Isn't it strange how what you like and dislike about your martial art changes as you make progress. When I was a junior coloured belt I liked practising the basic kihon moves, pad work and kata but I really disliked the kumite, katabunkai and self-defence techniques. Now I actually prefer the things I disliked before! I still think it is important to regularly go through all the basic moves and I still have a long way to go in improving my technique with many of them - particularly spinning kicks! And it is never a chore to find a space in the dojo to practise my kata.
However, now I really like sparring and learning defences against different attacks. So what has changed? I think the change is clearly in me. kata and basic kihon appealed more initially because you don't actually have to touch anybody so it's like learning karate without all the unpleasant or painful bits. Now though, I have the confidence to be thrown and to assertively apply techniques, including throws, to others. In other words I've got over the not wanting to be physically close with other students and the fear of being hurt or hurting someone.
So now I am able to enjoy learning all the elements that karate has to offer me and not shy away from the less pleasant ones. I feel my 'journey to black belt' is moving forward, slowly but surely and hopefully I will be ready for my grading to brown belt in June.
Did you have an awareness of something changing in you as you learnt your martial art
In last nights class one of the things we looked at was escape from a front strangulation. I don't know about you but I think that apart from being attacked with a knife or shot at, strangulation is the scariest way of being attacked. I think it's that feeling of imminent death. You know you have only got a few seconds before you become unconscious and so you have to be able to react immediately - no leeway for freezing or panicking.
In fact for a manual strangulation where the attacker just uses their own hands you have between 7 and 14 seconds, depending on how hard the attacker can compress your trachea. With a blood choke hold in which the emphasis is on compressing the carotid arteries that run up the side of the neck, you only have 3 to 5 seconds! This is scary stuff. Since the majority of strangulations are performed on women by men (it's extremely unlikely that a woman can manually strangle a man) it's important that us women know how to respond quickly and effectively.
So what should we do? One of the things that Sensei has taught us is to turn the head to the side and put the chin down. The effect of this is to move your trachea from under this thumbs to the palm of his hand and thus release some of the pressure - this may buy you a few more seconds. You can actually demonstrate this on yourself: if you put the fingers of your right hand around the back of your neck with the palm on the left side of your neck so that your right thumb is over your trachea and press slightly, then turn your head to the left, you will feel your trachea move from under your thumb. Now, how easy it would be to move your head if someone is squeezing your neck very tightly I don't know but it's got to be worth a try.
Having bought yourself a few extra seconds, I would argue that you now need to apply the K.I.S.S. No I don't mean kiss him, I mean Keep It Simple Stupid! I do not think this is the time to try applying fancy, fiddly locks or doing other overcomplicated moves - especially not at my stage of training. I would favour moves that cause him to loosen his grip and unbalance him. Lifting your arm up and smashing your elbow down on his arm works quite well for loosening a stranglehold as does stepping backwards and downwards with one leg and turning sideways - this will unbalance him at the same time. If you still can't run away at this point then I would choose techniques that are powerful and quick to execute like elbow strikes to the head, palm heel strikes to the jaw, kicks to the groin or pushing thumbs into the eyes. Make a lot of noise while you are doing this - this is not the time to be shy about kiaiing - you may attract attention, startle him a little, protect yourself from further blows from him and increase the power in your own strikes.
here are some videos of women's self defense against strangles:
I think the important thing is to discover what is effective against the attacker and is easy and memorable for you to execute, we're all different, find what works for you, you've only got seconds.....
Like many students when they first start learning a martial art I felt rather self-conscious about performing a kiai. It sounds pretty odd when you first hear it and almost feels a bit pretentious. I was just glad we weren't expected to shout 'Ah So' which was the shout I associated with karate as a kid! But of course I didn't understand what the kiai was about then and with time I got used to it and it didn't sound so strange.
What are you supposed to shout when you kiai? Again most beginners (me included, initially) just shout the word 'kiai'. If you think about it, that's like shouting the word 'SHOUT' if someone asks you to shout. You don't do you? You're more likely to shout 'AAARRRGGGGHHH'. So obviously we are not intended to shout the word 'kiai'. I started to realise that this was a bit ridiculous when I was in the junior colour belts. So I listened to what other people in the class were shouting and it ranged from short barely audible grunts to short sharp 'AA' or 'EE' sounds to long loud 'YAAA' or 'AARRGG' sounds!
So what makes a good kiai? Well, according to what I have read an effective kiai should come from deep down in the chest and should involve the use of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. It should not be merely a yell which arises only from the throat. It should involve a sharp exhalation of air and can be accompanied with or without sound. The kiai can be silent, it depends whether you decide to pass all that air through your vocal cords or not. I do not think silent kiais would be acceptable in my class, we are generally encouraged to shout them out. Apparently, if you are making an audible kiai it should consist only of one syllable and should be short and loud. 'I', 'Hi', and 'EE' are considered appropriate. So what do I shout now? I decided to just drop the 'Ki' and shout 'Ai'. It works for me!
