The issue of whether the Karate chambering of a hand after striking is most curious.
For
the way I was trained there really was never an issue.
For
the most part the applications of karate technique were only rarely discussed and
kata was always done with chambers being used.
The
paradigm under which I trained also taught free fighting, were the hands were
mostly held in front of you and chambering was not much used. So our kunite
(very hard full body contact, no groin or leg contact by kicks, limited sweeps
and controlled head strikes was how we fought. And there was no sparring gear which then moved into the
use of gear versions of the free style art.
When
I studied with others everyone even in very different systems followed much the
same pattern.
Then
I had quite of exposure to another karate system. Where prior to 3rd
dan they followed the same striking theory when doing kata. Bunkai was not a
study of kyu students, there were many, many other drill studies used. And in
none of the classes I ever attended was kumite a part of the training. But in
contrast the instructor was a wiz on the tournament floor, and he had many good
students follow the same
In
that system bunkai study began after shodan, Explosive applications that did
not follow the kata much, and the kata were used for bunkai application points.
There were many many bunkai for each kata.
Then at each dan level an entirely different explosive bunkai was
studied, Again hundreds of them for all the kata. That repeated itself for all
5 dan levels in the system Not because you really needed them, but to always
keep the mind engages as the decades passed
The
point was at 3rd dan onward many things changed.
The
main point was that chambering was no longer used in any of the bunkai. Instead
bunkai were done without chambering, just striking etc, from wherever the hand
was. It made responses faster.
At
a later point time I began my own
exploration of kata technique use. I remained committed the shape of my art
would remain focused on the original manner is which I studied kata.
I
did not see karate for tournament fighting, in fact not for fighting at all.
Rather the use of every technique to end an attack, destroy the attack.
Chambering,
specifically, was used for many things. Among which was the use of chambering
to be a rearward elbow strike to demolish someone behind you. From a friend,
the late Sherman Harrill, I saw other uses, like the cambering hand as a
slashing strike into the jaw or along the ribs, even as the motion of
chambering to slash into a strike from the other side.
I
am not going into detail, suffice it to say I looked at chambering from many
different uses.
Of
course that is not everything I saw, just a suggestive sample of uses.
No
one can do everything; there can be a purpose for everything. We make choices
and doing so shape our art.
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