Karate Body?

The proverbial "Karate Bodies."

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I am a bit confused, someone mentioned that a certain karate-ka pictured on their web site had a, “Karate Body.” I have presented two pictures used to display or show what was termed, “Karate Body.” It seems almost a daily event that some new term or phrase is used to describe some aspect of karate practice.

The given term was used along with the exercise or set of movements as the reason for such results, i.e., it was said that this body development was caused, direct result of I would interpret the meaning, by the performance or practice of a particular Okinawan karate kata. Then the question was asked, “Do you train to develop a karate body?”

Really, a karate body you say, now come on, I am willing to say that overall a contributing factor to a body builder type physique could be karate practice. I looked at both and did some research and immediately noticed that both examples participate in a form of exercise called, “Hojo Undo.” Hojo Undo involves a type of body building with the use of specialized body building equipment that is particular to Okinawan traditional forms of hard karate practice. 

I suspect that although the author’s intent was to give credit to a particular style and its kata that in reality the overall system program of fitness and strength building involved the entire system that included the kata. In addition, to make such an assumption that a particular kata creates what they perceive as a karate body is kind of a misnomer. 

It is like saying that football players who use a particular action or exercise in their training regimen for the game of football are enjoying an end product of a “Football Body.” 

Here it is, certain physical actions that are derived from a particular discipline or form tend to build the body in certain ways that sometimes can be distinguished from other discipline influence such as football vs. basketball vs. soccer or wrestling vs. MMA vs. boxing and so on. This applies to the type of weight lifting one would do where end results would be indicative of that form and type of exercise routine or model.  A slight body from light weights used in a circuit form of exercise vs. the heavy free weight lifting that body builders use. 

As in one of the photos, the practitioner developed a part of the body that seems larger than normal giving an impression of strength and size, etc. that could not have been from simply performing a form or kata even with the use of dynamic tension or prolonged dynamic tensioning of the body. There are only two ways to increase muscle mass. One is genetic, i.e., a weight lifting body builder who happens to have good genetics resulting in larger bulked up muscle mass and one is through the use of very heavy weights to create or build up that same muscle bulk or mass. You can lift light weights till the cows come home and unless you have genetic predisposition to achieve such muscle mass you ain’t gonna get it that way alone, there will be a need for heavier mass building weight training. 

In closing, from my quick analysis and a long history of fitness and body building (early years for body building) as well as about thirty-nine or so years practicing martial arts, particularly Okinawan karate, there is NO SUCH THING as a KARATE BODY. Just because someone has built up their body mass, muscle mass along with strength, etc. and happens to be doing so as a part of their karate practice, training and applications does not make it a karate body thing. 

We can wish it so, want it badly and insist that it is true but when reality hits the road it is simply a strengthening muscle building thing where our bodies show the bulk, muscle size and strength and density, of weight bearing training, NOT KATA performance and practice. As to prolonged dynamic tensioning that is actually isometric type exercises does not result in such bulk muscle size development where genetics without the extra heavier weight applications will not result. 

Karate Body, NOT!

Bibliography (Click the link)

Hojo Undo Equipment

Mind-Set and Mind-State

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What is the ultimate state of mind necessary to do the things humans do to one another? It is about the concept of repercussions from society. If one does not feel fear of retaliation then one does not fear anything be it considered good or evil. The wall that stands between good and evil is built on the concept of repercussions and retaliations from any source, i.e., societal and/or legal as driven by the society. Then it begs the question, “How thick is your wall?”

The most feared animal on the planet is the human animal, the human animal who has no fear driving them to remain within societies social and legal system of control. When they do not fear the laws, the rules, the requirements of a group, tribe and/or society then they are truly a force to be reckoned with. 

Without the social conditioning of society and especially without the force necessary to enforce societies rules, regulations, requirements and laws one who does not feel or fear that society will be a force to be reckoned with. Look at it as freeing ones’ conscious into a realm similar to that of a psychopathic personality, one who on a whim will do anything including kill in ways most would shudder at and refuse to accept in the realm of reality. Things that make for good horror movies, etc.

