Just for the record, not that anybody pays attention.
I am not Master Smith. To the youth I train I am Mr. Smith, to everyone else I'm just Victor.
I run a very small program by design, trying to experience the concept of personal training pre 1900. At that time there were no masters, just an instructor and a student or two, at least that's how I imagine it.
I have tremendous respect for all traditions, but that does not mean I follow them either.
Too many times over the years visiting different friends schools I find myself introduced as Master Smith or the students Master Smith'ing me every time I turn around.
As I don't belong to any organizations I don't have rank with them. I've only trained about 37 years now, am getting older and slower and at the same time a year doesn't go by that I don't find I've doubled what I understand about my studies.
Haven't mastered anything. Can't pass what I know to anyone, just find I can try and pass enough to someone to let them find their own direction in time.
I don't hold any title so I'm not a Master.
I'm not your instructor so I'm not your Sensei.
I only hope I'm your friend and am quite satisfied if you can call me Victor.
I think most of us understand when the Okinawan arts we think of as karate developed they were kept private. They didn’t formally document their creations, history or motives. They even didn’t develop a technical vocabulary for their techniques in the Okinawan language. Their only method for transmission, as far as we know, was through physical demonstration from instructor to student and the oral transmission of motives, history, etc.
Intentional or not that kept the focus on the actual practice. Your instructor trusted you to train you (to some point) and you in turn would trust your instructor’s word as truth.Obviously there was more involved, if there were other students they were part of the chain of transmission.If your instructor shared you with another instructor the oral transmission both grew and re-enforced itself.
But we also have evidence the transmission wasn’t necessarily even.Instructors kept information to themselves, such as the existence of the Chinese work the Bubishi and it’s use in their own study, until a student became sufficiently advanced and accomplished themselves.Some instructors, such as Hiagonna Kanryo, only taught most students a part of the system leaving only several to receive full transmission.
So the only truth was what your instructor(s) shared with you and it’s veracity depended in turn on the trust of your instructor. And that sharing remained within the order of those training.
Of course since those initial times we have witnessed a new sharing. In the 1920’s and 1930’s Okinawan instructors teaching in Japan began writing books explaining some part of their art, even revealing the existence of the Bubishi. That practice continued and after WWII, year by year publishing (in Japan and literally everywhere) increased as the Okinawan arts spread across the world.
From traditions with almost nothing written about them we have had a modern information explosion.
In the 1960’s and 1970’2 we had the beginning of the karate magazines. Eventually they became the internet of their day used by some to promote themselves or specific points of view, and the letters sections allowed discussion between martial arts.
In the 1970’s we had the commencement of serious martial book publishing.
In the 1980’s we had the commencement of the martial video business.
In the 1990’s we had the commencement of internet martial discussion groups and individual web sites created to communicate information about the author.
In the 2000’s we had the commencement on the internet of blogs and youtube and other video sharing sites. This contributed to a literal explosion of martial videos showing any art imaginable and often in great degree. As a result the martial magazines declined almost to extinction.
Yet with all this information becoming available there are other issues that have been overlooked. Most of this data transmission is transitory. Magazines rarely last being designed for short shelf life. Personally I had saved thousands of them until the day I realized it was time to destroy them. I reviewed them and saved article of current interest for future use but that was hardly a fraction of what they contained.
Books, on the whole, are better designed for long term storage, but few realize most of the martial arts publications are one time printings. Once they’re sold most of them are never reprinted. I have about 500 books remaining in my collection today. And I have passed several hundred on to others as they were no longer relevant to my studies. Sadly much that was written serves little long term value, but those books that prove of great value may no longer be available for others.
Today the value of many books, I bought, have increased by an incredible amount. But they will never be sold off, I’ve made plans for their disposal and/or destruction after my death.
Video records do faithfully show some event on a given day, often only one filming direction doesn’t show all details, or even the best presentation shows nothing of the levels of training to get to that point and doesn’t hint where the training can go from there either. They’re useful to see what exists but nothing filmed replaces actual training from a skilled instructor. At time some will take those films and base their own training and studies from the videos. It’s possible if they have enough training in those arts, but there is a price.
Martial magazines in the 1970’s showing clear kata presentations from acknowledge experts also have on occasion intentional changes or omissions so no one could use the for accurate resources. Okinawa public performances in the past also often contained the same. The presentations show the shell but not the core of the system, why should they give their art away.
Other presentations only show one aspect of the art, as in walk through detail. The same presentation doesn’t give a hint at where the training should lead. It is just a video after all not an instructor.
A dynamic kata performance might be the result of very specific small detail training that isn’t shown in the performance and trying to duplicate the kata without that training misses the mark by a wide percentage.
The transmission of martial history is likewise too often missing and even what is published may be deceptive for just writing it doesn’t make it so, and a mistake in an early publication may be repeated in other publications for decades. Likewise what has been published may not last beyond the current era. The medium is transitory magazines don’t last, books once sold out may not be available again, the PC content, or internet data can be deleted in an instant from many different events. Just because you see it doesn’t make it constant.
