Richard Heselton - Karate

It's really hard to ever get enough of watching this guy fight.  There are a number of good kumite clips from the JKA All Japan championships, but I'm a huge fan of this video in particular.  There are several iterations of it to be found on YouTube, but this is easily the best one.

RICH THE ONE STRIKE ARTIST.mp4: http://youtu.be/pn9nXGr0tRs

Problems with typical kumite training

This is certainly one of those topics that has been written about ad nauseum, the best/worst part about the debate about the efficacy of kumite is that there are so many points of view on the subject.  The interesting part is that the debate isn't concerned with traditional versus competition type kumite, or style versus style even; the argument, such as it is, is about whether kumite is necessary or not.  I find this concept to be laughable, mainly because it seems so obvious to me that when you're learning a martial art, fighting would be a more than necessary facet of the training.

For the sake of addressing that argument,  let's just go along the basis of whether or not kumite training is necessary for martial arts training.  There are those that might contend that the true purpose of training in a martil art is character building, or cultivating self-discipline.  These are wonderful reasons to train in a martial art, but frankly you can develop a very strong character through playing any team sport, the type of coach you have will largely dictate how much character development goes on - the same can be said for karate training.  You can, and should, learn self-discipline from your parents, at the end of the day discipline isn't actively taught; it's passively learned through observation.  The role models children have in their lives are the ones that show how to be disciplined.  This is something that can be seen in high-level karate practitioners, but it really should be learned growing up in one's home.  Since we've now realized that you can gain these benefits without martial arts training, let's look at the one aspect of martial training that really can't be taught (safely) anywhere else.  Plain and simple, that's how to fight!  Martial arts without fighting is simply aerobics training.  There's nothing inherently wrong with aerobic training, but just don't call it a martial art.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's dig into the real question; what kind of kumite training is beneficial, what is less beneficial and what is plain useless.  Let's do this backwards, and start with the useless stuff: no-touch sparring and one-step sparring.  Before I'm turned into the pariah of the karate world, let me preface by saying that these aren't completely useless from the point of view of learning mechanics and as light training, but for an advanced karate-ka or advanced fighter, this is just not useful outside of anything but a warm-up situation.  What is the purpose of sparring?  Pressure testing technique and maneuvers against a fully resisting opponent to figure out what you can make work and what you can't.  Naturally we aren't trying to kill our training partners, but we do need to know, as fighters, if we can deliver strong technique effectively.  The other draw back of no-touch sparring is that one will never experience the feeling of getting hit in the face.  I know that the best defense is "no be there," but what if you aren't fast enough once?  That's all it takes!  Learn what it feels like to take a hit, and learn how to survive taking  the hit.  That's one of the greatest benefits of hard contact sparring.

One-step sparring is a semi-effective training tool that is unfortunately taken much too far to be truly effective in training fighting technique.  The idea of a single attack and single defense is nice, but frankly after throwing the block, there will rarely be sufficient time to throw an effective counter attack.  One-step sparring, in my opinion, is most effective when used to train intercepting attacks and limb destruction.  Don't be that instructor that strings along 3+ techniques because it looks awesome and claim it's an effective combat skill.  Be up front with your students and tell them that it's just a fun lesson in mechanics that will be largely useless from a self-defense context after the second technique.

Enough bashing on traditional training methodologies, let's move on to the less beneficial stuff.  That's the WKF and most open-style tournament sparring rule sets.  The nature of the game, and it is a game, encourages fighters to move in such a way as to be completely vulnerable to a truly aggressive attack from anything outside a karate/taekwando/kung fu syllabus.  The average karate competitor might claim that bouncing like a rabbit keeps him mobile because he's light no his feet, but there's a big difference between being light on one's feet and being airborne.  Watch most MMA fighters or kickboxers, they are incredibly mobile but they rarely, if ever, leave the ground.  That being said, there is some benefit to be garnered from WKF type competition; timing, linear speed, foot work and speed.  Reaction timing and explosive ability are the skilsl that will carry over into a real fight, the rest is largely fluff.