How do you keep humans from reaching this level? Not an easy answer but the one used mostly is actually the farthest answer away from the truth of that goal, ignoring the truth and reality of such levels of conflict and violence. If at this point in reading this article you say to yourself, “This is paranoia,” then you miss the point and are refusing to accept and admit the reality of human existence. 

“The difference  between reality and paranoia is NOT based on whether or not an idea is ‘unthinkable’ or something ‘couldn't happen’. The difference is based on whether or not there are credible facts and reasonable logic that support the fears.” - unknown

I, personally, do not fear conflict and I, personally, do not fear violence and I, personally, do understand that human life is based on forms of conflict and violence but I DO FEAR humanities social conditioning toward conflict and violence by its concerted effort to bury it all resulting in the ignorance of it leading toward a complete and total lack of proper “Coping Skills” necessary to accept, deal with and understand human instincts based on conflict and violence. 

Great surgeons and great surgery are based on accumulation of knowledge and understanding. It was the acceptance and understanding of pain and diseases resulting in pain and suffering that lead the great medical minds to achieve the levels of medical ability to save humans in modern times. If not for that we would still be suffering great pain just to get our teeth cleaned and repaired. If we buried our heads in the sand because we don’t like or cannot deal with the emotional and physical pains of life we would be burying a lot more of our kin due to the simplest of physical and mental maladies once of great suffering and now of little concern. 

Conflict and Violence of the human condition is like the medical world, it requires us to accept it, coming to understand it and then finding the “Appropriate and Necessary” methods and models to control it so that we don’t suffer the spears and arrows of great violence. In order to achieve a win-win resolution of human conditions we can only get their this way. 

In the micro-cosmic world of self-defense, i.e., martial arts, boxing or anything similar, we must learn, teach, train and practice those reasonable and acceptable models, methods and goals to mediate conflict and violence toward things like avoidance, deescalation or proper application of self-defense. 

To do this the mind must be trained and focus should be on creating a proper mind-set and mind-state or we will always end up applying our actions to making others do what we want using greater and greater forms of violence resulting in debilitating injuries, grave bodily harm and death. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Technique-Based vs. Principle-Based

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Technique based training is the defacto and dominant form of karate training. It is built on testable, obvious and exacting fine tuning model. It is also based on repetitive practice, i.e., a mindless repetitive practice where students and practitioners do the same, EXACT, technique over and over and over and over and over again. It also creates pre-arranged drills consisting of those same basic techniques done over and over -ad infinitum - under the guise that it actually trains toward what is referred to as, “Muscle Memory.” 

When you create such things as, “Upper and Lower Basics,” and “large quantities of kata,” and “large quantities of bunkai,” and “large quantities of prearranged drills,” and “large quantities of self-defense drills,” you have a means of creating an economically based driven teaching model. It creates criteria that can be seen and heard toward “Large quantities of belts and levels and ranks.” 

This all comes down to the very basics of this type of karate training, it is a business model. It has been stated that such models don’t have any value in the fight, i.e., in self-defense. I quote, “But I (the author of the quote but I do agree) can think of zero actual fighters who find this (referring to technique-based training) valuable.” 

Principles-based training is rarely observed and used in self-defense or fighting or combatives because too many are stuck solid in the business models as technique-based models described above. IN PBT (principles-based-training) you really have to know and “Understand” them and you have to be able to apply then while in the grips of the monkey brain while in the grips of adrenal stress conditions of conflict and violence. Even the technique-based training would have serious issues here if that were even remotely possible for adrenal stress conditioned reality-based training models. 

Look at it this way as quoted once again from a professionals perspective, “Technique-based repetitive training does lead to knowledge.” It is that knowledge business models require in order to justify and create a model that is testable and definable in the creation of requirements and a syllabus, etc., much like normal school environments teaching mathematics, sciences, etc. 

