Advantage of Traditional Karate & Kobudo

What gives a martial arts practitioner the advantage over many others including opponents who are larger?

It is the constant, weekly training in martial arts along with training in proven methods - methods that have allowed many karate-ka over the past centuries survive aggressive attacks often unscathed. One of the effects of practice leads to mushin - that karate state of mind that allows muscle memory to do the thinking for us. But in addition to learning to react to aggression without thinking, karate teaches us secrets on how to increase acceleration in blocks and strikes, how to strike with the maximum, possible striking force, how to focus strikes for maximum effect, where to strike to provide the most pain, or to knock out the attacker, and how to develop shitai kori or body hardening. Karate does not give anyone invincibility, but it does provide an upper edge along with physical fitness and muscle. 

The weekly practice of kata - or karate forms, helps build these characteristics as long as the practitioner trains properly. Personally, I practice kata ever other day - as this seems to give me maximum benefit. But I also add weight training, body hardening, kobudo, and teaching to this regimen on other days and some on the same day to balance out my exercise routine - my normal routine has me training 6 to 7 days a week (which I have done for much of the past 50+ years).

If done improperly, training in kata can also have negative effects - so it is very important for a student to train in kata under martial arts instructors who understand kata as there are many sport martial artists who practice kata improperly leading to harmful effects.

I taught martial arts and self-defense at the University of Wyoming for more than three decades and I tried to emphasize hitotsuki hitogeri philosophy and training - striking an attacker with focus at pressure points to end an attack in one strike - as you never know what the attacker intends or what is coming next. For those students who made it to yudansha (black belt) at our University of Wyoming hombu dojo as well as our affiliated dojos, I could see the power literally with every block, punch and kick.

While teaching karate and kobudo at the University of Wyoming, I was very proud of our students and after we affiliated with Juko Kai International, our power, technique and body hardening methods continued to improve. But then, one day, things changed.

One of my out-standing shihan, who had tremendous technique wanted my permission to attend a tournament. I had no problem, and I felt he did not need my permission - he was an individual with his own mind, but still it was nice of him to ask. I was proud when he and a couple of other students  returned with gold, silver and bronze medals in essentially every event they entered with the exception that they had all been disqualified in kumite for striking too hard - actually, this made me even more proud than the medals they had received in kata and kobudo.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time what this was leading to. I thought this would be a one time event, but it continued and our students continued bringing home medals - and it was about this time I retired from the university and moved the Hombu dojo to Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa Arizona and left the University of Wyoming dojo to the same shihan who was into tournaments.

Later, I returned to the University of Wyoming for a series of clinics and then I discovered what tournaments do to a martial artist. It was sad. My shihan had good intentions, and his technique was nearly flawless when I left, but all of the tournament preparations left the students at UW without focus. Where had the focus gone? I believe the tournament preparations focused on no focus and more on performance. Tournament fighters were not allowed to strike with focus or power, and kata had to look more like a ballet than shadow boxing. I felt like I had been staved in the back and I lost my temper - but now I realize I just should have moved on and considered the UW dojo a loss.

So, when a person practices kata - they must focus every technique. Sometimes they need to do kata with as much power and focus that they can generate and other times they need to slow the kata down (but still with full or near full focus and power). Most good karate schools on Okinawa focus every single strike and block in kata. On Japan, they do the same, but they add ma - or timing, which can also cause some problems. On Okinawa (the source of karate), the students learn to visualize each self-defense (bunkai) technique while they practice kata.

