“Hoping to see Karate included in the physical education
taught in our public schools, I revised the kata to make them as simple as
possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must
change too. The Karate that high school students practice today is not the same
Karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago, and it is a long way indeed from the Karate I
learned when I was a child in Okinawa.”
-- Funakoshi Gichen
1) Focus on close range techniques and tactics (which in turn necessarily
creates an emphasis on limb control and/or trapping, low-line kicking, and so
on)
2)
Emphasis on special qualities which often are expressed by somewhat rare
Okinawan terminology (muchimi, chinkuchi, gyame, muchi, gamaku, etc)
3)
Body Conditioning (kote-kitae, iron sand palm, machiwara training etc)
4)
Tenshin / tai-sabaki (evasive body motion/ body-rotation, sophisticated
footwork)
5) Hojo-undo / kigu-undo (supplementary training especially functional strength
training using special implements)
6)
Tuidi (aka gyakute or karamidi etc ie joint-wrenching and joint-locking)
7)
Use of sensitivity drills (kakie, sticky hands, Okinawan versions of
"Hubud" etc)
8)
Techniques are not “squared off” or enlarged for aesthetic reasons
9)
Use of unusual (typically very small) striking surfaces
10)
Medical knowledge (bone setting, kuatsu, herbal medicine, moxa, cupping, tsubo
massage etc.)
11) Kokyu-ho / kiko (breathing methodologies, qigong type
training)
12) Chibudi / kyusho (study of anatomical weakness and
exploiting body-reactions)
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