In order to gain, “Understanding,” you have to acquire “Experience.” My source will say, “Play, if the games are done well, can give you a start on understanding, maybe some insight.” 

Technique-based knowledge means you have to process a large quantity of things in order to act. Consider being attacked, “You first have to observe an attack is under way. Then you have to orient toward that threat. Now for that critical part, you have to ‘Decide’ on what to do.” If you have to process through a large quantity of techniques to find, “The right one,” to stop the threat then you have extended the time necessary to get to that last stage, to act by using that particular technique. Here is a rub, you will decide on just one technique or drill or maybe a combination when you enter the ACT stage of the loop and if that fails - ops, back to the decide state and a loss of more time while your attacker is demolishing you. 

Now, per another quote, “Teaching in a principles-based way, one level of abstraction up is to understand that striking is just ‘Power generation, targeting, and conformation.’ If you understand it, your choices in the ‘Decide stage of the OODA loop’ just got reduced to about three choices that is a huge drop in action, reaction, and decision times with a large increase in flexibility and adaptability.” Now, don’t that just sound so damn cool?

Read More:

Upside the Head

Concretes and Abstracts

The Process of Principles Based Teaching

Bibliography (Click the link)

On Budo and Bushido

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A recent article spurred or inspired this article on budo and bushido. In that article it seems a lot of assumptions and agenda driven meme’s were used as well. Hmmmm.

Budo [武道] simply defined as, “Military arts; martial arts and makes reference to the term Bushido.” 

Bushido [武士道] simply defined as, “Bushido; samurai code of chivalry.” 

The terms didn’t exist in the feudal era of Japan. When referred to as a samurai code of chivalry the person making the reference actually used the title of the samurai when he wrote the book and coined both budo and bushido. As to its traditional roots, however that is defined, that is questionable as to historical facts or even truth. 

Budo and Bushido were first coined as terms in the book written around 1899 by its author Inazo Nitobe titled, “Bushido: The Soul of Japan.” I believe personally that his effort was an attempt to give some historical meaning to the feudal era with its colorful Samurai, chivalrous warriors of Japan. 

Even the current information on these terms states, without definitive proof beyond the times mentioned articles and books, that Arthur M. Knapp, a non-Japanese, who wrote, “The samurai of thirty years ago had behind him a thousand years of training in the law of honor, obedience, duty, and self-sacrifice.... It was not needed to create or establish them. As a child he had but to be instructed, as indeed he was from his earliest years, in the etiquette of self-immolation." 

I put forth this theory, the budo and bushido were created to give support to the continuance of the colorful history or stories of samurai toward fostering of a more modern morally driven social belief that would support the efforts of the Japanese in their continued conquests of surrounding countries/states such as China and Korea, etc. This also gave credence to the effort to train and condition the populace prior to WWII to create a mind-set of a warrior that met the needs of Japan in justifying the upcoming war. As some will recognize this is also why disciplines like Okinawan Karate were educationalized to teach and train Okinawan youth for membership in the military in support of Japan’s war efforts. 

There are hints toward what Nitobe Sensei wrote in his books but like most articles and books of modern times, for that particular era when it was written, the influences of the individual authors and their perceptions, perspectives, intent, and background along with all socially driven influences both societal and familial tend to lead the content of such writings toward an agenda that may or may not be conscious. 

I will admit that like many meme’s, etc., that the end result did generate an excellent tome or book that is, could and can be used toward self-improvement with the intent toward socially accepted self-enlightenment but as to its actual historical intent and meaning and to its actual application in the world of the Samurai, that is questionable and possibly just plain fictional. The Japanese are well know for their use of fiction to create hero’s that their society needed and wanted much like every other society of our world. When we need it we use or create or manufacture hero’s to move our military and society toward the accepted and dictated agenda’s accordingly. 

All of it is kind of a propaganda machine and is often cited toward generating an agenda by all humans including us. We tend to use it and quote it as a means of instilling a mystique like quality to attract students, students who pay for lessons and lessons to inspire more students, etc. 