Why do we kiai anyway? I already had some idea of what a kiai was for before I started karate because my sons were attending a childrens' jujitsu class and I occasionally used to stop and watch. The sensei would have the children stand in rows and shout kiais in unison as loud as they could, then he would do a competition to see who could kiai the loudest. They loved it! He also told them that it would make their parents very proud if they were to go into their bedroom at 6.00 in the morning and wake them up with a loud kiai! Fortunately my sons had the sense not to try that one. But more importantly he told them the kiai was to 'frighten the enemy and tense the stomach muscles'.
That's a reasonable explanation but not a complete one. Those two facts are true but also by exhaling and emptying the lungs you render yourself less vulnerable to being winded by an attack to the abdomen and tensing the abdominal muscles provides you with greater core stability that enables you to add greater power to your own strikes. I think this last point is definitely true, my punches against the pad are much harder if I kiai when delivering them.
Then there are people who take the kiai to a whole new level. The Kiai-jutsukas regard the kiai as a weapon in its own right. They believe the kiai is the release of ki (chi, qi) or energy and a well executed kiai can knock a man clean off his feet. Well the 'ki' in kiai is referring to energy and the 'ai' means to meet, join, harmonise or fuse. For some, this translates as 'a projection of sound fused with energy or spirit'. Well, in the following video there is a very impressive kiai master demonstrating the power of the kiai. I'm particularly impressed with his ability to make the temple bell ring just with his kiai!
So what do you shout when you kiai? Do you believe in the power of the kiai?
We visited the Royal Armouries in Leeds last week. This is such a fantastic museum, how on earth they manage to keep admission free when they have such high quality, valuable exhibits and put on several 'shows' a day, I do not know!
Over Easter they had a medieval theme with lots of armour, sword fighting demonstrations and jousting. Though we didn't get to see the live jousting event, we did go to an interesting slide seminar about jousting and medieval armour. Did you know that though a full suit of armour weighed about 70lb, its design, with the weight distributed over the whole body from the shoulders meant that it was relatively easy to wear and a Knight could easily jump onto his horse without assistance. Also, medieval knights had very undeveloped calf muscles (because they rode everywhere and rarely walked anywhere) so the suits of armour in the museum today do not fit a modern man on the leg - they were designed to fit a very flat calf muscle! You can see this on this first picture:
Here's a bit of full armoured sword fighting:
About three years ago they had a Japanese exhibition celebrating the 300 year anniversary of the death of Ieyasu Tokugawa Shogun (the last shogun). In that exhibition they had loads of Samurai exhibits. As that was a visiting exhibition I didn't really expect there to be a lot of Japanese stuff there this time, so I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a fairly substantial permanent Oriental exhibition. The suits of Samurai armour were absolutely fantastic, such craftsmanship and attention to detail - pity to go off fighting in them really.
I particularly liked the horse armour - especially the mask:
There was also an impressive range of Japanese archery equipment:
We have been spending quite a lot of time on Ipponkumite and katabunkai recently. Basically we have been learning a lot of 'set pieces' to defend against a range of different strikes and kicks. I find many of these difficult to learn (or remember) but I am gradually acquiring a few favourites; these are generally ones that are not too fiddly or technical to apply.
I prefer techniques that involve evading the strike, grabbing the attacker, unbalancing them and pulling them down with a sweep of some kind. These techniques are quick to apply, don't require too much precision in where or how you grab and get the attacker down quickly so you can run away. I don't like defences that involve putting locks on, have lots of separate moves to execute and require a great deal of precision in where and how you put your hands and feet. I find that a lot of these moves require you to have a compliant and patient attacker!
But that's the other problem isn't it? In order to deliver the set defense you need the set attack. A defense against an oi zuki won't work as well if the attacker throws you a gyaku zuki - he'll have the wrong foot forward and you won't be able to sweep his leg the way you'd rehearsed. But that doesn't mean that these set defences have no value. I figured that they must have value or we wouldn't be taught them! I suppose after lots of practice they become internalised and you can execute them without thinking too much - this must make you quicker and more responsive in an attack. If you have a sufficient range of techniques in your repetoire, hopefully your brain will instinctively select the appropriate one to deal with the type of attack you are facing.
Sensei has two strategies for helping us to deal with attacks using these set defenses. Sometimes he gets us to deal with defending against a range of attackers who attack with the same type of strike/kick/grab and we respond with the same defense technique. We do this by lining up in pairs, executing the attack/defense and then moving one partner to the right. So we do the same thing on multiple partners. This is great for working out how to apply a technique to people of different sizes and strengths (and for working out who you like to work with and who you don't).
The other strategy is to learn maybe three defenses against three different attacks and then get the attacker to randomly deliver the attacks so that you have to respond with the appropriate defense. This quickens up your reaction time - in theory! In practice I often stand there thinking, now how did this one go again? But I am sure that, like with all things, practice will make perfect. In the mean time please remember to attack me correctly!
