Following my recent article on bunkai and choreography, I found myself returning to the idea of “predictable responses”. It’s a familiar concept, and on the surface it makes sense. Certain actions often provoke certain reactions. . But often isn’t always. Nothing is guaranteed. . Yes, bodies respond to input. Strike, pull, disrupt balance – something […]
Predictable Responses Are Not Guaranteed Outcomes. Read More »
Bunkai – in some circles it is getting better. Practitioners and instructors are beginning to understand the reality of violence rather than relying on the familiar, stylized karate-type attacks. Intent, distance, and targets are improving. In others, however, there is still a long way to go. . But something fundamental is still missing in many
Bunkai Without Reaction Is Still Choreography. Read More »
Some of the messages I receive are incredibly short-sighted. “You would fail if you were taken to the ground.” . Firstly – fail at what? . I don’t compete anymore. The karate I teach, and have taught for several decades, is practical and pragmatic in approach. Yes, we occasionally have fun and do competition-style sparring,
“Take Them to the Ground” That Is The Failure Read More »
In response to my recent article about a video of a practitioner demonstrating self-defense techniques, coming from a respected karate legacy, a comment stated that it is virtually impossible to train for real-world encounters, and that even MMA fighters lose in street situations. . Statements like this often sound insightful, but they hide a deeper
Real Violence Isn’t a Fight – And That Changes Everything. Read More »
I was watching a video of a practitioner going through some self-defense techniques, presented as coming from a respected karate legacy. . To be honest, it would have been totally ineffective for that goal. . In a recent article, I explained how, as a young man in my early 20s, actively competing at a national
Choreography and the Dangers of Untested Confidence. Read More »
Karate has always been a long road. It was never meant to be a collection of certificates to gather, but a lifetime of practice that slowly shapes the person who walks it. . The early grades mark progress, but they are only the beginning. Shodan literally means “first step”, the point at which you finally
What Seniority Was Meant to Represent – When Titles Outpace Training. Read More »
In a previous article, I wrote about how suddenly violence can appear, and how little control any of us may have over its arrival. . I also wrote about an incident from my early twenties, when I was attacked while out running. That experience stayed with me not because of technique, but because of what
Training for What You Can’t Predict – When Practice Meets Reality. Read More »
Yesterday, a seventy-eight-year-old man was gunned down in his own home near where I live. What does this have to do with martial arts? . Nothing. . And yet, it has everything to do with awareness. . Would awareness have saved this man? Probably not. And that matters. Not every act of violence is preventable,
The Part of Violence Few Train For: Prepared for Practice, Not for Shock. Read More »
Driving past a martial arts school yesterday, I noticed some of the students leaving – children barely three or four years old. . Personally, I have never taught children this young. In my opinion, karate for this age group is little more than structured play and games. If this is your income source and it
Purpose Shapes Practice – Karate, Context, and Age. Read More »
In my last couple of articles I wrote about sequences in kata. Yes, of course they exist, but relying on them like a script is simply not feasible. No one knows what an attacker is likely to do. However, we do have clues. . Any form of martial art requires an instructor to demonstrate principles,
Kata Must Survive Failure, Not Choreography. Read More »
Following my last article, one of the comments said that karate’s Chinese influences were based on systems that used clearly defined sequences, and therefore Okinawan kata must have been designed the same way. . In that article I also mentioned that many people assume kata itself is made up of clearly defined sections – that
Karate, Context, and the Problem With Certainty. Read More »
(Approx 2 minute 45 second read) I had a couple of questions in the comments on an article I wrote about understanding kata beyond individual techniques. . The first was, “When or how does one know when a particular sequence in a kata has actually finished and when the next sequence starts?” . The second
Where Does a Kata Sequence Really End? Read More »