I recall how a Japanese translator mistranslated an Okinawan document to read the Okinawan king ordered the weapons to be taken from the people, where the actual document reads the weapons were to be stored centrally for militia usage. The weapons being stored to make the militia more efficient, not to ban weapons. And that mistranslation has been repeated even since changing the actual history.
The actual storage of historical event is often beyond the necessity of living training. By way of example when I reached 25 years training I decided to make notes of what I had experienced to that point and ended up writing a 100 page recitation of events, at a very high level. But students taking long karate trips with me are often regaled with hours of stories behind those 100 pages, the oral transmission of my karate, perhaps as important as every hour spent in the dojo.
Now there have been many attempts to set historical records. On a large scale John Sells’ works Unante I and Unante II come to mind, filled with great detail, but sadly much non-sourced for true historical use.
From Okinawa we have Hokama Tetsuhiro’s “Time Line of Karate History”, or Nagamine Shoshin’s “Tales of the Great Masters”. Especially the recent publication of the Okinawan Karate Encyclopedia (sadly not available in English) fill that gap.
In various systems there is Hiagonna Morios “The History of Okinawan Karate” actually the history ofGoju Ryu, or Harry Cook’s “Shotokan Karate, a Precise History” to try and fill in many of the lost historical gaps.
There have been many attempts for different systems but often they only touch the surface.
So as far as we travel, as long as time passes, the true secrets of karate remain locked in oral history.
Personally I always accept each specific individual Oral History as accurate, unless subsequent detail proves it isn’t. That being the case I must discount all of that history because I no longer have the means to determine truth. That doesn’t make the rest wrong, it’s just unverifiable and because of the ‘error’ I can no longer assume there are not many more.
The histories serve only one purpose. It is unlikely they can deliver vast truth. Rather they can serve but to point the way the future may go.
As an instructor if you don’t take the time to share the details of your own studies they will be lost.
For the further we go, Oral History remains the only true constant.
There comes a moment when you’re sitting on the ground and you’re attacked, or you’ve been standing and slipped, or you’ve been struck and fell. Now what to you do?
In the Isshinryu of my instructor, Tom Lewis, on your first night you get down on the ground and begin a fascinating study, defensive kicking from the ground.
You’re first down on your back, holding your upper body and your head off the floor, with both arms at your sides, bent from the elbows, holding you up. The lower leg is curled back to protect your groin, the other leg is curled back, above the lower leg, set to deliver a front heel thrust kick at your attacker.
You’re down on you side, holding your upper body and your head off the floor with the arm of that side bent at the elbow, holding you up, and the other arm crossing your body so the hand is on the floor. The lower leg is curled back to protect your groin and the top leg is curled back in set to deliver a side thrust kick with the blade or the heel of the foot.
In either case your attacker recognizes you’re ready to kick them if they close in, so the quickly dodge to the side to get down at you, but because of your positioning you pivot your body on your hips to keep your feet between you and the attacker.
Note the common elements:
1. First your lower leg is curled back to protect your groin. If the lower leg is left out straight it can be a ready target to stomp causing pain to incapacitate your ability to respond.
2. Your kick is a thrust kick not a snap kick. You know where your attacker is at, they have to reach out and down to get at you, limiting their mobility at the same time making a strong target to strike into.
3. Your foot is striking into the torso with the heel of the thrust kick, your upper foot bent away from the strike to make the strongest strike possible. If you’re kicking into their leg with your side kick, you then are using the blade of your foot (and actually the rear of the foot blade is best) to strike across their leg for the best chance to get a piece of their leg to work on.
4. Holding your upper body off the floor promotes your ability to remain mobile so you can shift if your attacker moves maintaining your strongest defensive position.
Defensive Grounding
As a beginner just another set of kicking drills, how to ground is not part of the training at that level, but if in practice one slips and is on the ground if they don’t immediately cover up and assume the correct position, it is pointed out to the student.
In fact how you ground yourself is another study that comes later in our training. I use a set of basic break fall training from the low crouch position, front break, side break and back break falls, to learn the basic ending position, to learn to tuck in your chin to keep your head from bouncing, correct ending hand and arm positioning. Those drills also start one understanding meeting the ground is not the ending. After those drills we can then move into assuming our ground kicking positions.
In the course of our standard Green Belt training we use a set of Sutrisno Aikido Drills and that is where our real meeting the ground as ‘uke’ training begins. Of course those are complete techniques and if properly executed you’re controlled and locked on the ground so you can’t respond if they’re being executed correctly, but the grounding without fear as a secondary benefit remains.
From there as the student advances more and more kata technique studies move to completion grounding the opponent and in time harder and faster. Your ability to meet the ground increases enhancing your ability to prepare to shift into the grounded kicking positions.
Among them was a application from Mr. Lewis using the lower leg to sneak behind an attackers leg and the upper side kick to trip them down with a lower pull/upper push motion.
Offensive Grounding
When I was a brown belt I tried to side kick Charles Murray, my second instructor. Before I was underway Charles was on the ground and a dropping side kick was rising into my groin. After showing me how it was done and practicing it a bit, the following week I was in my last months of a contract to study Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan and they specialized in jumping in with flying side kicks. I had the opportunity and it worked extremely well. It didn’t hurt (me) that I knew what was coming first.
