Why practice against net straight punches?

[JR 137]

Reading Tallgeese's thread in the jujitsu section motivated me to start this thread.

What as karateka do we continually learn to defend against straight punches? When we do standardized self defense techniques, prearranged sparring, perhaps kata bunkai, and so on.

It seems like every video I see in pretty much any MA deals with straight punches pretty much exclusively. Ever see a street fight, bar room brawl, etc.? I've been in more than I ever wanted to be in, and through bartending and being a patron saw far more. But I saw very, very few straight punches, especially the type karateka are throwing when learning to defend.

Is it just me, or are hook/circular punches ignored by karate and MA in general?

[cheesefrysamurai]

Reading Tallgeese's thread in the jujitsu section motivated me to start this thread.

What as karateka do we continually learn to defend against straight punches?

It's all in the kata. Age uke, shuto, uchi uke, ko uke, shotei it's all useful. Explore your bunkai and others. Kumite is a great help too!

Break down your kata a bit. Consider new bunkai, applying your high and mid level blocks to mawashi tsuki.

Is it just me, or are hook/circular punches ignored by karate and MA in general?[/quote

Circular punches are not generally ignored. For some reason in your current dojo You seem to have a gap. I'm in my 3rd dojo and it's always been there. You are going to have to take the lead and add these defense techniques to your repertoire

[Nidan Melbourne]

it's an interesting thing seeing people train mainly with straight punches. I know the bunkai that I have been taught and examined on have this, but for me this is just more giving ideas for our Kyogi Kumite (Our own explanation of Kata).

For Kyogi Kumite, we test students on a kata where they have to have x number of Self-Defense Routines that explain the Kata.

For Instance our Junior 1st Kyu's must create 10 Saifa Kyogi, which must have a minimum 1 technique from the kata in each. Whilst in Comparison our Senior 1st Kyu's undertake 25 Seeiunchin Kyogi.

When I went for my Shodan + Nidan (25 Seeiunchin for Shodan, 25 Sanseru for Nidan), 90% of my kyogi did not have straight punches or any punches involved. The remaining 10% where it did have a straight punch it was more situational than anything.

But are hook/circular punches ignored by MA? It say maybe, because not all schools want to teach that type of technique which honestly makes me feel like that they (the students) aren't being set up to be able to cope with that type of attack.

[JR 137]

To me it seems like 99% of everything I see - videos, books, etc. start with the attacker in right foot back zenkutsu dachi, left arm gedan brai, stepping forward with a straight punch.

I know this is the simplest and easiest way to initially learn it, but it seems like it stays there.

In kumite, we (at our dojo) don't spar like this. We throw a good mix of straight and circular punches. We defend them pretty well. But all the standardized stuff we do is defending straight punches. We do 10 basic self defenses (all are done with right punch and left punch coming), 10 intermediate self defenses (right and left punch coming), and several yakusoku kumites. They're all standardized and are required for promotion to the next rank. Every punch is a straight punch.

I have no problem, relatively speaking of course, defending hook punches. But why spend so much time defending straight punches? Hook punches are so much more common. Defending them changes the blocks themselves and even more so the mechanics of movement out of the way. It would be like defending nothing but front kicks and ignoring roundhouse kicks.

Perhaps when I reach black belt. When I was a black belt in my previous system, it didn't change in this regard.

I guess what I'm saying is if I started my own system, all the standardized stuff would be against a straight punch and against a hook punch. That's not going to happen any time soon though.

[The Pred]

I mainly teach defense from a hook punch. I would say 60, 40 in regards to hook and straight. 60 being the hook.

[Wastelander]

I think that the tradition of practicing karate against straight punches comes from the idea that the attacker "gets to practice punching" when you do it that way. Personally, I think there are better and more consistent ways to practice punching, and defensive drills should be focused on developing defensive skills. In my dojo, we practice against, straight punches, haymakers, "hockey punches," etc. We also tend to mix them up somewhat randomly, as well as incorporating grabs into the punches, because real fights are chaotic like that.

[sensei8]

Great topic, JR 137!!

Let me preface by saying this...

I, as a Karateka, believe that the short distance between two points is a straight line. This is how we're trained. Even though, in Shindokan, we've more than just a straight punch to rely on.

Whereas, if I'm to choose, and I do, I'll choose the straight over, say like, the roundhouse/hook punch.

BUT...

The proper target MUST HAVE the proper weapon!! Whether it be a straight line or not, that weapon must acclimate to the selected target.

Those that are not trained, in whatever, don't know any better, so they might throw that haymaker as wild as one can and nothing else because, again, they don't know any better. They also, might, believe that a wild haymaker once makes contact, there'll be a lot of power behind it because of the line it took. Those don't know how to use the hips, legs, and posture to generate much more power without depending on what they might depend on. Again, they just don't know of any other way.

In Shindokan, we don't only address how to properly react to a straight punch, but against every conceivable punch known to mankind. Why? Not every attacker is trained, and those that aren't trained, are quite capable of throwing just about every kind of punch, and then some.

[JackD]

I would have thought there is a wider amount of circular punches and strikes available, like the knife hands shuto/haito uchi, and hammer fist tettsui and the good old backfist uraken.

Our club trains against circular strikes, but I'm just wondering if perhaps a block or deflection isn't often similar against both straight or circular strike?

[brickshooter]

It depends on what schools you come out of. For example, if you come from the Shito-Shoto schools, you do a lot of straight punching. But if you come from the Goyu-Kyohushin schools, you do a lot of circular punching. Now why don't the Shito-Shotokan schools practice more versus round punching? Because it screws up their punching form. BTW, the Goyu-Kyokushin do practice straight punching as well. But alot of their punching is at close range, and it's where the circular hooks rule.

[bushido_man96]

To me it seems like 99% of everything I see - videos, books, etc. start with the attacker in right foot back zenkutsu dachi, left arm gedan brai, stepping forward with a straight punch.

I know this is the simplest and easiest way to initially learn it, but it seems like it stays there.

I've noticed the same thing. I wrote an article on it a while back, it bothered me so much. One-steps, or step-sparring, however you refer to it, has its place, but training has to evolve from that, as well. Otherwise, it provides the students with a false sense of what they are capable of.

Hooking and other circular punches are important to address, for the sake of student's well-being. Its likely punches like this will be seen in a confrontation.