University of Wyoming Campus Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai 2003

So, as you train or 'shadow box' with your kata, and if you feel your technique lacks power and your imaginary opponent walks away laughing at you, you need to generate a lot more power and focus. And you need to do this each time you practice kata - the only thing you should ever change is acceleration of strikes and blocks - the focus must always be there and kata should never look like a tai chi form. One day fast, another day slow - in this way, your muscles learn to react fast with power, but also they learn to recognize each individual technique. And remember, how hard you train and how hard you strike will carry over to the street when you are attacked. If you train like tai chi, this is how you will defend yourself. If you punch like Bruce Lee, you will defend like Bruce Lee. This is also how you should train in kata bunkai (individual self-defense applications built in kata) - full focus and power. Unless your uke (partner) is well-trained in shitai kori, you don't want to hit him or her with full power during these exercises, but you can definitely strike the air adjacent to them with full force - just make sure it is off to their side and not directed at them - and don't wear gloves as these give your muscles improper feed back.

Now back to size. Karate can give you a distinct advantage. Remember the story of David and Goliath in the Holy Bible? Think it was a fable? Recently archeologists discovered artifacts in Israel, including a Hebrew text about this battle. The 1993 and 1994 discoveries indicated a Philistine giant name Goliath, an 9 foot 8 inch man, was defeated by a small Shepard boy named David in the 10th century BC. Goliath was wearing armor, about 120 pounds in weight, along with his sword and other weapons, and likely was a frightening figure - but can you imagine how slow he moved? He would have had gigantism and not only would have had awkward movements, but also poor vision. David could have ran circles around Goliath until he took one of his chalcedony projectiles (flint, agate, jasper) about the size of a golf ball and accelerated this rock to about 80 miles per hour striking Goliath in the forehead with a kinetic energy of about 90 joules - enough to kill him. An example of BC kobudo.

In martial arts, one can develop extremely powerful and fast strikes. So fast are some that they can accelerate a strike faster than a snake. And rocks and bricks are no match for focused strikes. And there are examples of martial artists knocking off horns of bulls with shuto (karate chop) and puncturing fuel cans with their toes.

Traditional Karate in Arizona - Looking Back at 2014

Karate kata training at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate in Mesa and Gilbert Arizona.  Kata (forms) when
practiced correctly become a living encyclopedia of self-defense applications, meditation and unmatched physical fitness.
Here, students and black belts train together in naifanchi shoran kata in 2014.

Hard to believe that 2014 is gone. Let's remember 2014 and then look forward to another year at the Arizona Hombu located in the Phoenix valley along Baseline Road at the border of Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa, Arizona.

2014 began at a snails pace following the holidays. When I ran the dojo at the University of Wyoming from 1977 to 2007, this was typical. There was a large influx of students beginning in the Fall semester that would decline around Thanksgiving. Students would sporadically wander into the university dojo following the New Year and then we would see another decline at Spring Break followed by a surge followed with a decline at summer semester.

Training at the Arizona Hombu, Mesa, Arizona

At the beginning of 2007, I decided to relocate our Hombu to Arizona. Over the past decades, I taught martial arts at four different universities, and all followed the same student population declines and surges - but by opening a private dojo, I thought these fluctuations would pass - not so - it appears the entire world follows this schedule. And as far as the students who are consistent in their training and appearance at the dojo, they are the few who move on to the level of yudansha.

In 2014, we had our surges and declines, but something else happened. We lost some to the poor economy. As far as I can tell, government continues to lie about how bad our economy really is. This is one of the primary reasons why we never see politicians in traditional martial arts - its because they cannot differentiate what is right from wrong and traditional martial arts are somewhat of an enigma to them because a person must be honest.

Training in kata, Sensei Harden practices oi-zuki

Overall, we have a high level of educated people training in martial arts at our dojo primarily because of our past association with four universities.

In 2014, we had students move out of state to find work: one long-time student finally gave up and moved near his family in Florida. We also had two long-time students (engineers) transferred out-of-state by their companies because downsizing. Only a few years ago, we lost another engineer for the same reason. I have not seen any improvement in the economy since 2008 in my martial arts, geology or writing professions, and I wonder how government can get away with such a poor record.mAnyway, let's look at 2014, now that it has passed.

