Moves Hidden Within Kata

Traditionally kata was a way of passing down sequences of moves. It is a form of combat done by one person against a series of unseen opponents with the aim of practicing fighting sequences. Each move has a meaning - it is a block or stroke against your opponents move. I'm not sure why this started, perhaps seeing and doing is more effective than text. Alternatively, it may have come about when martial arts such as karate were illegal and hence practiced in secret and could not be written down. However, over the years two things have happened; firstly, some of the meaning has been forgotten, or rather not passed on, and therefore you just have to make an educated guess as to what it was actually meant to mean. Secondly, many katas are simplified to the point that some moves are partial or only implied. Sometimes this was done to avoid exposing children to potentially killing strikes such as in the Pinan Katas which were specifically designed for children. For example a spear hand to the windpipe becomes one to the solar plexus instead. Fair enough.  However, some of the moves hidden within kata can be surprising. For example in Pinan Godan the final moves essentially comprise grabbing your opponents testicles and pulling them upwards to shoulder height rapidly whilst simultaneously thrusting your other hand down to strike his groin region, assuming the departure of his testicles was not a sufficient insult to stop his attack.

YouTube footage of Pinan Godan in a style similar to the way I have learned - the move described is at the end and repeated in mirror image - the 'pulling' hand moves very fast and is hard to see

This would be best performed with your opponent being male, naked and in horse stance for maximum ease. It does raise ethical issues regarding the appropriateness of attacking a man so described since he may not have full mental capacity. Alternatively, assuming a more typical, clothed opponent, it is likely you would pull both the clothing and groin upwards, tipping him off balance and perhaps the downwards strike is in fact to the head of your now falling opponent. That's the challenge of making up Bunkai! Either way, it is not always clear what the moves mean, but I find that if I invent an explanation, even an incorrect one, it makes the kata much easier to remember and to do well.

A Plug For Terry Pottage

I recently came across Terry Pottage - a 7th Dan Shito-Ryu - who has made a very helpful series of DVDs.

Amazon link to volume 1 - Pinan Katas

So far I've only invested in volume one - Pinan Katas. He goes through each kata at speed so that you get a feel for the timing, then slowly to give you a chance to visualize the technique and then explores some of the bunkai. Not too complex and it really helped me to understand what I was doing. He also comes across as a nice bloke.

Horse Stance, Cat Stance and Other Stances

Today I learned that horse stance is to me as stairs are to Kung Foo Panda. 

I am really only comfortable with three stances - standard, cat and horse. Cat stance, which has the wonderfully rhythmic Japanese name of neko-ashi-dachi, is hard and needs to be practiced again and again. Up and down to get the weight distribution correct (80% on the back leg, so that the front foot can be lifted off the ground without loosing balance) and the synchronous arm and foot movements. Cat stance looks obviously wrong when not done correctly. Standard stance and horse stance are much easier to adopt, but not necessarily easier to do correctly - it's just harder to spot mistakes.

This Wikipedia link illustrates how complicated my world of stances is going to become.

Stances illustrated with footprints

Stances are absolutely key in karate and probably other martial arts and fighting in general. Since legs in the wrong place inherently predisposes to instability, nothing else you do will work effectively from a bad stance. So I really need to work on these. The thing is they are knackering! Standard stance (zenkutsu dachi) can just be adopted and looks fine, but actually you should push outwards with your legs so that they are under constant tension, not arch your back, tense your abdomen yet keep your shoulders relaxed. Horse stance (shiko dachi) is a cripplingly low stance that requires your feet wide apart, knees vertically above your ankles (shin bone vertical), knees pushed backwards, bum tucked in (generally don't stick your bum out. It means your core isn't tense and increases the curvature of your spine which is bad for your back as well as appearing comic). Not too hard until asked to hold it for minutes at a time - seriously hard. However, I must be getting stronger / fitter because this sort of carry on used to result in knee pain, but now it just hurts my thighs. This is progress. Like Kung Foo Panda I have found out there is no secret, just hard work

Those not distracted will notice that this stance is too high. She still looks significantly better than me, so credit where credits due.

Does Karate Cause Lower Back Pain?

For the last four weeks or so I've been suffering from lower back pain - central and sacroiliac. In general it's not a problem I ever had before taking up karate. I had some pregnancy-related lower back pain that resolved, but never daily pain. So is karate the problem? In part yes, but only because I'm suffering from general ligament and muscular pain caused by relative overuse. Any exercise would probably have triggered this. The hip rotation and kicking used in karate tends to work the lower back hard, but not in a damaging way as long as you warm up appropriately. Also I had very poor back endurance muscles (the ones you get by lying face down on the ground and lifting your head and shoulders off and holding) and almost no 'core stability' before starting. These endurance muscles associate with less lower back pain in clinical studies and are probably more important than strength per se. In general it helps to have some level of fitness before embarking an a vigorous activity! I chose not to which has gone against me. Also I sometimes arrive with no warm-up time. This is a very bad move for older adults, we definitely need at least a ten minute warm up, ideally much more.