In a nutshell the book on Budo and Bushido is just the cultural metaphor toward a goal and in martial arts it is to promote it giving it a life that hopefully will be passed down over the ages just like the Japanese passing down their samurai heritage toward a lasting cultural historical and social belief that makes their cultural unique and respected. In the end, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that effort, it is a part of our human nature toward survival.

Read more on, “The Cultural Metaphor.” http://isshindo.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-cultural-metaphor.html

Bibliography (Click the link)

“86”

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No, not Agent 86 and “99” is not going to be in this article either. This is about, “Get-ting Smart” but not about the organization, “Control.” although control is a major part of this. This is about chapter “86” of a book I am reading titled, “The True Believer,” by Eric Hoffer.

I feel like I understood this concept in a non-conscious but kind of instinctual way and now that I have read this book, this chapter, I am becoming convinced of that feeling. 

First, it is my military history along with my life long studies of martial arts toward fighting and self-defense that I was first introduced to the concept that, “Conflict and Violence” are an intricate part of human existence. As a part of the animal kingdom I am convinced that the use of both conflict and violence are the most appropriate means of communications and change. 

Chapter 86 discusses historical events mostly of a religious origin that shows without a form of violence both religious and societal movements are achieved and become successes through both the support of higher authority along with the military backing that provides violent support and military might to make it happen. 

I have personally arrived at a conclusion that human need of violence as a means of making changes and instilling power toward group cohesion and survival is about who has the strongest ability to communicate and persuade using conflict and violence, i.e., a strong fist, a strong sword and in modern times levels of force greater than those who would oppose the groups agenda be it religious or political or both.

The article talks about attempts at persuasion through preaching, gentleness, praying and weeping but most often that fails causing, “Where blessings and gentleness are powerless, blows (I interpret this to mean violence) may avail.” 

One such quotation from a source, Dumouriez who protested that the French proclaims a sacred law of liberty “Like the Koran, sword in hand.” “The threat of communism at present does not come from the forcefulness of its preaching but from the fact that it is backed by one of the mightiest armies on Earth.”

I have seen this on smaller scale at work where the lack of support and backing by those in charge, management to the controlling authority of the organization, makes for horrible work conditions, greater loss of production and productivity and wide spread loss of control and authority where staff and employees tend to do things they would normally not get away with and so on. 

What I mean is, to get the job done you need that backing and without it you don’t have the authority and that necessary might that backs it up through the “Teeth of Management” that does not tolerate dissent, etc. 

The same goes in our society, when the sword of societies leadership is lacking things go wrong. This occurs because those who feel that communications and enforcement are better served through gentleness (can’t we all just get along), blessings, verbal persuasion, logic through verbal diatribe, and so on until it becomes clear, often too late, that only with a strong hand can anything done, supported and enforced. 

In today’s atmosphere the Police are being defanged from the strong hand of those in protest. Once the Police are “put in their place” then society will discover quickly how fast conflict, force and violence/violent force will rule. When conflict and violence rule those who follow that path as history shows will end up ruling. History is full of those who conquered and only after establishing a strong rule by sword and hand enforcement does the more philosophical/religious achieve a foundation that promotes its growth.

Apparently, conflict and violence cannot be separated from human existence and survival. Hiding our true nature by sticking our heads in the sand because we fear it or because it makes us uncomfortable will not make it go away, it always returns when discontent rises to high levels in society, the tribe, the group and the family. 

Take a look at most protestors, in all cases except for the rarest when things don’t happen they way they want they all resort to violence, sometimes in the extreme (taking it from verbal to physical).

We need our police, we need our security forces, we need our military, we need all those services that have forms of violence as a tool to get the job done and to enforce societies rules and laws. If we lose conflict and violence as the “Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Police Officer” who stands on the wall to protect us then we will lose. Do we really want the violence and death that often comes with that type of change? 

Read chapter 86, better yet read the entire book because it does bring up questions, concerns and change. 

