Old style karate

 Top 12 ways it differs from modern karate.

 

 “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

 

When In first created this blog, I promised an article on what makes “old style” karate different from modern karate. Well now that I’ve sat down to outline this article; I realize that it would not be possible to do the topic justice with a single post. So I’ve decided to create a short post mentioning the top dozen differences (as I see them). I hopefully will get around to discussing all of these as I continue to post on this blog. 

Very few dojos actually incorporate all 12, but I feel that those schools which include a majority are firmly in the “old style” category.

Motobu Choki doing a tuidi technique from Naihanchi Shodan  (locking the right elbow while trapping a left punch)

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)

 

Monday, January 23, 2012