Karate Assistance

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Help With All Aspects of Karate

If you are having trouble with techniques, kata, kumite, philosophy, then please email with your questions and specific issues and I'll post answers here.

Include in your request for help:

1. Rank

2. Detailed description of thing for which you need help.

3. You may remain anon, but I don't see why this would be an issue. Whatever you're coming up against as an issue- everyone else has and so in karate we share the same problems :) 

 

Uraken

My first email arrived not more than 5 minutes ago. Oddly I *am* suspicious that the sender may already have the answers he says he's looking for! lol But here goes.

Uraken (back-fist strike) is not all that tricky to master. Otoshi (downwards)uraken is usually harder to perfect. But there's nothing to it. The idea is to point the elbow in the smae general direction as you want your blow to go, and let the forearm, armed with uraken, swing out snappily from the elbow until contact is made.

Step-by-step

1. Move striking arm, leading from elbow to maximum sidewards movement. (This is really common and we call it yoko empi- sideways elbow strike).

2. Allow for your forearm to whip around and ram top of seiken (fore-fist) down on to target.

3. Now let both steps merge into one fluid motion- as with all Karate techniques, each step is simply part of one movement from inertia to action, from a state of readiness to performing the technique.

 

Mistakes to avoid

1. Keep elbow on line horizontally parallel to shoulder- do not let it drop too low or ride up too high, kays?

2. Draw an imagined line from your shoulder to target. Under no circumstances let your elbow push sideways past this line- it leaves you very vulnerable against quick, close-range counters; and you will find it a dickens of a time gathering in your arm after your uraken misses!

Advanced Uraken:

1. When in Kiba-dachi: aim to use thrust in direction of attacj using hips. Hips need only move two or so inches, and must stop exactly when uraken does.

2. In zenkutsu-dachi: move your momentum fast towards target using hip (as above) and drive rear leg into floor. Practise the rear leg drive by lifting front leg (an inch or so) and feel yourself leaning in at target. Strike with uraken just before foot reaches the ground again.

3. 4th kyu and above should practise generating power for uraken from slide in and out method. Front leg of stance is recoiled back to a more or less feet together gatherere position. Launch into the stance with uraken.

 

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Should Children Practise Sanchin?

There has been a little bit of talk in the past about whether or not it's beneficial practise for children to engage with the Sanchin kata. My theory on the matter is that there are those who think the breathing used (ibuki) is harmful. But it is not harmful at all. The breathing method we use when doing Sanchin is not more spectacular than the art of blowing up a balloon. The only difference is that we put in a final effort to really expel the air from our lungs after each breath we put into whatever balloon we may imagine. It's like

 long breath out ----> final push to drive out residual air

 That is not harmful as an action. It all comes down to common physiology. Adults and children have two parts to their lung volume. They have the usual volume as they breathe in and out, and they also have a reserve volume that can be forced out even when one usually considers their lungs to be emptied. Anyone who has had to go for sports testing or respiratory therapy knows that gawd-awful feeling- being hooked to the testing machine that measures breathing. They get you to blow out hard, then when you feel there is nothing more, they get you to "keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going!" They are measuring the volume of the lung and the reserve volume.

Children who practise this kata are not engaging in anything harmful- they give the same kinds of lung volume diagnositic tests to adults AND children, and they certainly wouldn't if they were doing any amount of harm! 

Sanchin lets us practise digging in deep and drawing out our last ounce of reserve volume.  That's all. But the main problem young people find a difficulty with this kata, and with many, is muscular tension. They don't seem able to produce co-ordinated muscle tension with techniques that gradually build to full tension from a comparitively resting state.  Then, when they accidentally wrench a muscle by prolapsing or sublaxation, parents (the main culprits) tend to leap to conclusions and blame "that ridiculous kata." 

The things for children to avoid when it comes to ALL kata are:

1. Don't rush!

2. Focus on correct posture and form of technique, and try not to "run ahead" be adding too much power or speed too soon.

3. IFF there is an issue with co-ordinating power and technique, then Do not tense with full power, at least not until 5th or 4th kyu. By that stage the child in focus will have learnt enough about themselves and the demands of techniques to be able to start applying appropriate amounts of muscular force when applying techniques. 

 

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