In order to counteract this new problem, I've started to do standard core exercises while aiming to keep my spine as long as possible - straight leg sit ups that only rise to 30 degrees etc and I've also added in some yoga exercises aimed at lower back strength. These can be done easily at home with no need to embarrass yourself in the gym. I also watch my back when I'm in standard stance which is quite wide and can lead to over arching of the back if you're not concentrating. Additionally, when practicing at home I try to be symmetrical and practice mirror image basic combinations. Once or twice I've used an anti-inflammatory gel or 'Deep Heat'. These measures seem to have done the trick and it seems to be easing off. In the long run, karate should make me better off by increasing my lower back flexibility and strength.

For an attempt at evidence based sports medicine without reading the journals, try this web site:
The Sports Injury Bulletin

Can Karate Make You Look Good?

Since I only started half way through October 2012, it may be too early to conclude anything about the effect of karate on my appearance. however, I do look different - better - since my body shape has changed. My waist is narrower (I know, I've measured). My stomach is flatter and my thighs don't wobble. I haven't lost weight, but I suspect I have more muscle and a little less fat. Don't get too excited, I won't turn heads in a bikini, my face is unchanged and I'm still 41 years old. Karate does not have the power to change that, but it can make you look better. I suspect this effect is more noticeable for people like me who were previously totally unfit - the curve of improvement is steep! Another good thing to add it that karate doesn't make you bulky in the way lifting weights would and it also develops all muscles not just one area like tennis or cycling. Overall, I'm very pleased with the effects and would highly recommend karate to all.

One thing makes me a little sad now that I have come to enjoy and be interested in karate. I am very unlikely to ever be good at it because of my age. This is true for most sports, but starting age 41 is just too late. If I ever get good, I'll always know I could have been better if I'd started at 15 or 20. Still, better late then never.

2013 - Year of The Snap?

Well it's good to have started back and I'm now learning a new kata - Pinan Sandan. There's a great bit in the middle where someone grabs your wrist and you turn into them, pulling them in towards you and striking (you really have to see it - try the link below, 3rd video in, it's also a good general resource and their downloads work).

pinan shodan (shito-rhy) with bunkai

I plan to learn no more new kata until I've really understood the moves from the three I 'know' to date. As said before, knowing the moves does not mean knowing the kata. It's also really hard to remember a sequence of meaningless moves, so you have to understand why you're doing them - ie, where your theoretical opponent is and what they are trying to do.

I continue to practice the basics daily since it takes no equipment and hardly any space (one of the things that makes karate a great hobby is it requires no special kit and no special place). It is frustrating not quite getting it as it should be. I remain challenged by my old friends poor stance and lack of hip movement (see earlier post) - particularly in reverse punching (gyaku-zuki) and punching with the leading hand (mae-ken). As for 'the snap', I can even rustle. There are children in the class who can snap with the best of them. The snap is the noise made by the cotton of the karate outfit as your limbs move at high velocity - it literally cracks the material like wind refilling a sail. I have quite a high quality, stiff outfit. No help at all. It seems skill alone can generate this noise, so this outlay was a total waste. I plan to celebrate when it happens to me, in secret of course, otherwise I'd appear odd to my non-karate friends. So for 2013 I resolve to master the hip movement and basic stances. I'll leave the snap for later.

Happy 2013! I Resolve To Avoid Self Defense

It's been almost two weeks since my last lesson due to the holiday period. For four days I did no training and felt terrible with aches, pains and worry. Worry that if I didn't practice I would regress - and I have so little to regress from. I also had an image of returning to my karate class in a much improved state. My hours of solitary practice obvious to all. Utter rubbish of course, but on the fifth day I started to train - basics, combinations and my two kata, no more than one hour a day, sometimes less and mostly in the kitchen while cooking (I am blessed with a kitchen large enough to accommodate a kata). I can't spar with myself and have so few fighting skills that I cannot practice kumite technique. Curious, I did however trawl the internet for instruction. This yielded a world of weirdness. Strange men (always men), often fat who had obviously watched "Don't Mess With The Zohan" and all of the Bruce Lee Collection too many times and believed such a character could exist for real (I know Bruce Lee was real and amazing, but most people realize he was exceptional).  Out running them would be my first tactic and probably the only one required. However, the consequence of these great lumbering beasts actually landing a punch would be devastating. To be fair, there were some decent examples of karate kumite or other martial arts, but the world of self defense if clearly an unregulated free for all, like holistic therapy is to medicine.

Looking at the examples of people (usually women) getting themselves out of totally impossible aggressive situations with other people (usually men) looked persuasive, but deep down I don't believe it. I'm five foot tall with no strength. So let's fast forward five years and assume I keep on training and turn out to be blessed with some ability. OK, I'm now a black belt with a body (all five foot of it) like iron, how well will I do with 120kg of unwanted male attention lying on top of me? I suspect not too well, except that I may have to deal with the added distress of believing I actually could and should have done something. I really want to be wrong on this one, but perhaps some self defense experts should be a little more realistic. Women have other ways of negotiating, not open to men. In some situations it may be better not to defend - after all hitting and hurting, but not actually stopping, an aggressor may antagonize them and make matters much worse. Even worse, I or you, may do things and go places we would not have done, now that we are armed with our new self defense skills, leaving ourselves open to danger we would not have otherwise encountered.

I don't know if my efforts over the festive period will be evident to my instructor, but I do know I'll never be the next Lara Croft.