attack and you take action ,go no sen is a stage further ,to read the attacker's intention and as he begins the attack you counter him with you own attack .

tai sabaki is to put your body in a favourable position or evading an attack by moving the body out of the attackers centre line thus gaining advantage to attack from the most vunerable position for the opponent .

[Harkon72]

Thank you for the explanation, I was aware of the concept but I never had a Japanese term for it. Evasion of attack by moving your center line to put your opponent under a disadvantage is a sound principal and central to good Karate.

[shinobitribe]

Tai sabaki refers to body management. This includes the body positioning and evasion. Personally I used to struggle with it in the beginning but with constant practice it becomes second nature and will improve your skills tremendously..

Refer to the basics of tai sabaki used in goju, ashihara karate and aikido to some extent...

[Harkon72]

Yes the center of ki in the mind is a potent state to master, I think they call it "one point" in Aikido. This is an interesting topic, thanks guys

[JohnnyB]

Tai Sabaki is a huge chapter in Karate.

fujicolt from the OSS (Our Shotokan Studies) forum has written a very comprehensive guide about all aspects of it.

here's the link:

http://ourshotokanstudies.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=172&page=1

One of my very favorite Karate articles.

Osu!

[ossemon]

As was just said: Tai Sabaki is a huge karate chapter. In Wado, it is emphasized heavily through the nagashi-techniques, and we have several directions and ways to do Tai Sabaki. It is very interesting, as the movement is taken from grandmasters Shindō Yōshin-ryū jujutsu style before training shotokan

[Kuma]

I think tai sabaki is actually under-emphasized in many dojo nowadays when really it should be a much bigger part of your training. I feel it's this lack of emphasis why we so often see many karateka moving like their feet are stuck in wet mud.