Now onto the meat; full- or semi full-contact sparring.  Shobu ippon falls somewhere along the spectrum between beneficial and less than beneficial; hard contact is encouraged, and fighters aren't overly bouncy.  However, there is a lot of focus on the single technique, which isn't a bad thing but it's far from the be-all-end-all; sometimes a long flurry of punches is called over to end a fight.  This kind of hard-contact sparring is great, but not quite as good as the kind of sparring you'd see in muay Thai and Kyokushin sparring.  The purists are already rolling there eyes and whining "but that's all sport!  We're training for self-defense!"  That's all well and good, go and get your head caved in.  There is no self-defense, there is self protection and situational awareness.  Self-defense is when you're surprised, if you're training for that then you're training for the impossible.  If you're surprised then your reactions will be visceral, no matter how much you train that head block-reverse punch combination, if somebody comes at you with a knife, that will be the last thing on your mind.  Situational awareness gives one the opportunity to fight for their lives, or avoid getting into the situation requiring it.

I will always encourage any person to take up Shotokan, I love it and the benefits that I mentioned earlier are there; if you find the right dojo you will develop strong character and self-discipline, through your own hardwork and observations.  That being said, even if your dojo doesn't encourage it, I urge you to slap n some boxing gloves and head gear and go at it with your friends and training partners.  Your character, self-discipline and your confidence will thank you...your body may not right away, but it will.  I promise you.

Elements of Effective Technique

Let's ignore the fact that there are several different definitions for "effective" with regards to fighting techniques, and stick with the basic premise behind self-defense: put the other guy down.  Now with this in mind, what creates an effective technique?  For me, and my karate, the three ingredients for an effective technique are: distance, body dynamics and timing, in this order.  These are my ingredients for effective technique in a self-defense situation where execution and impact are paramount to one’s safety.  When we’re looking at shiai kumite and effective technique in that environment we might view these three elements in a different order, but they are all important in either arena.

Distance

Distance, or maai, is of paramount importance when discussing self-defense or self-protection.  Having proper distancing assures one remains out of range of an attacker, or within range to create decisive impact.  The ideal is distance away from one’s attacker, with karate we always press the idea of never attacking first; “There is no first strike in karate.”  This is, naturally, an ideal situation, and one’s distance or nearness one’s attacker dictates whether one will need to make the first physical strike; confrontation doesn’t necessarily always start with physical contact.  There are, of course, physical and verbal cues to be aware of.  If one’s distance is beyond the range of the attacker there is little to consider aside from deciding whether to maintain that distance and diffuse the situation or, if necessary, to close the distance and pursue physical means of diffusion.

When one decides to close distance, or begins the situation within the attacker’s range, the question now becomes of what weapons are available to both parties.  Sometimes there will be external weapons (ie. knives, bats, guns, etc,), and this extra variables will also dictate what the attacker’s actual distance is.  These are practical considerations, but beyond the purview of this article.  Once you are committed to the fight, what distance are you in?  There are a variety of combat ranges from kicking, to punching, clinch and then grappling; these are, of course, listed in order from farthest to nearest.  Once one’s distance is determined, the effective weapons are also determined.

Body Dynamics

I am using this term as a catch-all phrase to include every aspect of mechanical execution of the chosen technique as well as creation of power behind the technique.

Great, you’ve found your effective distance in this particular situation, and you know what technique you will be using…but does that mean you can make it work for you?  What if I am attacked and I throw a wide swooping punch that does nothing more than rap my knuckles against my attacker’s shoulder?  What have I gained aside from the obviously bruised ego?