Bibliography:

Hoffer, Eric. “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.” Harper Perennial and Modern Classics. New York. 1951, 1989, 2002, 2010.

Bibliography (Click the link)

Ethics (Moral Principles)

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They are about having “Moral Principles” that govern our behavior and it comes from having knowledge that deals with moral principles but what are moral principles?

“Moral principles of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes. expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work; founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom; capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct; conforming to the rules of right conduct (opposed to immoral ); of, relating to, or acting on the mind, feelings, will, or character; the moral teaching or practical lesson contained in a fable, tale, experience, etc.; the embodiment or type of something; morals, principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct.”

Now, once one reads the above set of definitions they will instinctively and automatically make assumptions, assumptions as to what right and wrong are; what ethical means; what moral attitudes are; what truths and right conduct are according to their belief systems. Those belief systems are most often generated from influences of family, friends and social group dynamics all the way up to the social construct as to membership through and with all levels between. 

What gets missed is this, “Criminals and other such groups also have moral principles that govern their behavior but their belief system as to what those moral principles are differ even if the above definitions remain unchanged. The righteous tend to assume their moral principles are “The Moral Principles” to which all others must adhere to in life but that is just not so. 

One reason some folks make the assumption as to moral principles that reflect shock, horror and disbelief when encountering anyone or anything outside that moral world is because they just can’t accept that there are other moral principles that may reflect principles that are the absolute opposite of what they believe. This helps explain why belief systems become so ingrained and rigid where even in the face of enlightenment, truth, and justice many will not, cannot and are adverse to changing such beliefs. 

A criminal looks to crime the same way a non-criminal looks to their job as a means of earning an income. The feelings one has when a part of a job that feeds human needs such as security and safety are the same for the criminal. Their job is to find resources that can readily be converted into the resources they need to do the very same things others with the proverbial acceptable job needs, i.e., sources of income so that they may feed their survival needs for food, shelter and protection against conflict and violence and so on etc. etc. etc.

Criminals have ethics as defined by those who assume they hold the moral high ground. The only true advantage the moral high have is numbers. Numbers because of what is, in modern times, generally accepted as a moral standing. Some assume that the laws driven by religion are the moral principles every single human must adhere to yet those of a less religious yet more philosophical can also hold that same ground. If this is even remotely true then one can accept that criminals can also hold the moral standing that differs greatly from the generally accepted stand of moral ground. 

If we truly accept one set of ethics, moral principles, while not accepting the others then we justify our resistance of that supposed lessor moral standing and by nature will give great effort to either suppress it to acceptable levels or remove it completely be it by total destruction or to cast it and them out similar to how groups would punish members by throwing them out of the group. Losing membership is about survival and those thrown out tend to not survive - at least historically speaking. (think banishment here)

How many times throughout human history has one group defeated another making the winners the morally right group tho the differences in principles being opposite in the spectrum of moral righteousness?

Now, how does this apply to martial arts? How does this apply to self-defense? How does this apply to fighting? How does this apply to Combatives? How does this apply to sport martial arts? How?

Lets close with these thoughts derived not entirely from a complete quote but rather parts of a quote, i.e., “As to morals, that kindness, meekness, humility, etc., become ‘virtues’ within a moral system born under social conditions in which people were subject to others while in a society of conquerors they regard valor, strength, and even cruelty (under certain circumstances) as part of goodness and virtue. Finally, one can envision a person who consciously creates his or her own values and thus lives ‘beyond good and evil.’”

Now, don’t that put some different perspective on ethics or moral principles?

Where and When Did MA’s Begin to Pose

I can only guess that when martial arts started to be vilified in magazines on the subject then the defacto photo processes began, i.e., in order to sell we need the photo’s to look this way. Now, more than ever before and due, I believe, solely to the advent and rocketing of social media I see more and more personal photo’s of martial artists that are, “Staged, posed.” 