Other studies with Tristan Sutsisno in Silat Tjimande offered several other grounding approaches such as dropping to the ground as you catch a striking arm, pulling them over into the grounded side kick and then turning the other way to conclude with a grounded back kick. Side kicking from the floor then rolling over to scissor trap their leg and follow with a concluding sidekick takedown. Concluding a take down with a roll over roundhouse kick to the attackers head. (This was also a technique from Ernest Rothrock’s kung fu instruction).
Yet another Silat Tjimande technique was to turn away from an attacker dropping one knee to the ground with both hands hitting the ground at the same time (for a three point touchdown) turning your head to look back and a driving back kick off of the floor. An offensive technique also a defensive counter to a stomp into your knee, dropping to the floor faster than their kick and the counter back kick. BTW once visiting a Korean school in Pasadena, they were using the same grounding technique to then practice spinning on the knee delivering ground wheel kicks.
I certainly am not a Silat adept, but between the Isshinryu basics and the Sutrisno studies most of the basic ways to ground and initially kick are covered. The Silat stylist, from what I’ve observed has an extremely diverse set of grounded kicking studies.
Bubishi
It should be no surprise that the Chinese reference work found on Okinawa, the Bubishi, shows grounded kicking techniques. Permit me to reference one by example from my own translation of Roland Habsetzer’s work “Bubishi. À la source des Karaté-Do”.
II.The Principal Teachings Of The Bubush Commentary of the 48 Figures of Close Combat of the Bubishi
If an assailant tries to grab you with two hands, you let go and go to the ground while capturing his foot to make him fall (24 : right). Commentary page 168.
Photograph notes : page 71
Photo 41: If this technique is applied by the side, uke can go up to attack the two legs ofTori to bring (him)to fall from his legs scissor: Kani-basami in Judo (‘pinch of the crayfish [crab]’).
Commentary
Figure 9 The illustrated drawing suggests the counterattack.
This form is very near that of[figure] 3, but Uke’s body is more turned, hands in support on the front. It is then that one of drawing 8, already represented as possible evolution of the figure 3. Ohtsuka Sensei thinks that it is possible here to be introducing a new variant technique: a lock to the ankle accompanied by a push of the heel under the knee Tori (24), who then is obliged to drop to the rear to escape from the painful grip [of the lock].
Advanced Studies
It’s of no small surprise that there are systems that go much further than this article describes. Indonesian Siliat is one area of study to consider. Yet another is”Fukien Ground Boxing (Nan Shaolin Leg techniques)” written by Cai Chu-Xian. An incredible work explaining the techniques you can find on YouTube where they’re executed too fast for instruction purposes. Of course that book was published in 1993, costs a small fortune today, and while worth it, isn’t available except from individuals like me who will not part with my copy. But that’s just one system,
Note this is very close to the Sutrisno Silat technique I described earlier.
I had Ernest Rothrock review ‘Fukien Ground Boxing’ a number of years ago and his response there was nothing in the Fukien Dog Boxing being shown that wasn’t equally in his Faan Tzi Ying Jow Pai (Northern Eagle Claw) and in many other Chinese systems.
Almost all of those techniques begin from the grounding foundations I’ve discussed.
For example if you get yourself into the basic ground side kick posture and your opponent is really on you, advanced variations readily work from that position, the rest is simply minor skill adjustment and practice.
Other techniques really require superior ability to get to the ground and work through and around an attacker at the same time. Those studies require much more advanced training than I’ve discussed, but they still spring from the same technique foundations.
Conclusion
In my travels I’ve always been amazed how many karate schools didn’t begin their students with ground kicking where it’s such a valuable survival skill to use. I hope my presentation suggests some of the potential in this study.
The study can be simple or very, very complex. I would suggest most would be best served by solid basic study and intermediate execution potential.
Note:
For most of the illustrations I’ve used photo’s found via Google Image Search to illustrate the wide range of others using these techniques.
My choice of my own translation from the Bubishi is not to suggest I am more worthy than the other translators of who I am in great respect (and reference them all in earlier articles on the Bubishi in my log), but enjoy letting my own efforts shine a bit. As I don’t sell my efforts, please buy their books for your reference, each of which is of great value.
Resources:
Fukien Ground Boxing- Nan Shaolin Lege Techniquesby Cai Chu-Xian
·A brief selection from the book can be found on Google Books
Bubishi – The Classical Manual of Combat – translated by McCarthy Patrick
Bubishi – Martial Art Spirit – Translated by Penland Kenneth
Funakoshi Gichin-
Karate Jutsu – translated by Teramoto John
Karate-do Koyan – translated by Ohshima Tsutomu Hokama Tetsuhiro
Timeline of Karate History – translated by Swift Joseph
Motobu Chokoi Karate My Art – translated by McCarthy Patrick and McCarthy Yuriko
Collection of Sayings by Motobu Chokoi – translated by Swift Joseph
Shotokan Karte A Precise History by Harry Cook
Kyan’s ideas on training and actual fighting from Miki Nisaburo’s “Kempo Gaisetsu”
Just for the record, not that anybody pays attention.