With body dynamics we have many things to consider, large details down to the minutia.  The bigger concepts, depending on the technique would be hip rotation and compression & expansion.  Without utilizing both of these ideas simultaneously very little power will be generated behind the punch/kick/etc.  Let’s assume you can get your hips moving properly, what about extension?  If you don’t extend, you won’t hit, or you won’t hit deeply enough.  This means you have to be able to extend from the hips and from the shoulders without overreaching and unbalancing yourself.  Moving further outward we come to stability of the joints.  All of one’s joints need to be stable and strong to be able to absorb and disperse the forces rebounding back into one’s body upon impact.  Newton’s laws ensure that an equal and opposite force will react back into one’s body.  Stability at the shoulder ensures that punch’s power will go primarily into the target and not back through the shoulder dislocating it.  Finally we come down to the alignments of the bones to create the most stable striking surface.  Punching with the wrong knuckles or kicking with wrong part of the foot can create terrible consequences in the form of broken wrists or ankles, or even fingers and toes.  While these are not life threatening injuries on their own, they can be terribly inconvenient when one’s life and health are on the line.

Each of these aspects needs to be trained, constantly and with intensity.  Body dynamics should be practiced solo, with partners and on striking surfaces; the makiwara and heavy bag are best for true impact training and learning proper bone alignments.

Timing

The last crucial element of creating an effective technique is timing.  This is last on the list due to the fact that one can still hit an opponent hard without timing it properly, but correct timing can make the difference between inducing pain and finishing the confrontation.  The classic example is of two trains colliding, the faster the combined speeds, the greater the collision and damage.  The same goes for two bodies in motion.  If the goal is to punch the target, it’s better to make contact as one’s opponent is entering one’s range, or is at the very least moving forward.  Practicing timing can be done in several ways; generally and specifically.

A simple drill is to play a song that is fairly repetitive, generally techno and dance type music are best for this.  Every time a sound, tone or lyric repeats, throw a chosen technique or combination.  Think about the previously mentioned elements, of course, but emphasis is on the proper timing.  Outside dojo, one can also practice this idea with simple drills.  While driving, taps the steering wheel every time a car of a particular car passes by.  Don’t search for the color, but whenever it comes naturally within one’s site, tap the steering wheel.

Practicing timing with a partner is the best and ideal method of drilling this element.  Have the opponent do a specific body action, whether that might be a specified attack, or a tap on the shoulder, or a body fake, it doesn’t matter.  The partner acts, and one’s job is to catch them, with the specified reaction technique.

Other Considerations

Naturally, you might think that I’ve ignored physical strength and more importantly intent.  It’s important to remember that at all times it is one’s intent that determines whether or not a technique will succeed in putting down the attacker.  Remember this one point, if all else fails and these three points are not in sync, “Speed, surprise and violence of action.”

Mae-geri, how useful is it really?

I love the mae-geri, it's my favorite technique in any striking style, and when done properly it's so archetypal of Shotokan it's almost scary.  That being said, there are in my opinion several draw backs to using the mae-geri.  If you're like me, and participate in karate competitions you will rarely if ever see the mae-geri thrown.  The most commonly utilized techniques are gyaku-zuki, kizami-zuki, mawashi-geri, uraken-uchi and ura mawashi-geri...and very likely in that order at that.  Mae-geri, however, if used is largely thrown ineffectively and used as a set up for another technique (ie. fake into mawashi-geri, fake into ashi-barai, etc.)  There's nothing wrong with doing it this way, in fact, I've been known to use mae-geri in this fashion from time to time as well.  Then again, it's such a staple of Shotokan training we should be able to use it more effectively.  When done right, mae-geri should look more like this::

The gentleman performing the mae-geri in question is a sempai of mine in the American JKA, and an outstanding fighter and all around karate-ka.  As you can see his mae-geri pretty much cuts his opponent in half, very little backward motion of the opponent.  Hit and fall.  That's mae-geri done right!