I have read articles on how framing, as I explain in the cell phone video productions that end up on the web and go viral, of photos when publishing books to best display how a technique should look is just that, framing and not reality. It is a bit like making movies where actions are staged to best display the drama and action on the “Big Screen.” 

The trouble with all of this is that it has skewed how martial arts are perceived and as many of the self-defense articles have presented, it skews how the legal professions perceive things toward self-defense. 

What to do, what to do? We are not going to get rid of what sells unless we reduce or stop the “Supply and Demand” of such things and that will only come from the education of the public to the reality of conflict and violence. 

I don’t think I am going to hold my breathe on that one!

Mario Higaonna Karada Kitae - A Traditional Practice

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In a recent posting on Facebook a concerned practitioner encountered a less than stellar review on the practice Higaonna Sensei uses, his personal practice not required by his students at least to the degree he goes, for hand and body conditioning. The end of the comment provided the following question, i.e., “Do you think that this kind of conditioning and other types of ‘extreme’ training have an added value for our modern time practice or should they be regarded only as a historic fact that is now practically useless.”

I find the question a good one and a question often answered according to individual cultural belief systems of individuals that answer it. I am no different, my answer would be thus, “It depends, it depends on the goals, desires and results each individual considers before walking a path of body conditioning at any level up to that of Higaonna Sense and those who practice systems like, Uechi-ryu.” 

If I were to be asked as to its benefits, overall I would say that it does have certain benefits such as learning how to endure and ignore pain, how to apply principles properly such as by use of the standing makiwara (Note: it ain’t about toughening the hands or callouses but proper application of principles for force and power, etc.) to demonstrate force and power through a proper structure, alignment and application of momentum to achieve force and power, etc.

Simple questions such as this often do not have what is desired, “Simple and concise answers,” because in such disciplines one question leads to another and another and another so that in the end you have to chain them together to make one whole, holistically wholehearted, answer that itself will float and flow chaotically dependent on situations as they arise. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

There Art No Masters

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Yeah, I said it, regardless of all the titles and all the highest of grades you see in the MA Community there are actually no masters, none; zilch; nadda; no why no how there ain’t no masters.

What makes a master is interesting depending on who and what org you talk to but in reality the old meme of, “Jack of all trades, Master of none,” applies here because everyone is so hell bent on accumulating systems, styles, grades, ranks, levels, accolades, awards and trophies they have missed the boat leading to mastering a martial art. 

Just think, would Tiger Wood be the master of golf he is if he had practiced and played golf, football, basketball, tennis and a plethora of other sports? I really do doubt that, really. He would have been mediocre at best and just another “Jock” at worst. 

Then there is what one focuses on when deciding what they want, not need but want, to become a master of a martial art. Most focus, as previously stated, on longevity, social connections, and the quantity of things vs. quality of one thing. You cannot master anything by pinging on everything that catches your eye like the glitter of metal that attacks birds. It is distracting rather than focused. It is a way of life now with all the instant gratifications and constant changes toward technology and so on and yadda yadda yadda. 

Someone said to me a while back, “Well, to master karate you really have to master all the styles or systems (he then emphasized the main ones over all but that is still a lot) because karate consists of all these various styles and systems.” Well, no you don’t because every single empty-handed style or system all have one main thing in common across the board without fail, principles. 

Take a look at Rory Millers DVD on Joint Locks, you will see him teaching the principles of joint locks, not separate uniques individual joint locks but the principles that drive every single joint lock you could possible use. It, to me, is advocating how knowing and understanding a hand full of principles gives birth to any number, infinite, of techniques and methodologies, etc. 

In order to master a martial art you have to find that “One wholehearted Thing,” that transcends personality, ego, perceptions, perspectives and belief systems and can be seen, felt, practiced and applied no matter what system or style or anything you would use for self-defense.

Hey, there ain’t no martial arts masters!

