karate competition and judging

Kata

Look inside and not to the outside, of course, the outside form should be correct, but people have different body types, and the point is not to judge how fancy and beautiful but rather how effectively one uses their bodies, how the whole body cooperates into one purpose, using ground reaction, proper body action and muscle action, and transferring this energy to the technique.

Judges should learn to see how well ones uses whole body snap, make strong and proper kime, pressure to floor and sharp total body contraction to line of technique.

In kata, one should project strong feeling and intention, but not make a show out of it, the purpose is knock down technique, so tensing the face and make all kind of expressions is not productive, keep the intention coming from your center.

Sensei Nishiyama warned me against over motion in technique, which is common in sport karate and is the opposite of budo principles. Kata should be like kumite, without spaces for the opponent to attack, without disconnections, which make the technique weak. Actually, our goal is to remove unnecessary movement, make more pure efficient technique.

Sensei Nishiyama told me that some people are great actors; they have good sense of movement and can imitate very well, but don’t have the inside.

Sometimes I will see a kata that look pretty, the person is busy thinking of what he looks like rather than have feeling of application. This kind of kata usually gets high score in our competition, it should not.

Sensei Nishiyama always told me: “don’t look inside, look outside to opponent” (when doing kata).

If you put a mask on Master Funakoshi or Master Nishiyama and put them in competition, they will probably receive the lowest score, since their movement is very simple, yet the quality of their movement is close to perfection.

I remember that once a sport scientist attached all kinds of wires to Sensei Nishiyama, and measured his efficiency in movement with some specialized software that is used to give feedback to athletes, he could not find any flows in Sensei Nishiyama’s techniques.

I wonder if it is possible to train judges to see deep as it is possible to train gymnastics judges. I believe that judges have to train properly first, they have to be there first, therefore every judges seminar should be accompanied by actual training digesting principles of technique, and also some discussions and constructive reflection on how one make decisions.

Kumite

Scoring Ippon techniques should have 3 components, must be todome waza (finish technique), proper timing and proper distance, and if any of those elements is lacking slightly it can be wazari.

For todome waza total momentum has to go through target, must be pressure to floor at impact and must be zanshin, keeping mind, awareness of the opponent and situation, not giving chance after kime.

Snap back technique cannot score since energy is divided in two directions and it is qio. If no pressure no score, since only momentum is used, and no acceleration by reaction from floor.

Judges must be trained to see when the momentum stops, when the distance is controlled by technique arm or leg, which stops the momentum. The breath and feet should control the distance.

This can only be understood by actual training, and than one can judge.

Learning the procedures and all the signals is the easy part, but what really important is to train to see.

Judging karate competition is not easy, but if we want karate competition to be in line with budo karate and to be a mean of developing budo karate, we must make the effort. Other wise, competition will cause the opposite it will deteriorate karate and make it shallow.

We also owe it to the athletes who train hard and deserve good judging where there is common standard.

Thoughts about traditional karate.

Embracing the old as a foundation from which to seek unlimited, infinite growth and development.

This is what traditional is to me, the word “traditional” might imply to some people stagnation, sticking rigidly to some meaningless rituals and kata, so maybe I don’t love the word traditional but I don’t have any other.

But to me traditional karate is using the kata as a vehicle to understand timeless principles that were discovered through many generations, and building on top of that.

Sensei Nishiyama used to stress that kata gives us many examples and through those examples we must find out the underlying principles, kata is symbol of principles.  

We want to take advantage of wisdom accumulated through generations of experience, trial and error, as a launching pad. Traditional karate people are always asking questions, not just accepting, they are seekers. We don’t just come to karate class to get a workout and to spar a little and have fun, even though we do work out hard and have fun, we constantly seeking to understand the many physical and mental aspects of karate deeper, and through that expand our limitation as human beings.

I think of my own experience, before I came to Sensei Nishiyama, I trained hard 3 hours a day, I made 300 repetition a day of at least 4 to 5 basic techniques, I sparred a lot, and than when I arrived at Sensei Nishiyama I am thankful to him that after the first class he handed me a white belt and told me “step by step, understand”. I realized that all this hard training acquired me lots of bad habits. In the first year at Sensei’s dojo, I trained 5,6 hours a day only to undo my bad habits. Now I understand that without Sensei Nishiyama guidance I would not discover karate principles even in 5 life times.