Making one’s mae-geri useful takes a lot of time and effort since performing the kick the way one does in kihon is not optimal for combat or kumite.  There is a similar problem associated with using mawashi-geri effectively, the technique is too big for its own good.  To cover for this many fighters have begun cutting the kick through their center to shorten the distance and tighten up the arc of the kick. For my sempai, he’s perfected the kick by way of impeccable timing.  The timing is one aspect that needs to be trained, but sometimes it’s simpler to create new ways to set-up the kick.  Here are several tips that can be used independently, but work best when put together:

• First tip: rather than lifting the knee, tuck the heel first.  When you’re in kamae, the back foot is significantly more difficult to see.  By tucking the heel first, one can more easily disguise the following forward action of the hip until it’s too late.
• Second tip: begin the action not by pushing off the ground with the kicking leg, but by collapsing onto the supporting leg.  Combined with the heel tuck, the kick begins from a much closer starting position rather than from farther away.  Collapsing onto the lead will cut the distance by 5-6 inches at least.
• Third tip: create a visual fence.  Geoff Thompson talks about his “fence” technique, where his arms are used as a barrier and essentially as a literal dead-line by which he can determine when he’s in danger.  By incorporating your arms into the collapse of your supporting leg, you draw your opponent’s eyes away from your body and towards your hands.  This can be done in several ways, the easiest is to just lift your hands, palms forward toward your opponent as you load forward.  This does several things, first it draws the attention, but there’s also the psychological suggestion that your opponent should back off which will generally lead to a backwards head lean and a breaking of kuzushi.  You can also use your hands to throw techniques, kizami-zuki gyaku-zuki for instance.  Put your fists in your opponents face and they won’t notice your leg until you’re burying your kick.  The last option, and slowest for most people, would be to use your lead leg as a visual fence by throwing or faking a kick before dropping into the mae-geri.

These are just suggestions and ideas that have worked for me to increase the effectiveness of my kick.  There is always the question of improving one’s kick mechanics and hip dynamics to create more efficient movement, as well as training of timing and distance to improve the mae-geri.

If you have any ideas or suggestions of your own, please share in the comments!  Thanks for reading!

Core Exercise for the Martial Artist

Every fitness expert these days will tout the necessity of performing an endless number of core exercise and repetitions to achieve the lean, chiseled look that everybody is looking for.  The problem with the current paradigm of core training is that majority of the movements put the lumbar spine through of excessive degree of flexion.  Dr. Stuart McGill, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, is the foremost specialist on lower-back pain and disorders.  He has worked with countless athletes to rehabilitate lower back issues and to increase and improve athletic ability.  He has done a significant amount of research regarding spinal flexion and how detrimental it is to overdo these exercises.  The exercises that fall under this category are any that can be classified as a crunch or sit-up.  The problem being that overuse injuries resulting from regular lumbar spinal flexion can cause herniated disks as well as nerve impingement issues.  Not to say that Dr. McGill doesn't have his clients/patients doing any kind of spinal flexion, but it is limited to a select few exercises that he has developed.  That being said, we then have to question the common use of spinal flexion within typical calisthenic type exercises for the general population.  I highly recommend reading Dr. McGill's book Low Back Disorders (click here to buy).

My experience with martial arts has largely been limited to two arts: Shotokan Karate and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  I have dabbled and experienced a number of other arts as to have formed an opinion on what might constitute necessary or useful core exercises.  We have to first emphasize that the core is not simply the abdominal muscles – that is a very common misconception.  The “core” of the body actually extends from just below the pectorals in the front of the body and the latissmus dorsi in the back down to the hip flexors and gluteals; some physiologists have been known to include the upper portion of the hamstrings and lower portion of the pectorals into the equation.  Since this is a karate-based blog, I’ll focus most of my attention on the core exercises which would be ideal for the karate-ka.