Bibliography (Click the link)

Kata and Self-Defense Applicability

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A person once stated that Okinawan’s didn’t practice contact practice like kumite because it “Eschewed the concept because their techniques were too potentially lethal.” I get this itchy feeling whenever I hear someone spout the deadly applications of karate. Granted, at one time long, long ago - historically speaking of the early 1600’s - the techniques applied as Ti or Toudi may have been devastating but as to deadly I perceive that as more a result of gravity or weapons over Te (karate as it is called today). 

In the early years as karate was introduced in this country it was almost exclusively about kicking and striking. Seldom was any other, regarding karate in a strict sense, methodology referenced toward self-defense. Mostly, it was about competitive aspects and we all know that competitive aspects has nothing to do with self-defense, fighting or combatives of the empty hand, i.e., hand-to-hand, kind. 

Personally, as I have come to understand, karate as to striking and kicking has its human limits governed by survival of the tribe and the human instinct to communicate through violence, when necessary, in a way that is guaranteed to prevent grave bodily harm or death, i.e., those proverbial potentially lethal applications. 

Striking and kicking are about getting what you want and enforcing rules that often govern human interactions be they in a family environment or a more tribal societal family like environment. It was not meant to be a deadly lethal system. I repeat, karate in its bare educational sport oriented form, was not meant to be a deadly lethal system. 

If you goal is to cause grave bodily harm or death then your best bet is to get a weapon and apply it with a killer mind-set/mind-state because unless you accidentally cause an adversary to fall where gravity kills them karate ain’t going to get the job done. Violence, except in rare cases predation violence, seldom results in grave bodily harm and/or death (here agin is where accidents happen). As one source indicated, it is about communications. 

Bunkai, Henka, Ouyou-bunkai, Omote-Ura and Embusen are being touted as the way of self-defense but in reality those training paths are about learning concepts and principles but fall way short of providing the kind of defensive goals one needs in conflict and violence. They are paths a novice needs to open the conepts up for interpretation and understanding but are NOT about defense against violence of a predatory nature. 

This brings me down to self-defense. SD is about avoidance, avoiding the socially emotionally driven monkey dances almost all humans, especially males, endure from their testerone overloaded youthful interactions that don’t often end in grave bodily harm and/or levels of lethal force that would end in death. This comprises what I would say is about 98% of modern violence. I would also say that 98% of martial arts in modern times is about sport competition rather than self-defense. I would go a bit further to say that the teachings of modern martial arts is about 98% ineffective in real self-defense, i.e., a predatory resource/process situation. I would say that for 98% of martial artists who believe they know self-defense that only about 2% of those will ever deal with a predatory resource/process type assault. I will go even further to say that 98% of martial artists who believe they know self-defense that only about 2% of those actually know and understand the full comprehensive understanding of self-defense. 

I will also say that 98% of all martial artist who believe they know self-defense have no experience nor have they received training from anyone with experience in self-defense, fighting and combatives. Lets add one more, 98% of all bunkai taught as being applicable self-defense, fighting and combatives is not valid, i.e., they won’t or don’t work in self-defense, fighting and/or combative situations. 

Kata is not training self-defense. Kumite is not training in self-defense. Sport competitive participation is not self-defense. Bunkai do not teach self-defense techniques. Martial arts self-defense models do not teach self-defense that works. 

I could go on but I sense that it may be overkill. Karate, all martial arts, have benefits and are beneficial to all who partake of its studies but as to kata or other distinct parts they are not the means to achieve proficient ability in fighting, combatives or self-defense (especially SD).

Note: Such terms used in a teaching model like bunkai, henka, ouyou, omote/ura and embusen are just excuses to tell ourselves we are actually learning a combative fighting defense system. Yes, they have purpose but in the end they are just ways to describe things so the initiate can achieve greater understanding toward actual hands-on ability to fight, defend and apply combatives in a violent way. 

Note II: Being traditional or classic or even modern does not equate to ability in the fight. It may get you started but it won’t take you the entire way. This stuff has been a bane of discussion since the first moment the caveman lifted a piece of tree to club an attacking beast over the head for protection. 

Bibliography (Click the link)