Kihon Uke-Waza Drills

[Wastelander]

Hello, everyone,

I've had basic blocking drills on my mind, over the past few months, and wanted to put together something on the subject. This video shows a set of drills for uke-waza (receiving techniques) that I like much better than the head-on stationary drills, or head-on/walk-back-and-forth dynamic drills that are so common in karate these days. They are still very basic, and intended to work the "receiving" application of these movements in isolation--no strikes, no grabs, etc.--the only difference is that the angles have been changed to reflect concepts found in kata.

I'm afraid it isn't my best presentation. I injured my knee pretty pretty badly a couple months ago, and it still causes problems with stances, stepping, and kicking. In addition, I also tried to make my movements look as "formal" and "proper" as I could for the general karate public, which makes it look very clunky. Normally, we do this kind of thing with a much softer, open-handed approach, but that is harder to see clearly in video, sometimes. Still, I hope that the video still conveys what I intended!

Any thoughts on these kinds of drills? Do you work anything similar? Are there different drills that you prefer?

[sensei8]

You say receive, but I don't see you receiving, as we know it. What I'm seeing is deflections. When we receive a technique, it's akin to catching a ball. [Man...I need a recording camera]

Your knee did you no favors because you stayed in one spot while in Kiba Dachi.

[LeighSimmsMA]

Hi Noah,

Firstly, I think it can be easy to be tied into semantics of what a "receiving technique" is. Sadly, I can't find any evidence at the moment, but I do believe it was one of the founding masters that named the motions found in kata sometime in the 1900s. This being far later than most of these kata were developed. That being said, I don't tend to worry if I use a "receiving technique" as a deflection.

I do drill some similar drills and they appear as some of the initial application drills on my Childrens Syllabus as I think they are an effective way to begin developing practical fighting skills. I will try and record them over the weekend

[Wastelander]

You say receive, but I don't see you receiving, as we know it. What I'm seeing is deflections. When we receive a technique, it's akin to catching a ball. [Man...I need a recording camera]

Your knee did you no favors because you stayed in one spot while in Kiba Dachi.

I used "receiving" as a bit of a catch-all, there, but yes, I did mean "deflections," in this particular case. We do receive more along the lines of what you are thinking, as well, I believe, but that wasn't the purpose of this video and these drills. That said, it doesn't take much to change these drills into drills that receive in that fashion (if we're thinking of the same things).

My knee certainly didn't do me any favors in the stationary stance, but it gave me trouble in the stepping, as well. Quick weight-shifts and turns are a problem, still, as is driving into the ground for power.

[CredoTe]

What you showed in your video is an "intermediate" phase of uke development for us.

Beginners learn the usual walking kihon style of uke waza. We then transition them into what your video shows after they've reached intermediate kyu ranks. Advanced kyu ranks through Shodan add in tenshin and gamanku concepts to the uke waza you've shown. Basically, tenshin being body position/movement, the angling movements you show are compounded with quick footwork movements (while ensure tanden is kept true) to either the outside or inside of the opponent, depending upon the situation and the desired vantage point of the receiver.

We introduce full Ti concepts sometime after Shodan, when we feel a given student is ready.

[sensei8]

The type of "receiving" that we practice in Shindokan is akin to one catching a football. We receive the attack, and transition almost simultaneously, so the flow remain intact to the target.

A football wide-receiver does what?

He/she receives the ball, in a form of a catch, tucks the ball into the body, and then runs toward their end zone in a simultaneously manner. These actions are similar to what we do in Shindokan with an attack.

[DaveB]

We karate folk get very caught up in the idea of foundation development, but I think that often it is unnecessarily over simplifying things. It causes us to spend a long time on low value exercises and much less time learning to be functioning martial artists.

I think these exercises you show have the same symptoms. The attack from an angle is an unnecessary step; you can go straight into moving. In fact I think a better path would be to move around the attack without any block, showing how to use various stances for pivoting and body shifting.

After showing this formally, the students can learn to be more natural in their movements by making the attacks continuous for a minute using various kicks and punches.

As the attacker speeds up and starts to try and make contact and the students begin getting tagged, you can then introduce parries: using the palm to deflect, and counter strike with the other hand.

As the blows become stronger you switch to using the forearm to make contact with the more forward pressure/contact with the upper arm, remaining closer and either controlling the attack with the block or building a counter strike off it.

A progression like that will get your students developing evasive footwork, balance, an understanding of stance as natural dynamic techniques instead of static unnatural positions, how and when to use parries and forearm blocking, application of angles... And it will probably be much more fun.

If any one stage is too difficult just stay on it until they develop. Honestly though, most people will be at the top end within 3 months.

A drill like this can be cycled through over and over. At each stage of development the different parts of the drill will offer greater challenges. After all, which of us can avoid being hit using only reactive body shifting against a genuinely aggressive full speed opponent? Yet that is just stage 1 revisited. You can focus on technique over function whenever you wish. You can alter the focus to work on range, counter striking angles or strike selection, but you will always be practicing and developing functional useful skills.

[Wastelander]

I agree that the stationary drill is technically an unnecessary step, and I often skip it. Really, this is for people transitioning from doing the head-on drills to doing more realistic drills. Instructors sometimes like to test student's uke-waza during solo practice by walking up and punching them, forcing them to block. The trouble is that they usually do this head-on, which reinforces the wrong idea to the student. The reason I show the angled version is more for the instructor's use than anything. If you incorporate realistic angles early on, already, then it's not much of an issue.

As for drilling the footwork and body movement separately, we do that, as well. We work through a variety of stepping drills, and work them into different deflections and receptions, much as you describe. We are not so different

[pers]

What I see in this video is a very basic format that beginner students practice in very early stages of their training ,it has some value for 9th kyu students but soon they should start moving backward or in an angle sideways to avoid an attack

to get used to the idea of best form of defence is not to be there !

[CredoTe]

What I see in this video is a very basic format that beginner students practice in very early stages of their training ,it has some value for 9th kyu students but soon they should start moving backward or in an angle sideways to avoid an attack

to get used to the idea of best form of defence is not to be there !

Yes! This is where applying tenshin is absolutely critical... Once the concept of receiving an attack with tension is understood by a student and can be practiced with the avarice to improve it, that's when the concepts behind the uke waza turn from "blocking" to striking/counterattacking the opponent. Then, understanding uke waza as a harmonious defense-attack receiving action really starts to set in!

We karate folk get very caught up in the idea of foundation development, but I think that often it is unnecessarily over simplifying things. It causes us to spend a long time on low value exercises and much less time learning to be functioning martial artists.

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Remaining redacted by CredoTe for thread space reasons...

Wastelander's methods of showing the basics of these concepts are valuable, IMHO, first to beginners, and second to any advanced students as reminders of stepping stones to get there. I agree that it becomes less necessary to devote training time to these types of training basics once they become 2nd nature to a practitioner. But, even advanced practitioners with many years of experience should at least be able to demonstrate these kinds of basics for the purpose of passing on the art to pupils.