We have to remember what the primary action is for the core in typical karate training; and that is bracing and rotating.  There is very little flexion involved in karate outside of the occasional judo throw that might be included.  I will ignore the flexion exercise for the time being.  When we talk about bracing, we’re referring to our body’s ability to absorb and disperse impact and forces that occur upon around extremities.  Consider one’s natural reaction to being punched in the stomach by one’s loving Sensei.  Your body will crunch down and your stomach will push forward to create a stable surface for the impact.  There is no curving forward of your body, simply your shoulders and shoulder blades pull down and luck into your lower back, and your hips pull up into your abdominals.

There are several ways to practice this form of bracing, the first and best would be to perform and squat pattern exercise, followed by any deadlifting/hip-hinge movement.  Barring one’s access to barbells, the next best choice is to incorporate the plank.  The plank is most likely the most boring abdominal exercise known to man, but when done correctly one learns how to brace one’s core while maintaining the ability to breathe normally.  When taking the plank position, remember that is important for the body to stay in a rigid line, with your hips level with your shoulders.  Once this position is achieved, feel your shoulder blades and gradually pull them down so they are packed into your lower back.  Also tighten your glutes and hold everything tight.  Now lock into this position and hold for as long as you can.  Rinse and repeat.  This exercise will primarily target the transverse abdominis and the spinal erectors.

The next exercise that is advisable is the side plank, this takes the regular plank and applies to unilaterally, which will primarily target the obliques and the hip flexors rather than the transverse abdominis or the spinal erectors.  From a standard plank position, rotate your body to one side so only one elbow is down, and stacked directly below your shoulder.  No contract your body in similar fashion to the standard plank; you will notice that the side closer to the ground will have to work harder.  Don’t forget to both sides.

The third exercise would be anything that forces your spinal erectors to work independently.  My personal preference is for hyperextensions, but not everybody has access to the correct apparatus.  Performing Supermans are a viable substitute for this movement.  Lie on one’s stomach, and contract the lower back to pull one’s shoulders and legs off the ground.  Hold for as long as you can, and again rinse and repeat.

These three exercises alone will satisfy the bracing concept.  Rotating is another animal entirely.  There are hundreds of exercises that one can use to train the rotatory capabilities of the core.  The two I recommend are upper and lower Russian twist.  To perform the upper, sit on the floor with one’s knees bent 90 degrees, feet flat.  Lean back 45 degrees and lock your core similarly to the plank and proceed to rotate side to side.  You can add resistance by holding a medicine ball or a weight plate on your chest, and increase the difficulty by extending your arms and touching the floor on each side.  It’s important that the core remains tight and locked throughout the movement.

The lower Russian twist is much different, but equally effective.  Lie flat on your back, and lift your legs straight up to point at the ceiling.  From this position lower both legs to one side and then the other.  The legs do not need to touch the floor, just go as low as you can while keeping your shoulders and upper back flat on the floor.  These can be done with legs straight or bent.

There you have it, an effective and all-encompassing set of core exercises to satisfy the needs of the average karate-ka.

No-Gi Karate

I've been thinking for a few years now about the decline in popularity that karate has gone through over the years.  Like any martial art, the popularity will wax and wane; however, there are those that attempt to stop the waning of the popularity by changing their martial art into something that it was never intended to be.  You all know what I'm talking about, that's the rise of Extreme Martial Arts (XMA) or these karate schools that supposedly teach MMA, but in fact attempt to teach a highly bastardized form of grappling while teaching garbage karate to boot.  There are to this day a number of highly successful karate instructors that I am friends with, all within the AJKA-I.  They all adhere to a very strict traditional way of teaching, but they bring their martial art into the modern world, and apply it liberally in a variety of situations.  Many of them have a significant level of training in grappling arts and mix that into their teaching, which leads to having students capable of acting within a variety of combat ranges.