We are lucky that each generation can be fed with the experience of previous generations and build upon it to further levels. We must be willing and patience and open up to receive.

Poland Instructors and Black belts seminar

Last Saturday and Sunday (12, 13 of May), I was teaching the annual black belts and instructors seminar in Dojo Stara Wiez, Poland, there were over 300 participants, it was  an amazing spirit and energy.

I had a real joy teaching this group, imagine 300 people working and putting their energy for the same purpose, really trying to understand the subtleties of Nishiyama’s karate. In this group there were all levels, from world champions to young coming up athletes to long time practitioners who just want to keep bettering themselves.

It is thanks to Vodek who for 20 years share the passion and vision of karate with the Polish people, Vodek works tirelessly to inspire and motivate the Polish karate people with great results.

We were working on Posture and its affects on optimizing karate technique, understanding stance and its principles, and we cover many fundamentals but mainly we went deep into Kime and its many angles.

As far as kumite, we worked on Oji Waza (response technique) in the first day, understanding the footwork, the breath and the mental state.

In the second day we focused on Shikake Waza (set up techniques), estimating the opponent, making optimal distance for our strategy, we talked about reacting to the opponent reaction to your set up, rather than mechanically doing the footwork, and doing so with your breath rather than with your brain.

And we always reflect from kumite to kata and vice versa, recognizing how the kata gives us the tools for effective kumite, and it is through the kata that we digest kumite principles into our nervous system, so when we do kumite we are free to apply our strategy and timing and our bodies know what and how to do.

Thank you all for the spirit and great enthusiasm, I felt elevated, it was fun.

FIGHTING FROM THE INSIDE

At high level when 2 people are facing each other, there is no random movement, everything is purposeful.

Not only there are no random techniques but there is no unnecessary movement in the interaction.

When we are advanced it is not only that the technique is stronger and one can produce more force with less action, but that we become more sensitive to the opponent’s movement and intention.

Our ki energy can be projected to the opponent so we need less movement to give threat and break the opponent’s rhythm and the same ki energy serves as our antenna, perceiving the opponent’s energy. At this level we fake or project our energy at the right moment when the opponent has to react, or we can remove, not show our energy, to create emptiness at the opponent and than attack.

I use to spend a lot of time sparring with sensei Nishiyama and sometimes Aiko San without technique, only breathing and feet. This kind of sparring might seem strange at first, but it has amazing benefits. If you wonder, I could never beat neither sensei Nishiyama nor Aiko San, not even one out of ten, but I learned a lot.

One learns to close the gaps and remove spaces in one’s own movement, while learning to detect and anticipate even smallest spaces.

Kumite becomes subtler, and one learns to appreciate the importance of breath in reacting, initiating technique, make fake or set up, and seal spaces in our movement.

One learns that to truly be able to use the breath to do all of what mentioned above, we have to go back to the basics and kata and polish the interaction, of breath muscles and technique.

This kind of training also eliminate end gaining, since there is no technique and you don’t really get each other, it teaches one to be in the moment, and in addition not to rely on quick arm or leg but rather on perfect time and than speed is addition.

Keep in mind, the goal in karate is to remove unnecessary action, make movement more pure, this is true as far as technique and as far  as moving with an opponent, therefore learn to move from the inside, fight from the inside.

The difference is in the small details

We tend to focus on what can easily be seen, like speed and power, but if we pay more attention to the small details, speed and power will come more effortlessly.

Take for example the postural direction of “eyes back”, a very simple and subtle direction that has many implications.

We say “eyes back” which is not a physical movement but rather a prevention of head forward posture that is so common, and allowing the spinal muscles to extend the spine and head up against gravity as 5 yrs old naturally does.

With the eyes back and the spine extended, body action, such as rotation, is effortless and has more range.

The back muscles, thoracic extensors and scapula adductors are at optimal length for function, and therefore force from the feet can transfer through the sacrum and than the thoracic spine using those upper back muscles. If the head is forward top power using the shoulders in isolation is likely.

When the head is aligned properly the weight of the head assist with using ground reaction, more pressure to back foot is available.
With head forward the weight of the head will make the front leg heavy.

