We all know that young people are faster than older people, right? Well, not always. How is it that older karateka are able to compete with younger karateka on the floor when it comes to real karate - despite the innate speed advantage?
There are a number of factors, but of these, isolation must be one of the most important. Technique in karate involves movement: whether of one limb or the entire body. This requires the recruitment of sets of muscles to be accomplished. In addition to the inherent nature of a karateka's muscle composition (proportion of quick twitch and slow twitch), the way these muscles are recruited is important - and that involves correct and technical training.
If you watch karateka training, it rapidly becomes apparent that some move better than others. If you analyse the reasons for this, it seems that the karateka who look good are the ones who move the smoothest.
What does this mean in practice?
Posture and preparation are obviously important parts of effective technique and movement, but will be discussed separately.
Isolation means that only those parts of the body necessary to perform a technique are recruited during the performance of that technique. A couple of simple examples will suffice:
Shuto-uke: a common fault when performing shuto-uke in back stance, whether stepping forwards or backwards, is to open the arms during the transition. Not only is this a bad idea for protection, it is also unnecessary and inefficient. Wind-ups should be done along the quickest and thus the shortest route, but fully.
Mae-geri: excessive upper body movement, often with jerky hand movements, accompanies the mae-geri. Since mae-geri is a kick, the upper body and hands should not be involved at all and one should move from the lower body.
Yori-ashi: although one of the simplest techniques in karate, it is also one of the most poorly performed. The most common fault is to tilt the upper body in the direction of movement rather than pushing strongly from the back leg and through the hips.
Punching: the temptation with punching from any position is to throw the shoulders into the punch which, besides telegraphing the punch, involves unnecessary movement of large body parts.
Instructors need to first recognise where excess movement is involved and then make sure to coach this 'out of' students. Often this requires analysis of the techniques and a return to basics. That part of the technique where the student is bringing unnecessary movement into play must be identified and replaced with correct technique.
We can use two of the examples above to demonstrate the corrective process:
Shuto-uke:
There are a number of factors, but of these, isolation must be one of the most important. Technique in karate involves movement: whether of one limb or the entire body. This requires the recruitment of sets of muscles to be accomplished. In addition to the inherent nature of a karateka's muscle composition (proportion of quick twitch and slow twitch), the way these muscles are recruited is important - and that involves correct and technical training.
If you watch karateka training, it rapidly becomes apparent that some move better than others. If you analyse the reasons for this, it seems that the karateka who look good are the ones who move the smoothest.
What does this mean in practice?
Posture and preparation are obviously important parts of effective technique and movement, but will be discussed separately.
Isolation means that only those parts of the body necessary to perform a technique are recruited during the performance of that technique. A couple of simple examples will suffice:
Shuto-uke: a common fault when performing shuto-uke in back stance, whether stepping forwards or backwards, is to open the arms during the transition. Not only is this a bad idea for protection, it is also unnecessary and inefficient. Wind-ups should be done along the quickest and thus the shortest route, but fully.
Mae-geri: excessive upper body movement, often with jerky hand movements, accompanies the mae-geri. Since mae-geri is a kick, the upper body and hands should not be involved at all and one should move from the lower body.
Yori-ashi: although one of the simplest techniques in karate, it is also one of the most poorly performed. The most common fault is to tilt the upper body in the direction of movement rather than pushing strongly from the back leg and through the hips.
Punching: the temptation with punching from any position is to throw the shoulders into the punch which, besides telegraphing the punch, involves unnecessary movement of large body parts.
Instructors need to first recognise where excess movement is involved and then make sure to coach this 'out of' students. Often this requires analysis of the techniques and a return to basics. That part of the technique where the student is bringing unnecessary movement into play must be identified and replaced with correct technique.
We can use two of the examples above to demonstrate the corrective process:
Shuto-uke:
the correct path for the hands can be practiced in static positions - natural stance or back stance. The correct path is clearly defined in Shotokan:
- The blocking hand travels directly to the side of the neck and from there to the block position. During the process the elbow essentially stays at chudan level.
- The opposite or passive hand extends to a midlevel guard position on the solar plexus. Again it travels directly from the solar plexus to the intermediate position.
- The two movements occur together and should have the elbows touching at the mid-point.
- There should be no dwell time in the middle.
- The hands travel as directly as possible - no deviations.
- Once this sequence has been mastered, it needs to be combined with stepping or shifting.
It is important not to dwell too long on the individual components as it then becomes difficult to perform fluid functional techniques. The idea to keep in mind is "as long as necessary, as short as possible". Try to get to the combined movement as quickly as possible, but without bypassing the mastery of components.
Mae-geri: this is intuitively easier to understand because the technique is a lower body technique involving the legs and hips. There is no requirement for the upper body and hands to be involved.
The relevant Japanese term for the upper body is 'sono mama' or as is. In other words while the mae-geri is being performed, the upper body stays 'as is'. For defensive reasons there may be a natural change from left guard to right guard (or vice versa) - but this should not be part of the mae-geri preparation or performance.
Mae-geri involves an initial quick and high knee-lift, with the foot being flicked out and snapped back from the high knee-lift position.
The kick should be practiced in the following sequence:
- Knee lift from natural stance (and return)
- Knee lift and kick from natural stance (and return)
- This is important because it ensures the kick is performed from shomen position, i.e. hips square. At this point, eliminating any upper body movement is easy.
- Repeat the sequence from zenkutsu dachi. It is now possible to kick from hanmi position i.e. hips open which allows momentum to interfere with proper technique. The coach needs to ensure the student moves from hanmi to shomen AND THEN does the knee lift and kick.
- This is the point at which the coach needs to ensure no extra movement is introduced.
Drills that force the student to isolate the upper body can be very useful here. Examples include having students hook their thumbs into their belts, or hold both hands in front as they kick, or have partners control their upper body during the execution.
Again, mae-geri is a technique that is generally performed while moving forward, and often in combination. It should be fluid, without any stops in the sequence. So, the practicing of the components must not take precedence over practicing of the whole. Again: "As long as necessary, as short as possible".
So when you see a karateka struggle with a technique, generally evident as loss of balance and / or slow and / or imprecise execution, look for the excess movement. Which parts of the body are being recruited that do not need to be? Eliminating these extra movements produces the following results:
1. Efficiency - more direct, less effort, faster, more accurate
2. Effectiveness - more power, more impact
3. Control - better control of balance and space
4. Continuity - ability to allow combinations to flow
So when you see a karateka struggle with a technique, generally evident as loss of balance and / or slow and / or imprecise execution, look for the excess movement. Which parts of the body are being recruited that do not need to be? Eliminating these extra movements produces the following results:
1. Efficiency - more direct, less effort, faster, more accurate
2. Effectiveness - more power, more impact
3. Control - better control of balance and space
4. Continuity - ability to allow combinations to flow
Alan King
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