That being said, I turn to the example of successful grappling arts that have flourished over the years, namely Judo and more recently Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  Judo has been seeing something of a decline but the tactics and techniques are still highly sought after and utilized throughout the self-defense and martial/combat arts world; specifically the use of hip throws and foot work (ie. Ronda Rousey).  To focus more on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, however, the sport has seen a surge in popularity since the first Ultimate Fighting Championship events where Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) led the way to victory by way of Royce Gracie.  Now BJJ has found international popularity, to the extent that BJJ champions are international celebrities.

So what has made this sport successful?  First, it was certainly the effectiveness that it showed in the ring, and brought awareness of multiple ranges of combat to a wider audience.  Secondly, there is a sporting aspect to the art, and not strictly a quasi-Eastern methodology.  And third, the practitioners and instructors brought the art into the real world by introducing the concept of no-gi jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling.  Wrestling has long been a combat sport of its own, however, it was the advent of BJJ that brought about submission wrestling.

It is this sense of reality that made BJJ so popular amongst the general population, so why can’t we do this with the karate world?  Karate has always been taught in the gi, but when will you ever enter a self-defense situation where you or your attacker will be wearing a gi, or even a gi-like item of clothing?  The closest you might find is a heavy wool coat, but we can’t train for the slimmest eventualities.

That’s where the idea of no-gi karate came into my head, there are many challenges to implementing this into a traditional dojo setting without it becoming just another kickboxing class, but the point is that it is necessary.  By training the karate technique in short and a t-shirt, or even pants and a shirt and shoes we can really learn what works and what doesn’t and to what extent.  Perhaps in sneakers the typical body shifting and twisting might not be as effective on a concrete slab as it is when barefoot on a mat.  We have to remember that traditional karate training takes place a sterile, controlled and relatively safe environment.  We don’t have to worry about those other considerations of environment, but we can bring new variables into the picture.

How would one structure a “no-gi” karate session?  It’s important to know that one would have to largely dispense with fundamental kihon and kata as training tools in these sessions.  This is the kind of session that would emphasize kumite kihon, from jiyu-kamae or even from shizen-tai.  Start a typical class with a good calisthenic based warm-up to get all the joints and muscles moving, and move into jiyu-kamae technique, and then into a more natural stance for combat.  One can even more ably incorporate bunkai training here, because now we’re discussing karate for pure self-defense and this where bunkai is most useful.

Those are two-ish cents on this subject, please feel free to share and comment!

Get back to the basics

Every martial art seems to have a seminar circuit that goes around the country/world on a regular basis.  The AJKA-I is no different.  With two highly proficient and successful Sensei at the top of the organization; Edmond Otis Sensei and Leslie Safar Sensei, you can always expect to gain great insight into Shotokan by training under them.  The problem, however, is that the more immature among us attend these seminars thinking they will learn some new, flashy and fancy technique to add to their repertoire.  While this can occasionally be the case, the fact of the matter is that these Sensei are advancing in age, and cannot perform the flashier technique as easily.  More than this simple fact of life, however, is the fact that as the body ages, the mind learns to become sharper when pushed to do so.  What does the advanced karate-ka do at this point?  They fall back on the simplest and most fundamental aspects of karate training: distance, timing and the most basic kihon.  At the most recent training camp I attended with Sensei Otis, a lot large amount of time was spent on practicing basic body dynamics: expansion/contraction and rotation.  These body dynamics were then applied to the most basic of karate technique: kizami-zuki, gyaku-zuki and mae-geri.  These are the bread and butter of any successful karate-ka.

That being said, this all came to mind having read an article on GrappleArts.com about a newly made BJJ black belt having a private lesson with a high-level BJJ instructor.  His request was to learn more about the most basic techniques, and how to execute them in an advanced fashion.  This is the main benefit of the seminar circuit, and something that shouldn't be forgotten in daily training.  Go in the dojo and train the fancy stuff, but remember it is the basics that ground all technique from kata to kumite.  The article is linked below:

http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2014/02/a-blackbelts-private-lesson-with-a-jiu-jitsu-master-by-mark-mullen/