Tuesday nights we trained in kihon and kata. During the year, we focused on the basic kata. Periodically, we split the class into groups while I taught more advanced students and other instructors - Dai-Shihan Adam, Sensei Borea, Sensei Harden and Sensei Scofield taught other groups of different levels. In the second, or more advanced class on Tuesday nights, we focused on advanced kata including Naihanchi Shodan, Rohai, Passai Dai, Unsu and Passai Sho.

Defending against an attacker with rifle.

Throughout 2014, Wednesday nights included advanced training in self-defense as well as shitai kori for a few high-ranking members of the dojo. Shitai kori is body hardening, and the most advanced form of this part of the art was created by Dai-Soke Sacharnoski of Juko Kai International in the 20th century. Wednesday evenings we work on defense against single attackers, multiple attackers, wrestlers, street fighters and karate and jujutsu practitioners. We include against armed assailants with knifes, guns, clubs, rifles, swords, hammers, etc. Much of the self-defense is part of the bunkai from kata and we emphasize the concept of hitotsuki or basically one-punch knockouts. This is one of the major differences between traditional karate and sport karate. Traditional karate teaches karate is a weapon and one must learn to finish an attacker with power and focus with just one or two strikes. In sport karate, focus is minor and students are taught point fighting for trophies. So we teach all of our students including various women's groups and seniors, to use power. If a person cannot finish an opponent in one or two strikes, there is something wrong with their technique.

Defending against an attacker with gun

Every so often, we'll add a new training exercise such as training in the park to give them the feel for defending on various surfaces. In the past, we've even turned out the lights in the dojo and strategically placed black belt muggers in the dojo allowing students to walk through one at a time.

On Wednesdays, we also teach use of belts, towels, ropes, coins, car keys etc, for self-defense. We'll even add in a few scenarios on how to defend in close quarters - such as on an airplane - we find this to be important as we have a group of students who are engineers and several who are pilots.

Thursday evenings, we focus on Shorin-Ryu kobudo, modern kobudo and samurai arts. These are all martial arts weapons including a variety of tools found around the house and garden. During 2014, our students trained in nunchaku and we focused on this weapon for much of the year learning to use nunchaku in basics, self-defense applications and also as kata. We learned six nunchaku kata over the year and also how to apply all moves in these kata as self-defense. After spending much of the year on Nunchaku, our class began training with nitanbo and now they are focusing on kama. Kama is a common garden tool used by both Okinawan and American farmers - it is sickle. In 2014, we training in self-defense application against an attacker with a sword, club, knife and also learned Gama shodan kata. In 2015, we continue to train with kama and will soon start learning gama nidan and then gama sandan kata.

using nunchaku to defend against knife attack

In the samurai arts class, we trained with hanbo and naginata much of the year and we then started with sojutsu. Our students learned to block, strike and throw opponents with the hanbo. We learned the long yari kata and then began training with bunkai. Later this year, our samurai arts class will start to focus on jujutsu and then katana.

Defending attack using nunchuks

During 2014, we also had the Arizona-Utah Shorin-Ryu karate and kobudo clinic as well as the Utah Gassuku. We plan to have the same two annual clinics in 2015 as well as attend the Juko Kai clinic in Texas. We are also expecting visits from some of our shihan and sensei from Colorado, Massachusetts, Utah and Wyoming in 2015. I should also point out that in 2014, my fondness of rocks led me to publish another book.

Shitai kori (body hardening). This aspect
of Shorin-Ryu karate is only taught to
our most advanced students. The
basics of the art are taught at the Arizona
Hombu and more advanced applications are
taught to a few students who are invited to
attend the annual Juko Kai International 
clinic in New Braunfels, Texas. Here Chase
Cassidy, 1st degree black belt from Gillette,
Wyoming learns to accept strikes to vital
parts of the body.

If you get some free time, stop in and visit our hombu dojo - we would love to meet you.

Arizona-Utah clinic at the Arizona Hombu in Gilbert - Mesa, Arizona

Self-Defense class at the Arizona Hombu

Gama (kama) training during kobudo class at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate.

Sojutsu samurai martial arts training with yari (okinawan spear)