Eyes back allow for holistic view, and the mind can be calm, and we can talk about breath reaction and breath initiating the technique, rather than analyzing and than moving.

Head forward posture will reverse the thoracic curvature, with time the shoulders migrate forward and movement at the shoulder will not be at optimal axis of rotation, which wears out the shoulder.

The more the head shifts forward the more lever arm and stress on the lumbar spine.

Now this is just one example, there are countless examples of small details that appear not so important but make a world of difference when they all come together, those small points make the difference between efficient movement of an expert, and novice techniques that are strength dependent.

This is the beauty of karate, what makes it an endless, unlimited journey, where one can keep getting better and better even at the age when physical strength is declined.

THE OUTCOME IS DECIDED BY WHAT HAPPENS IN BETWEEN

We know that achieving Todome (finishing blow technique) is essential in our karate, as Budo says: “Seeking the beauty of one finishing blow technique”.

But even if one develops strong technique, it is no guarantee that it can be used effectively. When facing a skillful opponent there are other conditions necessary in order to create the situation and seize the chance for execution of finish technique.

Without proper interaction even strongest technique will work only against beginners.

For a long period Aiko San (who I see as much as my teacher as Sensei Nishiyama was) and myself used to meet on Sundays, and work on some subtle points of technique, and than have lunch and discuss training.

In one of those lunches we discussed “I Patsu Shobu” – one chance win or lose, (not sure if the spelling is correct).

She explained that the term come from hunting, where it is not enough to be skillful in the use of bow and arrow, but one has to consider the direction of the wind, time of day, terrain and many factors to achieve the chance to shoot the bow and arrow and than one has to have perfect technique.

Point is, we must pay more attention to the in between, the interaction with opponent. Understand and lead the rhythm, read the opponent, make strategy, control the distance according to my strategy. Develop reaction and timing to seize the opportunity in an instant without gap. One has to be able fully commit and carry out the strategy or adapt the strategy to the changes in the opponent, so even while fully committed one is not blind but have awareness. All of these must be part of our game. We must learn to be more sensitive to opponent intentions and inclinations, not only think of our own technique. We must know when to push and when to pull, in the push there is always a pull and in the pull forward energy, and we have to maybe sometimes be able to remove our Ki energy from the opponent and than when the opponent relax, we attack instantly.

We can be sensitive and patient only when relaxed, yet not sloppy, so we can say relaxed focus, or soft outside yet strong inside.

This is true physically as much as mentally; even when the outside is relaxed the very inside is firm, so we keep potential energy and a base to move from.

In my dojo I try to get everyone to avoid the tendency to rush to attack and only think of outcome, and one of the first conditions is that one must be able to accept and welcome the opponent’s attack, and have the confidence that no matter what attack comes, I can handle it and make it into opportunity, that is why we practice so much Oji Waza (response) footwork and have to face many opponents.

Only than one can be patient and relaxed enough to take the risk necessary to create a chance, put oneself in danger (calculated danger) welcome the attack and be ahead of it.

Czech Seminar

Just finish teaching seminar in Czech Republic, it was great, 90 participants, from Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and of course Czech.

Everyone was passionate, spirited with will to get better.

It is so good to see that we are keeping the beautiful karate system Nishiyama Sensei taught us alive and flourishing.

It is not an easy system to learn and not for everyone, it is a very intricate system, and there is a lot of confusion in ITKF about what is Nishiyama Budo karate.

Those who are willing to truly learn this karate will benefit greatly.

We are going to keep a clear direction and the purity of our karate.

We worked on fundamentals, such as posture, using stance and ground reaction, coordinating the breath with body dynamics, muscle action and the use of the feet, maximizing impact power to make todome by using snap, pressure to floor and total body contraction in shortest time to line of technique.

We used Niju Shi Ho kata as a vehicle to understand some of the fundamentals, and to use full range of muscle action, and smoothness between techniques without compromising kime.

We spend a lot of time understanding and practicing footwork of Oji Waza (response timing) and a lot of time doing Shikake Waza (set up and strategy), especially combination attacks, and how to set the right situation and timing for combinations.

Thank you for your passion and hard work all participants, lets keep getting better and better, infinitely.